10 Secret Things You Didn’t Know About Life Coaches

Life coaching is a profession of privilege.  We help people reach their professional and personal potential and empower and energise people to live a life that had previously only dreamed of. We also get paid to do it, how cool is that?

There are , however, a few misconceptions about what coaches do and how we get results. So here are a few insights to fill in the gaps

1. We don’t give advice. Coaches come from the position that we each and every one of us have all the answers within us.  Coaches help their clients find their own key to unlock the solutions they seek.  You have the power – we just help you switch it on!
2. We don’t fix clients. We coach people to develop their own skills to empower themselves to make the right choices confidently and with passion and purpose. We help you kick start your mojo, passion and purpose. We don’t solve your problems and we are not Google.
3. Coaches are in a continual flow of developmental change themselves.  We learn from each of our clients and we overcome our own fears and obstacles to increase our satisfaction with our own lives.  We never come to the end of our development.  We get paid to grow – how cool is that?
4. No two coaches are the same. So, no it’s not a flooded market. Each coach, if trained properly, has a tool kit to help motivate and inspire you to your goals. Yet a bit like an artist they will coach in a unique way.  Choose the coach you feel is right for you.  Trust your instinct.  Having a bit of certification and more degrees than a thermometer does not necessarily mean they are a great coach.
5. We are future-focused. We co-create a compellingly attractive future with our clients by getting clarity, defining the goal and then devising a want-to strategy to take our clients there. We build confidence and we get results.
6. Unlike therapy we are action-orientated and set small pieces of homework, baby steps or giant leaps to get our clients out of the rut and into the groove of life. You see progress straight away.
7. We occupy a unique place in people’s lives. Family, friends, colleagues – all have an agenda. They want to advise and share their point of view of you and your life.  A coach is a 100% unconditionally supportive and neutral agent who wants you to get what you want on your terms.
8. Clients find this unique relationship offers them the chance to speak their truth, perhaps for the first time, about their hopes, fears and dreams for the future and feel supported, without judgment and feel truly understood. This in itself is very liberating.
9. What we ask you to do it will feel counterintuitive. It’s all about doing things differently so you may feel uncomfortable and the steps feel unusual.  This is because you get getting out of the comfort zone and doing something new and exciting.  Be prepared for the challenge.  Great things take time, support and commitment.
10. It’s a joy.  Google things that make a human being happy and in the top five you will find “being of service to others”.  Coaching is such a positive process it is a real pleasure to help people reach their potential, realise their big dreams and make the most of their lives.
11. Lucky, lucky coaches!