Kathy Sarafian, Executive Coach, and Mental Fitness Expert; Author
Kathy Sarafian is the chief executive coach and a mental fitness expert. She has been the CEO of Drive Medical Canada and has been a member of YPO since 2005.
Podcast
Overview
We hear a lot and pay attention to physical fitness, essential for our body. But, equally important and often neglected is the concept of mental fitness. Including the daily exercises for mental fitness reaps multiple benefits. It improves our performance and physical being, too.
Today, we have a mental fitness coach who delves into the importance of the same.
About Kathy Sarafian
Kathy Sarafian is the chief executive coach and a mental fitness expert. She has been the CEO of Drive Medical Canada and has been a member of YPO since 2005.
DISCUSSION
Kathy calls herself a human capital optimizer. She believes that people are the greatest assets and that leaders sometimes find it challenging to tap their true potentials.
She comments about her work, “I work with clients to optimize human capital.”
She cites interesting anecdotes of how the behavioral change and sensitivity of language help make a long-lasting impact.
What is Mental Fitness?
Kathy explains how the mind is our best friend, and the concept resides in different science spaces. Her mental fitness coaching is a six-week program where she trains following certain steps to have command over the mind, especially during stressful situations.
Kathy comments, “If you don’t make time for mental fitness, you may have to make time for mental illness.”
Coaching
Kathy defines coaching as, “A dialogue where you help people experience powerful insights and breakthroughs.” She explains how we often get insights from our mentors that motivate us. However, the problem is that insight, unlike learning, fizzles away.
She talks at length about the difference between coaching and mentoring.
Kathy lists down a few simple conscious efforts one needs to take to become mentally fit.
- Slowing down and pausing to reflect
- Sparing a few minutes, as little as two to three minutes, and focus on breathing
- Trying to be vigilant to not use the phone at certain times of the day.
Kathy talks about the source of moods and anxiety. It is the automatic result of using our left brain, that is working in survival mode.
Importance of Coaching in Corporate World
Kathy stresses the importance of coaching in the corporate world and feels happy that the seniors are realizing it. She explains, “When you don’t have supervisors and bosses, you have the opportunity to elevate and inspire.”
She talks about the increasing number of millennials and Gen Zs in the corporate world who expect a friendly and growing environment. They look for coaches and not bosses.
They want to learn and not be told what to do. So, leaders need to work on creating that learning environment.
Kathy has also contributed to a book about peak performance, where she talks about the importance of investing in yourself and turning every situation into an opportunity.
Profile
Kathy is a PCC-certified executive coach and a mental fitness expert, and she helps leaders recognize and free themselves of the mental constructs that are holding them back.
She help shed light on their blindspots and champion them to re-design their mind for peak performance and access their inner resources that we all possess but lose touch with. Most of our thinking is done in our primal brain, which is heavily biased towards the negative for survival.
This type of thinking creates limiting beliefs that are embedded in our programming. This subconscious narrative becomes our world and our reality; creating a filter, confining us to a limited vision of life.
She helps people recognize and free themselves of these mental constructs that cost them wellness, productivity, and quality relationships.
Kathy’s Linkedin- https://ca.linkedin.com/in/kathysarafian
