So You Want To Be A Personal Life Coach?
Life coaching is a uniquely American occupation – only our sports-obsessed culture could have taken the concept of an authority figure who dictates your every action off of the gridiron and into the home. But the process of pursuing a career as a personal life coach isn’t as easy as buying a whistle and bossing people around. To really find success in this increasingly competitive industry, you need to be able to distinguish yourself from the competition.
Right off the bat, there are no educational requirements for becoming a life coach. There is no master licensing agency or professional union, although the International Coach Federation (ICF) does offer life coach accreditation to some training services. The good aspect of that is that it makes the industry easy for a newcomer to get started in. The bad aspect is that it has opened the field up to people who are unscrupulous. Many life coaches are justifiably regarded as scam artists, collecting large fees while not really making a difference in the lives of their clients. I’m not going to advise you on how to become that sort of life coach – this article assumes that you want to pursue the calling to help people.
The best way to get acquainted with the job is to book yourself sessions with one or several life coaches. Many coaches choose to specialize in a specific aspect of existence – whether it be relationships, finances or nutrition. In your consultations with life coaches, pay close attention to how they phrase advice and gather information. The job is equal parts listening and talking – discovering the blocks to your client’s happiness and giving them the tools to remove those blocks. There are a number of self-help books in the marketplace that can give a prospective life coach a platform to build their program around. These books offer organizing principles that you can use to reinforce your lessons to your clients. Having a physical reference that they can use even when you’re not around can be a very effective teaching tool.
If you are serious about becoming a life coach, it is recommended that you pursue at least one course at ICF-accredited life coaching schools such as the Institute for Life Coach Training. These courses can take over 100 hours of training, but at the end of them you will have a much stronger grasp on the tools that coaching requires. Of course, it is not mandatory to take any kind of educational training before embarking on your new career as a life skills coach, but having an ICF-accredited diploma will make it significantly easier to develop a client base and land well paying life coaching jobs.
Being a life coach offers a lot of flexibility with regards to how you serve your clients. You can work with local clients in person and at the same time, expand your base to an online life coach service or telephone.
Life coaching is a difficult job, with many pitfalls. Most notably, the life coach has to always seem to be in a position of authority – if you don’t have your life together, you won’t be able to help others with theirs. It’s not a job for those who lack confidence or the ability to connect with people. As with any new business, developing a client base will be difficult at first, but your customers will be your best advertisements – really help them, using all the tools at your disposal, and they’ll appreciate it for the rest of their lives.
Can I Become A Personal Life Coach?
It might surprise you to learn that not everyone has to be a doctor, work on Wall Street or be a lawyer to earn $100,000. A career that is gaining popularity is the professional life coach. According to Forbes, between 10 and 20 percent of these professional life coaches make six figure salaries. A personal life coach for development provides confidence and encouragement for struggling business owners and even writers. Life coaches build relationships with their clients to help them be more successful in business and in life.
Though no formal education is required, it would probably help to have a successful background in the area you will be coaching, such as selling, business management or the arts. The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t even list them as a profession, but there is still a lot of growth potential for a trained life coach. There are online resources for training as a life coach, but the most important thing a coach brings to the table is their own experience, and an ability to share that experience with others to help them succeed.
One life coach summarized his business like this, “After creating and selling my own business, I wondered what to do with my life. I decided to turn my attention to sharing my knowledge with others so they could more easily achieve the success I attained through years of hard work. As a strategic coach, I want to help others to avoid all the pitfalls I encountered and help them accelerate their success, all the while keeping an eye on the balance in their lives.” Life coaches mentor others so they can be more successful, faster.
If you are thinking about becoming a life coach, think about these things:
- Do you like helping others? How well do you communicate your ideas? Communication and teaching are important aspects of coaching.
- What is your experience? Is it business, or the arts? Is it selling or writing? Here is where you will most likely be successful. – What are you interested in? Don’t do what you don’t love. How can you help others if you’re really not interested in what you will eventually teach them?
- Talk to a life coach and ask them what they do. How did they get started? What is their normal day like?
- Look into available seminars and education to learn more about what a life coach does, or to get the training to help you become a better coach. There are life coach accreditation courses you can take to help you reach your goals, but there really isn’t any life coaching schools. If you look around, you may find some online life coach courses you can take.
Whatever you decide, do your homework. A career as a life coach can only be entered if you love what you do and are dedicated to helping others. Good luck!
Life Coach Accreditation
Life coaching has become a profession demanded by most people who want to achieve the best in their lives. A life coach acts as a consultant or a mentor who helps an individual realize his capabilities and use them to bring out his maximum potential and in turn live an extraordinary life leading to the attainment of his personal success. Coaching involves assisting the individual in the formulation of clear and achievable goals and making sure that the person focuses and sticks to fulfilling those aspirations. Coaching does not center on the analysis of an individual’s past experiences or on finding ways to prevail over previous failures and issues; rather it focuses on effecting a transformation on the person’s present conduct to bring about a successful future.
Becoming a life coach requires passion and eagerness to help people. It is important to have enthusiasm and dedication in assisting other individuals to realize their maximum internal potential and patiently provide guidance towards the achievement of personal goals and aspirations. The life coach has to determine whether he is a reliable person who lives the values he teaches and is experiencing the personal success he inspires. In addition, a fine life coach has to be an excellent listener and good communicator. Furthermore, a life coach should have the willingness and modesty to continually learn even from the people he coached.
Developing skills and becoming an effective life coach entails knowledge on courses related to sociology, psychology, and constructive adult development. Trainings on mentoring, career counseling, and leadership training would also be of great help. Some of these courses relevant to life coaching can be expensive; however, those who cannot afford the fee may avail of scholarships offered by some companies as long as they are qualified and have the dedication to become a life coach.
Many institutions have offered life coaching courses due to its rising demand. Some life coaching schools have even made short courses and made it available online to give easier access to life coach hopefuls. These online life coaching schools offer quality programs for people who are self-motivated and have the desire to be certified. Even with these available courses, there are life coaches who do not have the quality and commitment that clients seek. Because of this, finding clients can be difficult because they now seek proven experience and credibility. It would then be very helpful to seek a life coach accreditation from trustworthy institutions. An important characteristic that people seek in a life coach is reliability. They choose are those coaches they can trust and be comfortable with.
Being a life coach is not a profession that can be taken for granted. It is vocation that demands commitment and passion because it has the opportunity to change a common life into an extraordinary one.
