Coaching has its origins in the 1970's when a California tennis coach, named Tim Gallwey, suggested his students have a go and he didn't interfere with too much 'teaching'. His approach was so successful that a TV documentary was made about him and soon everyone was trying to mimic his method.

One of the presuppositions of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) is that energy follows intention. Tim Gallwey showed us that trying desperately for an outcome usually doesn't yield any results. Trying too hard just gets the "mind chatter" going and performance actually deteriorates.

Alternatively, Tim suggested a better approach, which is to imagine already having your desired goal, spend some time really focusing on it, then allow your unconscious mind to direct your energy while you just relax.

The unconscious mind is around 90% of your total mind power as opposed to the 10% of the mind that you usually use in your normal daily waking state. The unconscious mind is a source of great treasure - of skill, of memory and experience.

So if you want to get ahead in your career, imagine that you are already much further up the corporate ladder or, as an entrepreneur, that your business is thriving beyond your wildest dreams. Then just relax and trust that your unconscious mind will direct your energy in the most efficient way to reach your goal.