He told me about his career in a major corporate company where he's been working for past 3 years.

John was complaining about extremely long hours he works…sometimes from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. weekdays and often on weekends. He bemoaned fact he was tired and stressed and so was everyone else he worked with.

I asked him why he continued working these hours and he answered "It's expected. People are being retrenched and those remaining want to keep their jobs".

He felt that if he didn't do these ridiculous hours he too would be out of work.

My next question was "what are you going to do about your situation to change it?". John responded with "nothing". He had no energy left to work on his own life.

I had also asked him if he had done any personal development courses and he replied he had participated in company run ones. He had never invested his own time and money doing anything external.

Mary's Story I've been coaching Mary for over past 6 months and she is a classic procrastinator. She'll often agree to taking necessary action which results from each coaching session she has and then not do anything. She's always got excuses. In fact she could write a book with some of reasons she comes up with. Her behaviour has had a dramatic impact on her business and personal life.

Her business is growing yet she can't keep up with growth. She's constantly had staff issues because she puts off dealing with them.

Her office systems are in chaos as a result of not taking action.

She's losing money and having sleepless nights. Her personal life is taking a battering and her relationship with her husband is floundering. She know what she needs to do and yet will not take time to get foundations in place.

Now I just wanted to say that coaching hasn't been a failure in fact despite all of this, Mary has made progress … slowly.