The ten paths to human improvement

by Bill Dueease
President, The Coach Connection

Have you stopped to look at the various methods or processes available to you to improve yourself? Wouldn't it be helpful to understand the various human improvement processes and what they will provide you, before you embark on your own improvement journey?

The Key to Human Improvement Success

The key is to pick the human improvement process that best fits your desired outcome and your situation. When you match the right improvement process with the right objectives, you will be surprised at how quickly and effectively you will achieve the improvement desired.

You will make the right choice when you know what you want to accomplish and you know the purposes and methods of each of the ten processes available to you. Each of the following ten processes provides some unique and different benefits. Frequently, several processes are used in combination to help people improve their lives.

Enjoy the trip!

The ten most widely used human improvement processes :

• The coaching process
• The consulting process
• The psychiatric process
• The self-help process
• The education process
• The mentoring process
• The spiritual process
• The therapy process
• The training process
• The teaching process

Let's look briefly at each of the ten human improvement processes to give you a better understanding of what you can accomplish and how they work.

The coaching process

Coaches focus 100% on you achieving your chosen future coaching goals. Life coaches are equal partners and are not experts. Coaches assist you to improve and grow as a person as the means to achieving your goals. Life coaches assist you to become the world's leading expert on you by providing you different, very objective perspectives about you and encourage you to take the actions necessary to achieve your goals. Life coaches concentrate on you actually implementing (executing) what you know to achieve the goals you want.

The consulting process

Consultants are recognized experts in their fields, who either sell their expert advice or perform their expert actions (or both) to complete a task on your behalf. Consultants are hired to solve problems for you. These problems are always external to who you are. Consultants will rarely affect your personal improvement. Some examples of consultants are attorneys, doctors, auto mechanics, and accountants.

The psychiatric process

Psychiatrists focus on helping you to overcome mental and thinking imbalances. They are medical doctor experts who provide drugs and behavior change methods to adjust your mental activity back to as normal as possible. Psychiatrists focus exclusively on you improving as a person to get better control of your thinking and emotional activities.

The self-help process

People who use the self-help process usually follow the advice of self-help books, Television shows, tapes, seminars, radio shows, and or Internet sites. When using the self-help process, you must provide the guidance, energy, support, wisdom, and direction to learn and do what you feel is necessary to accomplish your goals. You may act as your own teacher to train yourself, to become the expert to solve your problems, by acting as your own consultant.

The self-help process also requires you to conduct most if not all of the improving processes alone. It will normally take much longer to accomplish objectives using the self-help process than it will if you use any of the other people supported improvement processes listed above. Using the self-help process normally produces incompletion.

It has been reported that the average person reads only 16 pages of a self-help book. The what, the why and the how are undoubtedly all provided for practically any subject, but the actual execution without the help of other people is much more difficult than it appears. It's apparent that people need other people to actually grow and improve as a person.

The education process

Educators focus on you learning certain information or concepts. They involve themselves in your learning process to be sure you grasp the information or concept being conveyed. Generally, educators are experts in their fields, but not always. Educators will focus on you improving your knowledge, your understanding of concepts and your ability to learn.

The mentoring process

Mentors focus on providing you sage advice and wisdom gathered through experience and knowledge when you ask for their insight. Mentors can be considered a library of human knowledge in the particular areas of life they have gained expertise. Mentors normally focus on providing knowledge, understanding and direction, but have been known to help in your improvement as a person when you allow yourself to become the subject.

The spiritual process

Spiritual people focus on helping you to relate to another force or higher power outside you. They help you discover and follow a known or even new belief system of values to guide you in your moral and or spiritual actions. Usually, spiritual leaders are considered experts. They focus exclusively on you improving as a person within the structure of the spiritual beliefs followed. Priests, rabbis, pastors, or mullahs are considered spiritual leaders.

The therapy process

Therapists focus on helping you overcome past problems that impede your ability to function in a normal day to day manner. Therapists direct you to revisit past events to discover and resolve conflicting issues that have burdened you. Therapists are experts in their field. Therapists direct their sole attention on you to resolve internal conflicts that will affect your personal improvement. A typical conflict therapists will help clients resolve is overcoming the mistreatment by parents.

The training process

Trainers focus on teaching you how to perform something. Trainers are experts in their fields and teach you various processes, methods, and or skills, to do something in a predetermined manner. Trainers do not necessarily focus on you improving as a person. Trainers instruct you on what to do and how to do it. You might use a trainer to learn how to operate a particular computer program, or how to operate an airplane, or how to hit a golf ball.

The teaching process

Teachers focus on providing you information, data or concepts. Teachers are experts in their field. You are responsible for absorbing the information provided, so you will become more knowledgeable. Teachers also do not necessarily focus on improving you as a person. Teachers will not do the learning for you.

Enjoy the trip!

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