What Is Life Coaching?
Well May You Ask!
If you think of the old meaning of a coach, which was a vehicle to get from A to B before trains, cars and planes came on the scene, then a Life Coach is someone who can get you from A to B in your life.
To continue the transport analogy, you take your car to the mechanic for 2 reasons: if there’s
a) something broken, or
b) you want it serviced.
A Life Coach is like the guy who services your car: he or she is committed to making sure it’s working in tip top condition and properly tuned up to get the best performance. And as we all know, cars do need regular servicing otherwise something could break!
In a more technical sense, Life Coaching is defined as:
“A way to explore yourself, to find out where you are in life, where you want to be in life, and to help you get there (with assistance from your Coach).”
This may be through various different techniques, for example, Values and Beliefs Elicitation (examining your values and beliefs), Hypnosis or Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
A coach may ask challenging questions to force you to think of other possibilities, or to look at things in a new way, in order to help you get what you want.
What Life Coaching is NOT…
There are many different ideas about what Life Coaching might be. The three most common are Therapy, Counselling and Mentoring.
Life Coaching is not therapy.
We are not in the business of imposing change upon the client.
The client must want to change to get the results they want, and if so, make the change themselves.
Clients of therapists are called patients, and they usually have a past incident or trauma to deal with that often Life Coaching is not equipped to deal with.
It’s like the car analogy in that ‘something is broken and needs fixing’.
In reality, no one taken on as a Life Coaching client is really ‘broken’. Indeed some would even say that people who need therapy are not broken either.
If a Life Coach thinks that therapy is required, they would refer the client on to the relevant specialist.
Life Coaching is not counselling.
In the car analogy, this is like the ‘back seat driver’ telling you what route to take.
A Life Coach will never initiate advice to a client. In order to get the client thinking about possibilities, they will ask special questions, such as
‘What would ‘X’ get you?’ or
‘what’s another way you could get ‘X’?’
In order to help people think laterally, they may also ask ‘what is X an example of’ and ‘What is another example of X?’
Life Coaching is not Mentoring.
In the car analogy, this is like the driving instructor teaching you how to drive the car. A mentor is a teacher - their role is to impart knowledge to their student, or to train them in a specific skill.
Life Coaches take the view that people can teach themselves what they need to know, or if needed, get mentoring in the specific area that they want to learn.
By asking insightful and intuitive questions, Life Coaches enable the client to recognise when outside knowledge or experience is needed.
Why do people need Life Coaching?
There are many benefits to Life Coaching, including:
- Finding Your Life's Purpose
- Identifying and breaking through whatever is holding you back
- Eliminating bad habits, procrastination, self-sabotage and limiting beliefs
- Unleashing your true potential
- Getting clarity on a big decision, like career change.
- Supporting you through a tough time and help you move from negativity to positivity
- Performance coaching, goal setting and accountability
- In fact, ANY area of life that is important to you!
Is it a scam?
Since Life Coaching became popular a few decades ago, it has acquired a stigma due to some operators making false or misleading statements about outcomes.
Fortunately, there is an international professional body called the International Coaching Federation, which certifies and regulates the industry.
Additionally, there are other bodies that regulate the methodologies, such as the American and Australian Boards of NLP. Each has strict codes of conduct and a rigorous accreditation process.
How Could Life Coaching Help Me?
Because Life Coaching is for people who consider themselves mentally and emotionally healthy, just about anyone can benefit from it.
If you want to make more money, quit smoking, have better relationships, be more successful, or generally enjoy life better, then Life Coaching is for you.
So How Do I Get Started?
If you would like a free, no obligation 'Breakthrough To Success' session with me, click this link to get started.