My aims before the coaching started were to deal better with stress and be more productive now that I am a student mentor and my schedule is a bit more busy. The coaching goals in the agreement are to improve social life quality and study productivity, manage stress and become more active. They did not necessarily change but their priority/importance did: if in the beginning I was more focused on the social life and becoming active aspects, by the end of the sessions I was more concerned about the stress and studying goals and cared less about the first two. I realized that a lot of ‘problems’/situations are highly dependent on the way I perceive them and on how I decide to respond to them. I am trying to react less in certain situations, to take a step back and remind myself that I will eventually find a solution for everything, I just need to give it some time perhaps.

Doing the mindfulness exercise really helped in realizing I need to take breaks in order to actually be productive later, but also talking about the way I perceive social interactions and how in frustrating situations regarding that I can first think deeply about my emotional and physical states and think about how I want to actually feel next time this happens so I can change my behavior based on that. I will try to use the mindfulness exercise a few more times if I can do it on my own to try and relax and focus on my body sensations.

I will also work on stress management, trying to think about useless aspects less and focusing more on small steps I can do right now that do not put a lot of stress or pressure on me but bring me closer to the end desired end result. I was not sure in the beginning what to expect since I was not familiar with the coaching concept. I thought it might be something related to guiding you find solution for your problems.

By having these sessions with my coach, I learned about a few models/techniques such as SFI and mindfulness exercises, which I might try out by myself later, but also how important and nice it is to be calm, assess the situation fully and only then make a decision. Seeing how patient, respectful and calm my coach was, I observed how that also made me feel more relaxed during our meetings and decided I should try to implement that in my life. Our conversations were always peaceful and constructive which made me feel less stressed and a bit more confident, especially regarding how I perceive my capability of getting things done and being productive.

I am satisfied with the sessions and if I had to pick a number it would probably be a 9 because it helped me clear some ideas and goals I had in my mind and also helped me find new motivation for certain aspects of my life. I think it was really helpful in thinking about what you want to change in your life when having to decide on some specific goals but it also makes you question your priorities, if all your expectations are actually realistic and assess how you can work on these things with small steps so that, in the end from my point of view, you can be overall happier with your life.

—My First Coachee