Lick The Egg

Speaking of life coaching, which I was yesterday, there was an article about it in The Guardian yesterday after I'd posted my thoughts. Apparently there are 100,000 life coaches in the UK. I imagine there are six billion in the USA, and approx four in Spain, although I was reading somewhere that they have started anger management courses in China - "Love the Dalai Lama", "Embrace the wide-eyed white devil" - so you never know how prolific this help/self-help culture of ours is getting beyond America and the UK.

Apparently coaching is the discipline du jour, although there are concerns about the regulation of people setting themselves up as coaches without the required skills. These 'required skills' are a moot point because - and this is from mrs househusbandnot who knows about these things - each coach has their own methods and approaches so you can't really say they are wrong, just imply it when their back is turned as they are packing away the parakeet and the snake oil. ( I don't see this lack of regulation as having hindered many other professions - politicians, jazz musicians, Jimmy Carr etc - but maybe I am missing an ethical point. I guess if you want to be 'coached' it should be by someone who has your interests at heart.)

But 100,000 does seem a lot. I've met some of these coaches, and I find the sociological impact of 100,000 people wandering around the UK smiling and saying "Well, what do you think?" a bit daunting.

I know what happens next here, because I've seen it with a journalist friend of mine who was really rude about coaches in an article a few months ago. (Not the guy in The Guardian yesterday. He couldn't make up his mind about what he thought - very Guardian.) All the coaches read the criticism, lean back in their leather arm chairs, play a little with their stress ball, and say "Wow, does that guy need some coaching". Which I think is a bit more alarming - well annoying anyway - than the lack of regulation. The lack of any means of getting back at these people. They are like some scifi baddy who gets stronger the more you hit him. ("You cannot defeat me with your old-fashioned weapons of hate and anger. My coaching power shield is turning your blows into life wheels and measurable 20 year goals and ambitions.") So, I guess with these observations I am just helping to further proliferate this coached life we should all be leading nowadays. I'm still a little old school though, despite mrs househusbandnot's subtle leaving of books with titles like 'Lick The Egg: How To Get What You Want In The Way YOU Want To Get It TODAY' on the bedside table next to my Martin Amis novel.

In other news, blokeihavntseeninages was asking where we got our wormery. We got it from WigglyWigglers.co.uk , and it seems to be doing what it is supposed to do. (Life coach to self: "He has a wormery. He cares about the future. He can be saved from himself. Chewbacca set the stun guns on 'better presentation skills'. We are going in." )