MADE your New Year resolutions yet? And if you have, how long will you keep them? As more and more people enlist outside help on the road to self-improvement, PAULINE HOLT introduces life coach Annabel Sutton, whose new column starts below today. ARE there dreams you long to fulfil, yet don’t know where to start, or perhaps you simply can’t summon the wherewithal to embark on something new among all your other daily demands? It takes a fair bit of resolve to make changes in your life . . . whether it be a different career path, taking up a new hobby or challenge or making decisions about relationships. No wonder then that life coaching is becoming more popular. Not only do some of us need help in finding the right direction, most of us can do with a lot of encouragement once we’ve found it in order to stick to our chosen path. The dawn of a new year often sets us thinking about the things we’d like to do to improve our lives. Annabel Sutton has been a professional life coach for eight years and in that time has guided over a 100 people through the difficult process of change. Among her clients was a high-powered female finance director in her early thirties who was dissatisfied with her life . . . but didn’t know what to do about it. “She was very, very successful but she just wasn’t happy,” says Annabel, 51. “She’d never really wanted to get into the sort of career she had ended up in but had been pushed into it by all sorts of different forces. One of the things I asked her to think about was what were the things she loved to do as a child. “Often as a child we do things we love but then as life progresses you go in different directions. As a result of that exercise, she remembered one of the things she loved doing was playing with wood. “As a child she would make models and all sorts. That particular client ended up training to be a furniture maker, which was a huge change. She also emigrated to another part of the world, got married, had a child and it just wasn’t the same life.” Of course, you don’t have to be a high-powered superwoman — or man — to benefit from life coaching. In fact, according to Annabel, you don’t even have to employ somebody like herself at between £75 and £195 per month, although if you’re looking for somebody to be completely objective, it’s best to employ somebody professionally qualified. Annabel is a member of the International Coach Federation. She says: “It’s incredibly important to get yourself some support. That could be professional but I think it’s a great idea to get a group of people together and meet every week or two and see how you’re doing. One of the good things about coaching is it keeps you accountable and stops you procrastinating.” Annabel’s book “52 Ways to Handle It” — available from Neal’s Yard Remedies in Newcastle’s Windows arcade or on the website www.nealsyardremedies.co.uk, and from which we’ll be serialising weekly excerpts — offers tips you can use to make positive changes in your life. And here’s a top tip from Annabel for kick-starting your 2008 resolutions: “Rather than just sitting thinking: ‘What do I want to achieve in the next year, project yourself forward to December 31, 2008, and write a description in the present tense of how your life looks then. Begin your new year with the end of it in mind, which will give you focus and make it real.” | 
