Wondering if there’s more depth, meaning and joy to life than binge-watching Netflix can provide?
So was I.
That’s why I turned to life coaching.
What a life coach is
A life coach is like having your own personal cheerleader with benefits. Those benefits include prompting you to:
- Take an honest assessment of your overall life
- See areas that are thriving and others that you want to improve
- Improve those areas by setting concrete goals and actions to attain those goals
- Find new ways to solve problems and deal with things like fear, resentments and negativity
- Set the road map for your ideal future by finding your life purpose and creating the delight you deserve.
All this while encouraging and celebrating your successes along the way.
In short, a life coach is an exceptional thinking partner whose main aim is to provide ways for you to improve your life.
What a life coach is not
Life coaching has distinct differences from other professions, which brings us to a rundown on what a life coach is not. A life coach is not:
- A therapist, counselor or other mental health pro trained to resolve past issues
- Instead of diving into the past, life coaching helps you look at the present and create your desired future
- A psychiatrist, trained to diagnose and treat mental health issues
- Instead of focusing on fixing what’s wrong, life coaching serves to enhance what’s right
- A consultant, hired to provide expert advice
- Rather than telling you what to do, life coaching lets you create your own path, focusing on strategies you know will work for you (although you can get helpful input as desired)
You already have the canvas and all the paints you need to create your ideal life. A life coach simply helps you set up the easel and put it all together to paint yourself a fabulous future.
Life coaching benefits by the numbers
Using a life coach helps you attain and maintain a positive attitude, which automatically enhances all areas of your life. Specific statistics on benefits and satisfaction levels of life coaching come from the The Coaching Tools Company:
- 99 percent: Clients satisfied after hiring a life coach
- 96 percent: Clients who would hire a life coach again
- 80 percent: Improved self-confidence
- 73 percent: Improved relationships
- 72 percent: Improved communication skills
- 67 percent: Improved work-life balance
Why I turned to life coaching
People turn to life coaching for any number of reasons, and mine happened by accident. Well, it may have seemed like an accident but I believe there are really no such things as accidents, as the universe is always guiding us. Sometimes that guidance is a gentle nudge; other times it’s a frying pan in the head. This one was more nudge-like.
I was at a plateau in my career as well as with my personal and spiritual growth. Plateaus can get pretty weedy and infested with biting insects when you sit there long enough. My skin was definitely itchy.
Then one of my regular writing clients suddenly dropped their weekly orders of about five to 10 assignments to zero. The career plateau instantly shifted into a downward ramp. I immediately began to panic.
I haphazardly started applying to any and all writing gigs. Results were meh. So I started applying to pretty much ANY gigs. While I knew in the back of my head that any actions I’ve taken in the past from a place of panic or fear have yielded crap results, I continued to send out those panic-ridden resumes as I wasn’t sure what else to do.
Then one day I stumbled across an online post about running a business. This led me to info about running a business efficiently, which led to info on the joy of running of a business efficiently. This led me to a flurry of info about joy, happiness and life changes – right where life coaching exploded marvelously to the surface.
Life coaching sounded phenomenal. Let’s go for it!
Since I’m the type that likes to go to extremes, however, simply using a life coach would not be enough.
I had to BECOME one. So I did.
After 20 hours of in-depth training, additional hours of completing the same self-discovery exercises I now give my clients, a two-hour final exam, and the most amazing practice client in the world, I am officially life coach certified from the IAPRC, or the International Association of Professional Recovery Coaching.
My recovery coaching certification comes after another 80 hours of training from the IAPRC, but I have plenty of hands-on experience with the subject in the meantime. Creativity is another area in my life where thriving continues, and I’d be overjoyed to help others do so, too.
So that’s the deal with life coaching and how it became a thrilling new chapter in my own life. I’d be delighted to help you write you own next chapter. Check out my welcome packet for more info, or set up a free consultation if you’re ready to give it a go!
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