What follows is a list of questions I compiled to structure (loosely) Student A’s first English classes of the year. They are part of a process that begins with reflection and analysis—of past experiences as well as future aspirations. Student A and I worked from reflection and analysis to discussing alternative interpretations (what is it that made your challenges challenging? Are there still other reasons?). In the end, we began to define concrete actions (how will you achieve your goals this year? What habits do you want to adopt? What word or phrase will guide you as you go—and how?).
The process (reflecting, analyzing, proposing alternatives to initial analyses, and then defining actions for going forward) is more typical of life coaching than it is of language training. Nevertheless, Student A and I agreed to what we are calling a “life coaching” model for this year’s classes, and we will reevaluate this decision every two months. In effect, we are experimenting. We want to see what happens when we mix life coaching into a project that is foremost about linguistic competence.
Now let me be especially sincere for a few lines: I am a writer-editor-educator and the whole idea of “life coaching” leaves me… what is the word I want?: hesitant? unsettled? uncomfortable? dismissive? maybe even slightly repulsed, if you want the full truth. I met “life coaches” in Mexico, and in both cases, it seemed to me that the coaches were expats overcharging an elite class for … I still don’t know what, exactly, but it felt racist and sexist and definitely egoistic. Add to that: when I start to read “the literature” (dare I call it literature? most of it lives in the blog-o-sphere) that is about life coaching, what I mostly come away with are brazen lists of tips for asking generic questions of generalized clients. Which is funny, because one of my most widely circulated blog posts is all about how good interviewing is necessarily specific / well-informed and carried out in accordance with context…
IN. ANY. CASE. without knowing if life coaching is or is not B.S. (bull shit), Student A spends a fair amount of time being interviewed, and I, as an anthropologist, have spent the past twenty years interviewing people as well as teaching university students how to interview people. So here we are, Student A and I, playing on what we each know and do, and I will report back from time to time about how it all goes, or does not go. Because that is one possibility.
What is exciting about the “life coaching” model in language instruction, and about the list of questions below in particular, is that they allow us to talk through the past, present, and future tenses, moving from one to the next, and sometimes moving between or among tenses, without changing themes. Our singular topic is real life, how we lived it, how we live it, and how we will live it. By adding sub-questions to the questions listed below (sub-questions such as: what would have happened if _____?; what would you like to do differently if, say, you encounter ______________ again? etc.), we fit past conditional and future conditional tenses (and related, the past and future perfects) into our sessions, too.
In the end, Student A gets to reflect and analyze and aspire and formulate forward-looking plans of action, and I get to play along, though I am not yet sure if what I am playing at is life coaching or, instead, just being a kind-hearted and empathetic anthropologist turned language educator. At present I am leaning toward the latter.
Now here are the questions with which we have begun our 2026 sessions. You can think through them on your own, talk through them with friends, or use them as prompts for journal writing if you are into such things. Wishing you each the time you need to reflect and rebuild, and here is to living the 2026 you aspire to live.
Besos, Dawn
THE LIST OF QUESTIONS
Questions for looking backward:
- If you could sum up your 2025 with three words, what would they be?
2. Of what are you most proud from your 2025?
3. What challenges did you encounter? How did you respond to them? When were you able to overcome them, and when weren’t you able to overcome them?
4. What moments brought you the most joy?
5. For what did you give thanks as you closed 2025?
Questions for looking forward:
6. Did you make any resolutions for the new year?
7. What do you want more of in 2026?
8. Are there habits from 2025 that you want to change in 2026? Are there new habits you want to start? Are there things you want to learn to say “no” to?
9. What are you excited to learn or to try this year?
10. Are there ways you can take better care of yourself in 2025 than you did in 2026?
11. Let’s say 2026 is your best year ever, you become your best self yet–what do you need for this to happen?
12. If you could choose one word or one phrase as your guide for this year, what would it be?—better yet, what will it be?
Monument City 
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