People all over the world strive to improve themselves and their lives in countless ways. Have you stopped to look at the various methods or processes available to you to improve yourself and/or your life? Wouldn't it be helpful to understand the various human improvement processes and what they will provide you, before you embark on your own improvement journey? Each of the following ten processes provides unique and different benefits. Frequently, several processes are used together to help people improve their lives.

The ten most widely used human improvement processes listed in alphabetical order are:

The coaching process
The consulting process
The education process
The mentoring process
The psychiatric process
The self-help process
The spiritual process
The teaching process
The therapy process
The training process

Let's look briefly at each of the ten human improvement processes to give you a better understanding of what you can accomplish and how they work.

Coaches focus 100% on you achieving your chosen future coaching goals. Life coaches are equal partners, not experts. Coaches assist you to improve and grow as a person as the means to achieving your goals. Life coaches assist you to become the world's leading expert on you by providing different, very objective perspectives about you and encouraging you to take the actions necessary to achieve your goals. Life coaches concentrate on you actually implementing (executing) what you know to achieve the goals you want.

Consultants are recognized experts in their fields, who either sell their expert advice or perform their expert actions (or both) to complete a task on your behalf. Consultants are hired to solve problems for you. These problems are always external to who you are. Consultants will rarely affect your personal improvement. Some examples of consultants are attorneys, doctors, auto mechanics, and accountants.

Educators focus on you learning certain information or concepts. They involve themselves in your learning process to be sure you grasp the information or concept being conveyed. Generally, educators are experts in their fields, but not always. Educators will focus on you improving your knowledge, your understanding of concepts and your ability to learn.

Mentors focus on providing you sage advice and wisdom gathered through experience and knowledge when you ask for their insight. Mentors can be considered a library of human knowledge in the particular areas of life they have gained expertise. Mentors normally focus on providing knowledge, understanding and direction, but have been known to help in your improvement as a person when you allow yourself to become the subject.

Psychiatrists focus on helping you to overcome mental and thinking imbalances. They are medical doctor experts who provide drugs and behavior change methods to adjust your mental activity back to as normal as possible. Psychiatrists focus exclusively on you improving as a person to get better control of your thinking and emotional activities.

People who use the self-help process usually follow the advice of self-help books, television shows, tapes, seminars, radio shows, and/or Internet sites. When using the self-help process, you must provide the guidance, energy, support, wisdom, and direction to learn and do what you feel is necessary to accomplish your goals. You may act as your own teacher and train yourself, or act as your own consultant and become the expert to solve your own problems.

The self-help process also requires you to conduct most if not all of the improving processes alone. It will normally take much longer to accomplish objectives using the self-help process than it will if you use any of the other people supported improvement processes listed above. Using the self-help process normally results in incompletion.

It's no wonder that so many people do not finish the self-help process to achieve their original goals. It has been reported that the average person reads only 16 pages of a self-help book. The what, the why and the how are undoubtedly all provided for practically any subject, but the actual execution without the help of other people is much more difficult than it appears. It's apparent that people need other people to actually grow and improve as individuals.

Spiritual people focus on helping you to relate to another force or higher power outside yourself. They help you discover and follow a known or even new belief system of values to guide you in your moral and or spiritual actions. Usually, spiritual leaders are considered experts. They focus exclusively on you improving as a person within the structure of the spiritual beliefs followed. Priests, rabbis, pastors, or mullahs are considered spiritual leaders.

Teachers focus on providing you information, data or concepts. Teachers are experts in their field. You are responsible for absorbing the information provided, so you will become more knowledgeable. Teachers also do not necessarily focus on improving you as a person. Teachers will not do the learning for you.

Therapists focus on helping you overcome past problems that impede your ability to function in a normal day-to-day manner. Therapists direct you to revisit past events to discover and resolve conflicting issues that have burdened you. Therapists are experts in their field. Therapists direct their sole attention on you to resolve internal conflicts that will affect your personal improvement. A typical conflict therapists will help clients resolve is overcoming past mistreatment by their parents.

Trainers focus on teaching you how to perform something. Trainers are experts in their fields and teach you various processes, methods and/or skills, to do something in a predetermined manner. Trainers do not necessarily focus on you improving as a person. Trainers instruct you on what to do and how to do it. You might use a trainer to learn how to operate a particular computer program, operate an airplane, or hit a golf ball.

The Key to Human Improvement Success

The key is to pick the human improvement process that best fits your desired outcome and your situation. When you match the right improvement process with the right objectives, you will be surprised at how quickly and effectively you will achieve the improvement desired. People who use other people to improve, under the right circumstances, will improve themselves and their lives much easier and quicker than those who attempt to do it on their own.

Life is a journey and when you want to improve yourself, you will want to pick the right person who is performing the right improvement process to meet your objectives.

Enjoy the trip!



About the Author
Provided as an educational service by Bill Dueease of The Coach Connection, where "connecting great people with great coaches" is their goal. You may receive a free copy of the article "9 Secrets to Getting the Job You Really Want" by contacting The Coach Connection at 800-887-7214 or 239-415-1777 or coaches@findyourcoach.com, or at www.findyourcoach.com/0o-career-coach.htm