What is Life Coaching?
If you have a coach or talked with someone who have worked with a coach, you probably have a pretty good idea what life coaching is about. To fully understand life coaching you must experience it coaching first-hand, and by that I don’t mean one introductory session. You need to commit to at least a few sessions, take an inventory of your life, face your problems and fears, set your goals, then develop a plan - and take action. Working on your goals is much easier with your coach than on your own. Your coach will not only provide guidance, support, and feedback, but will also offer structure, strategies and techniques that streamlines the process and often makes it quite enjoyable.
If you use tools provided by the coach to improve the areas of your life that don’t work, you may be able to see some changes almost straight away, but the real transformation takes time.
What Life Coaching is Not To understand what life coaching is, it is important to know what life coaching is not. To start with, a life coach is not a therapist. You may say, “Wait a second, but my friend’s coach is a therapist! And a very good one, too!” Sure, it happens, and that’s where it gets a bit confusing. Some coaches come into life coaching with years of experience in teaching, training, consulting or counselling. Some burn out in very demanding fields, such as social work, and decide to be their own boss, choose their own clients. and decide how many hours they are willing to work – they start a coaching business. Many professional life coaches do additional courses, for example in nutrition, art therapy, NLP or any other skills that might benefit their clients. So yes, there are multitalented and multiskilled life coaches out there, just never assume that life coaching is therapy or counselling. It is not. In fact, many coaches publish on their website a disclaimer that says how they differ from other professionals. It also explains why they choose not to work with some people who enquire about coaching.
How Life Coaching Works? Have you ever played any sport, especially team sports like soccer or netball? Then you probably know that training and winning without a coach is practically impossible, especially in a professional league. Just like the sports coaches, a life coach will help you set your goals, focus, stay motivated, and deal with setbacks. Coaching will make you look at your strengths, weaknesses, and at the issues you deal with from a different perspective, and ask some hard questions. Coaching sessions may sound like just conversations, but they must be well-planned, focused, and followed up to work. A coach doesn’t tell you what to do and how to do it, a coach talks with you and asks questions to help you find your own solutions. Naturally, coaches offer some suggestions or pointers, but they believe in the client’s own ability of making things work. That gives a client a boost in confidence and self-esteem. That’s the power of life coaching. Are you ready to give life coaching a go?
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