There are three main ways to address a problem:
i) Tactical: Tasks and To Do’s
ii) Learning: What can I learn that will take me through this
iii) Way of Being: What makes this challenging for me? Your way of approaching it.
Coaching largely focuses on ii & iii – learning and shifting your way of being. Learning new skills gets at what’s below your topic. Shifting your way of being opens and creates new possibilities in the way you approach the things you face in your life & work. This takes time, practice, feedback, revision, & practicing again for learning.
How is it that we learn, in our real life? 
When you make a soup…
switch to these higher modes, you shift out of tactics as “the end-all” and into your own development . The topic you present – and the material in your life or work in front of you – remain your goal (and important), but you begin to open how you relate to it. This is practical, because you are not only “responding”, but you also create a possibility for developing new skills and seeing how you can move through your topic in a new way.
In coaching, the focus is practical: your topic, your essence, developing your skills, figuring out what they are, and taking the time and attention to make sure they are integrated into your work and life. This is about working with what’s here now in your life & work, from a learning mode.
Approaching an issue in a new way.
