Tricks of the Trade from a Life Coach: New York City

Like all big cities, New York can be the best place you've ever lived, or the worst nightmare you've ever had. The price of living can seem astronomical if you're not making the money that you need to be, and the fast pace of life either feeds you energy or it runs you down. As a life coach, New York City is very much the right place for me to be. I thrive on the busy city energy and I have all the clients I could ever want. So many people come here to make it big, and I've got the skills to help them achieve their goals, so it all works out pretty well, really.

Despite the fact that I am a career coach, New York resident and businesswoman myself, I still can't read minds. When people come to me expecting me to be able to somehow forsee what it is that would make them happy in life, I laugh; "It's up to you," I tell all my clients. The only thing I can do is to facilitate that for people, which I greatly enjoy doing. I especially enjoy my work as an executive coach; New York big business is a booming field and the people at the top there are usually very aware of how they got there so it is less of a matter of figuring out what to do, but rather, fine-tuning their existing plan and bringing different elements into it.

Many people want to know how to get their career jump started, or want to know why they aren't achieving their goals in a time line that suits them. One thing that I often find is that rather than taking stock of where they are currently and what needs to change in order for them to be where they want to be, they instead spend all of their time looking towards the future, when things will be better. The big mistake here is that they aren't actively seeking solutions to make things better themselves. Real life has very little in common with a Disney cartoon- the dashing prince isn't going to sweep you off your feet into ever-after and you probably won't be handed a magic sword, a magical amulet or a fairy godmother. Around here, you have to do things yourself. It's a tough love lesson to learn, but it's probably one of the most important ones that there is.

Another one of my "big tricks," and really these things just seem so common sense to me, is that you shouldn't wait for somebody to hand you an opportunity, you should go out and find it for yourself. Look for ways that you can help your company out. If you're familiar with energy saving techniques, or know a great way to make a system in your company work more smoothly, by all means, offer your services. When you seem to be taking initiative, showing interest in the company's best interests and working hard, your chances of success within any given company should rise exponentially.

Written by Kacy Suther. Meredith Haberfeld offers services as a life coach: New York City sessions as well as worldwide phone sessions with this executive coach New York. Also provides personal coaching, career coach New York.