When you feel like you are stuck, a professional life coach is a great person to turn to. They provide guidance to help you change your life, pointing you in the direction that will get you to where you want to go. Here we’ll explore everything you need to know about life coaches and whether one is right for you.

What is a Life Coach?

You may be asking yourself, “What is a life coach and what do they do?” As a wellness professional, a life coach focuses on the present obstacles in your life and how they are affecting the goals you are striving towards in the future.

They are something of a mentor combined with a cheerleader, offering advice in both personal and professional areas, helping you stay motivated, and celebrating your wins.

Life coaches provide you with scaffolding, strategies, and tools to help you take on the challenges you are facing and break bad habits, setting you up for future success.

When Should You Consider a Life Coach?

It can sometimes be difficult to determine if and when a life coach is right for you. If you are considering the question “Do I need a life coach?” some signs to be aware of are:

High-stress Levels or Anxiety

If your stress levels feel too high or you are struggling with anxiety, it may be time to reach out to a life coach to help you manage this.

Constant Irritability

Feeling irritable all the time can be a sign that you need help with emotional regulation, something a life coach would be able to do.

Feeling Dissatisfied at Work

Dissatisfaction with work means it might be time for a new challenge. A life coach can help you determine a career shift or enhancement that you’ll be satisfied with.

Lacking in Social Life

If you are feeling lonely and have trouble making friends or finding a romantic partner, life coaching could be the next step to help you pursue and maintain healthy relationships.

Unable to Break Bad Habits

Bad habits can be hard to break and when it seems like it’s impossible, that is the time to seek out a life coach who can help.

Blocked Creativity

Creative blocks can often feel neverending and when you want to create something but find yourself unable to, reaching out to a life coach could be a logical next step.

Life Coach vs. a Therapist

When it comes to seeking help from either a life coach or therapist, there are some key differences to note. First off, therapists are licensed mental health professionals, meaning they treat diagnosed mental health disorders by unpacking past trauma to help manage the present.

On the other hand, life coaches, though they can be certified, do not actually need any formal education or training and they work on fixing present challenges to help facilitate the future. While therapy is focused on insights to improve the lives of patients, life coaching is focused on actions.

Different Types of Life Coaches

There are a variety of types of life coaches you can work with to address the different parts of your life that you may need help with.

Some of these specialized forms of life coaching include:

Wellness coaching – This focuses on physical health conditions and emotional well-being, aiming to improve your self-awareness and overall quality of health by guiding you through related lifestyle changes.
Career coaching – Whether you are aiming for a promotion, looking for a new job, or want to change career paths entirely, career coaches focus on helping you achieve your professional goals.
Fitness coaching – Different from wellness coaching, fitness coaching is purely focused on helping you achieve fitness goals, like athletic performance or weight loss, by creating customized workout plans and offering nutritional advice.
Executive coaching – An executive business coach helps you become a better leader, giving you the tools to effectively solve problems and achieve success for both yourself and your company.

Qualifications of a Life Coach

Because there are no training or education requirements for any of the types of life coaching, it is important to carefully vet a life coach you are thinking of working with.

If a life coach has received a certification from an organization like the International Coaching Federation (ICF) or Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE), or if they have mental health clinician qualifications, this is a good sign that they are reputable.

It is also important to make sure that your life coach specializes in the area you need help with.

Benefits of Having a Life Coach

There are many benefits of life coaching, in regard to both your personal and professional life, that will help you improve yourself and allow you to feel more fulfilled.

Some of these benefits are:

Better communication skills — A life coach will be able to assist you in improving your communication skills, bettering the way you interact with others and making difficult conversations easier.
Improved work-life balance — If you’re so invested in work that you don’t have time for anything personal, a life coach will provide you with the tools you need to improve your work-life balance.
Stronger bonds with friends and family — After working with a life coach, you will be able to form stronger bonds with your friends and family, reinforcing those relationships and better maintaining them.
Finding more satisfaction in work life — Knowing what your professional goals are and creating steps to get you there will allow you to become more satisfied with your work as you move towards those goals.
Letting go of deep seated fears and anxieties — Oftentimes deep seated fears can stop us from progressing in life, but with a life coach you can begin to let go of those fears and anxieties and move forward.

What You Can Expect From Life Coaching

What to expect from a life coach is quite simple and tends to be the same no matter your reasons for seeking one out. With a life coach you can expect the following in terms of base services:

Setting goals — When it comes to your goals for the future, a life coach can help you break them down into steps, setting smaller milestones that you can achieve along the way.
Plan of action — After setting your goals, a life coach will help you create an action plan, determining what you need to do in order to get to where you want to go.
Self-reflection — A life coach will help you discover more about yourself. This involves self-reflection to discover your strengths, anything that can propel you forward, and weaknesses, anything that’s holding you back.
Build coach-client relationship — Forming a good relationship with your life coach is essential to the process. In this way, your coach can better understand who you are and the things that drive you.
Lots of exploration — Exploration is the core of life coaching. You will be exploring yourself and your goals every step of the way to figure out the right path in becoming more successful.

Start Your Life Coaching Session Today

With various types of specialties like mental and physical well-being, relationships, and career satisfaction, life coaching is all about giving you the tools to overcome obstacles hindering you from having the life you want. At Positive Mind Wellness, we provide exceptional life coach services to help you achieve your goals.

FAQs

Whether you’re looking for help in your career, relationships, or with your mental and physical health, a life coach analyzes your present obstacles and advises you on the future. They assist you in setting and achieving goals, identifying what is currently blocking you from success and figuring out how to fix it.

They provide strategies on overcoming challenges in your life and help you break bad habits so that you can move forward stronger in pursuit of your goals. Most of all, a life coach supports you. They become your number one fan, cheering you on and celebrating your wins.

You can expect a life coaching session to start with the coach asking you for information about yourself and your goals in order for them to create a program that is customized to you. After that it varies depending on the individual and their needs.

Most sessions include some sort of mindfulness to centre yourself in the present and reflection to determine your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as being given homework to do before the next session. It’s typical to discuss the barriers you are facing, create an action plan, and celebrate any wins, big or small.

One session tends to take between 30 minutes to 1 hour, with the average being 45 minutes. As for the coaching process in its entirety, the time it takes is dependent on the individual. Usually, a life coach will recommend 3 to 6 sessions to help you achieve your goals, though this could be longer based on your needs.

You could have a session once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month. When you begin working with a life coach, they’ll provide you with a more accurate timeframe.

The main role of a life coach is that of a mentor. They advise you on your goals and motivate you to do better, providing assistance in any way they can. A life coach focuses on improving the quality of your life and will often use examples from their own experiences when offering advice.

They help you identify the obstacles in your way, from your own weaknesses to outside forces, as well as your abilities and talents, determining how you can use them to enhance yourself and your position in life.

What is a Life Coach?

What is a Life Coach?