Coaching practices for What Would You Tell a Friend

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For What Would You Tell a Friend, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • If a friend brought me this exact dilemma I’d know in two seconds what they should do, but stuck inside my own version I just go in circles
  • I’m facing a real decision and some part of me already knows what the honest answer is
  • I’d know exactly what to say to a friend going through this, gently and without hesitation
  • If a friend told me they’d blown off this exact thing I’d be gentle and kind to them in a heartbeat, yet to myself I’m brutal
  • When a friend is hurting, I jump in with "the exact same thing happened to me" thinking it shows I get it

Practices that may help

  1. Give yourself advice as if advising a close friend
    Describe your problem as if a close friend brought it to you — then write the advice you would give them.
    Self-Distancing Journaling
  2. Advise yourself as you would a friend
    Ask what you would tell a friend in exactly your situation — then take your own advice.
    Self-Distancing: Thinking Clearly About Your Own Problems
  3. Self-kindness: offer yourself what a good friend would
    Say the words a caring friend would say — to yourself, now.
    The Self-Compassion Break
  4. Extend the compassion you would give a friend to yourself
    Ask what you would say to a capable friend who had delayed on the same task — then say that.
    Self-Forgiveness and Procrastination
  5. Don’t make it about you
    Resist the reflex to relate by topping their story with your own.
    Holding Space
  6. Replace critic monologue with compassionate self-talk
    Speak to yourself the way you would speak to a close friend in the same situation.
    Working With Your Inner Critic
  7. Compassionate Letter Writing
    Write a letter to yourself from the perspective of a wise, compassionate friend — about something you’ve been judging yourself for.
    Compassion-Focused Therapy: Calming the Inner Critic
  8. Apply self-kindness as actively as you would to a friend
    Treat yourself with the same warmth and understanding you would offer a close friend in the same situation.
    Self-Worth vs. Self-Esteem
  9. Use close friendship as a moral laboratory
    Cultivate deep friendships deliberately — they are the arena where practical wisdom is practiced and tested.
    Phronesis: Aristotle’s Practical Wisdom
  10. Choose a partner who will actually hold the line
    Pick someone invested enough to ask hard questions, not a friend who will let it slide.
    Accountability Partners

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