(Video) Life Coaching Explained
When people ask me what I do for a living, they usually have this bewildered, confused look on their face and almost always ask the question, “What exactly is life coaching anyway?” So I’ve decided to write this post that explains what life coaching is and what it is not. It’s time to lift the veil of mystery so let’s go!
When you hear the word coach, you automatically think of a sports coach that mentors and leads a team of athletes. Life coaching is different. Entirely different. Before about 1990, coaching was hardly even heard of except in the corporate culture. Top managers and CEO’s would utilize mentoring and executive coaching resources either informally from a colleague or by hiring a psychologist or consultant who became an executive coach. Thanks to The International Coaching Federation (ICF), which was founded in 1992 and is the leading global organization that sets the standard for exceptional coaching and the industry’s governing body, personal and professional coaching has emerged as a powerful and personalized career. It has shifted the paradigm of how people seek help with life transitions and designing a future.
Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. -International Coach Federation (ICF)
Many people get confused when you tell them you’re a life coach. I’ll get questions like, “What does that even mean because there are so many aspects to life?” “How can you coach life in general?” These are both valid questions. The answer is that although one can be certified as a life coach in general and can coach around many different challenges and desired goals, there are many different specialties or niches within the profession of life coaching.
For example, for those seeking help with working on their physical health you can seek out a health and wellness coach. Individuals looking to change career or make significant life changes can seek a career change and transitions coach. You can find burnout coaches for those looking to have more fun, in their lives, reduce stress and maintain a proper life balance. I happen to be a life purpose coach who specializes in helping those who feel frustrated and stuck in their lives achieve their goals and live out or discover their purpose.
Life coaching has become increasingly popular and even celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Serena Williams and Nia Long use life coaches to sustain or reboot their careers. Traditional coaching methods focus on helping individuals, couples, groups and organizations to clarify goals, create sustainable action plans, and hold them accountable to the plan. Many skills are utilized in coaching including asking powerful and thought provoking questions, challenging limiting beliefs and re-framing current thought processes. A good coach will be able to peel back the layers, recognize and help to resolve inner blocks that may keep someone from succeeding. Often times, we are not even aware of these blocks.
Now that you have a general idea of what coaching is, let me tell you what it’s not:
Life Coaching is not consulting
Clients hire a consultant (an external expert) to help them define their problems and formulate solutions. The consultant is usually viewed as the expert in what needs to be done and may go so far as to implement the solutions they recommend. In contrast, a coach doesn’t have their own agenda and doesn’t use their personal experiences as a model of success for their client.
The coaching methodology views clients as the “experts” in their own lives and businesses. A coach does not tell a client what to do but rather facilitates the client in discovering their own answers. It might seem more expedient to just deliver advice, but research shows that people are much more likely to take ownership of, and follow through on, ideas that are their own, and thus, get the outcome they desire.
Life Coaching is not therapy
Therapists focus on problems routed in the past, why things happened. Generally, therapists work to move their patient from a state of dysfunction to being a fully functional individual. Often this centers on resolving conflict within the individual or in a relationship, overcoming past issues, healing trauma, and sometimes managing mental illness.
Therapy, therefore, must often deal with the past so that a patient can exist in the present. Coaching clients, in contrast, are already working at a functional level. They’re on their feet, they have goals in mind, and it’s the coach’s job to help them see past the inner obstacles holding them back and empower them to take action so they can perform at an optimal level.
Life Coaching is not like friends and family
Friends and family tend to focus on their own agenda, advice, shoulds, should nots, which are well meaning. Often times, the words a client uses to describe their relationship with their coach can make it sound like their coach is a best friend, a confidant who serves as a sounding board and trusted advisor. But there’s a big difference between a best friend and a coach.
When you talk to your best friend about something you’re struggling with, your friend will likely have their own opinions and judgments about the situation. It’s possible that they’ll have their own agenda in counseling you – and, even if that agenda has your best interest at heart, it’s still what your best friend thinks is best for you. Your best friend is probably not a trained professional who you can trust to work with you on the most important aspects of your life (without injecting their own personal advice.)
So there you have it. Hopefully you have a better understanding of what life coaching is and how beneficial it can be in aiding you in achieving your goals, aligning your actions with your values and ultimately living out your life purpose and feeling fulfilled.
