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What Career + Life Coaching Looks Like

My client Bryan describes his experience like this:

I came to Ann during a difficult time. I was let go from a job that wasn’t a good fit and was stuck trying to find a new job at a time where I wasn’t able to be positive. I had a hard time recognizing my strengths which made searching for a job extremely difficult.

white text on red square: what it's like life and career coaching

I had no idea what I wanted to do and Ann was able to help me shift towards a positive mindset. She took the time to listen to me and understand what I needed at the time. She understood that it was a difficult time and made me realize that what I was doing wasn’t easy. She focused on what I was good at, what I enjoyed, and how to find a job that fit my strengths.

Her positive energy was infectious and my day was completely different after speaking with her. She led me through a hard time and I will always be grateful that there are people like her in this world.

Ann kept me accountable, made me stay positive, and made me treat myself kindly. Ann not only helped me through a job search, but also helped me realize that I was valuable and that I deserved to be happy. She is great at what she does. I would not hesitate to recommend her to a friend or family in need of guidance and positivity.

Read more reviews of my coaching here, then schedule a free consult. I’d love to hear from you!

How Will Coaching Help Me?

From Listen Life Coaching reviews:

guidance through uncertainty and fear
career direction, exploration, and transitions
tools and an actual map to turn “to-dos” into achievement
inspiration and direction
help gaining traction and believing in myself again
clarifying my thoughts into actionable goals
staying focused and moving forward
getting unstuck from limiting beliefs about myself and my abilities
turning toward the positive about myself
identifying my strengths and how to apply them

life coaching and career coaching with Ann Imig of Listen Life Coaching, Madison, WI — life coaches, Madison, WI

Conversations about how life coaching + Positive Psychology can help you:

click here to listen

During our conversation, Ann explains what positive psychology is, how we can apply it in our lives and how we can use it to help our teens thrive. Ann also shares some tips about helping our teens conquer the college application process – she and I are both watching our kids go through that right now and it is no picnic. Be sure to stick around to hear Ann’s valuable advice for parents of teens. Our conversation is fun and informative and filled with lots of helpful tips from Ann… —– High School Hamster Wheel host, Betsy Jewell

click here to listen

One of our favorite takeaways was that you can pivot toward curiosity, or gratitude, and actually make changes in your brain. We love that! We talked about change and growth, and not just in a feely, sunshine and rainbows way, but in a practical, real life way. — Mom &… hosts, Suzanne & Missy

Do I Need a Coach or a Therapist?

By Ann Imig

Generally speaking, a coach helps us when we feel stuck with a decision, hit a stumbling block, or need clarity about a goal. A therapist assists us during times of personal crisis, serious or stressful life events, or if prolonged issues interfere with our day-to-day wellbeing. One process might lead to the other, and both are highly valuable.

I’m certified in Positive Psychology Coaching, a method grounded in neuroscience and evidence-based research, designed to help people navigate transitions, set and achieve goals, and create other kinds of positive change in their lives, work, relationships, and overall well-being. It is not advice giving, psychological counseling, or therapy.

“Coaching focuses on visioning, success, the present, and moving into the future. Therapy emphasizes psychopathology, emotions, and the past in order to understand the present. The purpose of coaching is frequently about performance improvement, learning, or development in some area of life while therapy often dives into deep-seated emotional issues to work on personal healing or trauma recovery.” – International Coaching Federation

What’s Life Coaching? What’s Positive Psychology?

By Ann Imig

What’s Life Coaching, Anyway?

Life coaching helps people get unstuck. While opening our mindset, we expand and explore our future potential. Coaching engages the client with curiosity, compassionate listening, supportive questions, and goal setting/achieving.

What’s Positive Psychology?

Positive Psychology concentrates on solutions instead of problems. Historically, psychology research and interventions focus primarily on treating “disfunction.” Positive Psychology research and interventions focus on building function. Rather than studying what isn’t working, Tal Ben-Shahar sums up Positive Psychology as “working with what works.” Positive Psychology provides an evidence-based framework and tools for increasing our own wellbeing. At its core Positive Psychology acknowledges the universality of hardship and human suffering — life’s ups and downs — and utilizes a person’s unique strengths to generate hope and optimism.

What’s Positive Psychology Coaching?

Humans are so much stronger and more resilient than we realize. Positive Psychology coaches help clients identify and connect to our strengths — how we’ve used them to successfully navigate challenges in the past, and how we can use them again to create and sustain positive change. Sonja Lyubomirsky’s happiness research demonstrates that while genetics determine 50% of our inherited “un/happiness set point,” we can impact fully 40% of our potential for happiness (life circumstances dictate the other 10%). Positive Psychology coaching provides researched and replicated action steps and tools to gain the maximum positive benefit for that 40% of our wellbeing that’s within reach.

Get Off The “I’ll Finally be Happy When” Train With Positive Intelligence

I’ll finally be happy when…[insert new promotion, romantic partner, accolades, or purchase here]

Maybe it’s that next romance, or moving to a bigger/better house. Surely a promotion will finally satisfy you? Even though you felt certain the VP title you won last year would do the trick? Perhaps you fixate on likes and shares online, but it never fills your cup. No matter how much you give and do, you never feel like enough. Does this sound familiar?

For me it was accomplishments; the more impossible to attain, the harder I pushed. I achieved and achieved. The times I “failed,” the bottom fell out from my mood and overall wellbeing.

Success does not equal happiness

I knew better, too.

My success never lived up to its promise. Every time I’d hit a coveted goal, the satisfaction didn’t last. Self-criticism sabotaged the afterglow of every achievement. For example as LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER’s popularity ballooned, I got a book deal with a major publisher. The book earned features in dozens of magazines, national press, a full-court radio tour, and rave reviews. I hyper-focused on lagging sales. Did we make any bestseller lists? We did. But did we make The New York Times bestseller list?? We didn’t. I’d win, and immediately raise the bar. Over and over.

When my therapist said “Ann, the more successful you get, the more unhappy you become,” the truth hit me head on. Already in therapy, meditating, working out, and doing All The Things, I had no clue how to get myself out of the exhausting negative self-spiral.

Happiness is an inside job. And I can help you.

Defining my self-worth through perceived successes or failures pointed to a major wellbeing weakness: I didn’t truly love myself. I believed I did, in a theoretical way. However, my ego held a non-stop forum in my brain telling me I wasn’t enough, with a million different variations on the theme; you’re not talented enough, you’re self-centered, weak/lazy, a fraud, etc…

Ouch. Uncle. Mercy!

Fortifying my own wellbeing with daily positive psychology and Positive Intelligence practice allows me to love myself — genuinely love myself — and more fully enjoy my life and work. Freeing myself from hyper-focusing on perceived “success” or “failure” allows me to concentrate on honing my skills and building my capacity.

When you’ve had enough, I can help.

You too can make powerful lasting changes in your ability to enjoy life.

In addition to my life coaching practice rooted in positive psychology, I now coach mental fitness in partnership with Positive Intelligence (PQ).

Utilizing an app and 6-week program (individually, or in a pod with others), building mental fitness means strengthening your ability to face life’s challenges with a more positive mindset. My hyper-achiever and inner-critic judge persist, but through Positive Intelligence practice, I more swiftly and effectively shift away from negativity. PQ not only makes me feel calmer and more connected, it brings me more ease and constructive productivity.

I actively use the PQ app myself, and it’s making powerful changes in my life. I notice I’m more patient with my partner and kids, I’m eating more mindfully, and I’m more able to redirect myself productively in anxious or stressful moments. It’s not just a construct – Within 6-8 weeks of mental fitness training, MRI imaging shows actual changes in brain chemistry. Set up a free 30-minute consultation with me to learn more.