What is a Life Coach?

A life coach will help people from all walks of life to improve their strengths and work on their weaknesses.

Life coaching is a popular career choice at the moment and it is no wonder why. Just as sports coaches empower athletes to become faster and stronger, a life coach will help people from all walks of life to improve their strengths and work on their weaknesses. Life coaches are typically highly motivated people who are good at motivating others and solving problems with them.

Often a second pair of eyes, life coaches help clients to tackle problems head on and reach their ambitious goals. Life coaches need to remain objective – a life coach should never push their own agenda, political or religious beliefs on a client, but instead they should empower clients without instructing them.

One of the great things about life coaching is that it doesn’t have to happen face to face! Many life coaches are open to taking on clients over the phone, email and Skype in addition to meeting face to face.

What the role of a life coach involves
As a life coach, overseeing many aspects of someone’s life, whether it be helping them to get a promotion, helping to rekindle the magic in their relationship or helping to achieve their fitness goals is at the heart of what you will do.
This varied role includes:

• Problem solving for clients and offering a fresh perspective on a situation
• Listening to the needs of clients
• Observing how clients interact and what is below the surface – what are they not saying
• Communicating clearly with clients so they know what their next steps are
• Being highly motivated and encouraging clients to make positive changes in their lives
• Being ethical and keeping clients’ information confidential
• Being creative when it comes to problem solving and motivating clients
• Having confidence to tell clients what changes to make in their own lives
• Never pushing your own agenda or opinions onto clients
• Life coaching is a challenging and yet extremely rewarding career choice

Who uses life coaches?
Life coaches are used by people of all different backgrounds and different needs. People often use life coaches for the following areas:

• Guidance – helping others to get to where they want to be without the distractions of the modern world.
• Clarity – working together with a life coach helps people to bring clarity to a situation. A fresh pair of eyes can really help when it comes to making those important decisions.
• Overcoming obstacles – many people already have the tools they need to overcome obstacles, but putting it into practice might seem daunting. A life coach can help to boost confidence and help to tackle these obstacles.
• Reaching goals – a life coach will share their tools and techniques to boost confidence and help people come up with a plan of action for achieving their goals.

From recent graduates to anyone approaching retirement age, there is a huge demand for life coaching services. Some examples of why people visit life coaches are:

• Before making any big decisions such as moving, taking on a new job or deciding to start a family
• For help in getting a new promotion
• Trying to get healthy and perhaps lose weight
• To overcome problems in their lives
• To work on building healthy relationships

How to become a life coach
The process of becoming a life coach is a fairly straightforward one. Life coaching is not currently regulated in the United Kingdom, but clients are frequently turning to qualified life coaches with membership to a professional organisation. The first step to take in becoming a life coach is to find a suitable training course.

A level 3 Life Coaching Diploma is the perfect course to study, and you can even study from home. The course lasts for 12 months and takes around 200 hours, which works out to be just under 4 hours a week. On this course you will cover many life coaching training topics including:

• What is life coaching?
• The skills of an effective life coach
• Life’s journey
• Areas of life coaching
• How to respect yourself and others
• How to let go of negativity in your life
• Choosing life coaching as a career
• How to coach yourself and others
• How to love yourself and others
• How to explore every opportunity available to you

Life coaching is an interesting and varied career choice where the possibilities are endless! You can offer services on evenings and weekends or even explore starting your own life coaching practice and employing other life coaches to work alongside you.