What is a Life Coach?

According to the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the life coaching industry generates about 2.85 billion dollars industry in the world. Also, the coaching industry is considered to be the second-fastest growing industry in the world. In fact, the number of coaches in the world for the year 2019 stood at 5,86,292.

But what exactly is life coaching? Let’s understand further. According to ICF,” Life coaching refers to the forged partnership between the coaches and the clients that motivate the clients to maximize their potential both at the personal and professional front.” Thus it includes coaching about any specific matters of life like health, relationships, career, etc. 

To be more precise, they are professionals trained to help you identify your goals and eventually help you achieve those. They help their clients in finding out their strengths and weaknesses. They help them identify their USP. Hence, a coach is someone who guides you to achieve your goals by empowering you to do what’s required to make that change.

Lately, a lot of people have been drawn to this service. Why? Because it helps them seek guidance and support in the areas of self-confidence, career change, self-worth, self-esteem, healthy relationships, finding their purpose, emotional wellbeing, work-life balance, etc. From business owners to regular employees, and from celebrities to common folks, all can gain from availing the coaching services.

Do I Need Coaching?

A coach can empower you to make decisions you are unable to take for yourself. They can help you see beyond your limiting beliefs by questioning those. This will help you in getting closer to your goals.

But how to figure out if you actually need coaching. Here’re a few major signs that can help you decide if you need coaching:

• You feel lost
  If you are someone who feels stuck in your life, then you must consider availing this service. If you are facing an existential crisis and not sure what you want from life, they can immensely help you.

  A coach can help you find your way when you are lost. So, if you are feeling stuck, it’s high time you reach out to a life coach.

• You have self-doubt 
  Are you feeling lost and doubt yourself from time to time? If so, you must consider reaching out to a coach to get clarity on what you want. Their advice can help you identify your limiting beliefs and help you see beyond them. They can help you question these limiting beliefs and eventually eliminate them. This will lead you closer to your goals.
• You lack a proper plan to achieve your vision
  Are you someone who has a great vision for what you want from your life but have no idea how to achieve it? That’s where you can benefit from their expertise. They can help you create an action plan, giving you the organization and clarity you seek. So, whenever you feel like you lack strategy in order to achieve your goals, don’t refrain from seeking help from a coach.
• You want to make a career switch
  Are you someone who is wanting to switch to a different industry/role after years of working in the same industry/role? Or are you someone who wants to venture into entrepreneurship after working in the corporation for years? If you said yes to any of the above questions, you might need expert guidance and support on how to take the plunge. You might need a strategy to ace this move of yours. That’s when you need counseling from a professional.
• You lack accountability
  Are you someone who lacks the conviction to follow through? If yes, a life coach can help you stay accountable. They will ensure you don’t give up on your responsibilities and constantly push you to fulfill those. They will make sure you stay on track by reminding you about it from time to time.

How They Can Help

Coaching involves active participation between you and the coach. It’s not like the coach is going to hand over to you the entire process of how to go about making the life change you seek. Instead, they will urge you to question your beliefs and help you make the requisite changes in your life on your own.

Here’re a few ways in which a coach can help you:

• Helps you align with your true purpose

  Do you often find yourself ruminating over the question, “What is the meaning of my life?”. Do you often feel clueless about what you want from life? If you lack direction when it comes to these existential questions, life coaching is exactly what you need.

  A coach can help you discover your innate talents, gifts, and skills that can help you find the meaning of your life. There are a lot of things that you are unable to discover on your own. They can help you discover those by making you fill out a set of questions in the questionnaire.

• Helps you seek solutions to specific problems
  

  Every person comes to a life coach with a different set of problems. Some seek career direction, while others seek direction related to relationships.

  No matter what your problem is, they can help you in identifying the roadblocks that prevent you from achieving your goals. They can provide a different perspective on how to go about achieving your desired outcomes.

• Helps you be mindful of the present moment
  

  Life can get extremely busy, making it extremely difficult for you to manage your work-life. You may feel like it’s impossible to catch a breath in this fast-paced life. This can leave you with constant stress and anxiety.

  Your coach can help you learn and implement mindfulness techniques that can help you stay grounded in the present moment. This will help you enjoy the simple joys of life and which is so important to live a happy and satisfying life.

• Helps you in goal setting by making an action plan
  

  Goal setting can be an extremely difficult process. Short-term goals require you to go beyond your current thought patterns and limiting beliefs. While long-term goals require you to hold on to the image of what you want in your mind, i.e., visualize what you actually want in life.

  Achieving long-term goals requires you to have an awareness of where you are right now and where you want to be in the future. It also requires you to be aware of the action steps and strategy needed to get to your desired outcome. A life coach can guide you through this entire process and make your journey smoother.

• Helps you in creating systems that will help increase productivity
  

  The common problem almost everyone faces nowadays is the lack of time. But is it really the lack of time or is it the lack of organization of your given time? Well, it’s the latter.

  They can help you in creating systems that will help enhance your productivity. This can be done by setting up a morning routine and setting a system that can help you manage your official emails and meetings better, thereby leading to an increase in your productive hours.

• Helps in increasing self-awareness
  

  Achieving anything in life requires you to be aware of who you are at the present moment. It requires you to understand your current thinking pattern and beliefs, current challenges, your reason for doing something, and your strengths and weaknesses.

  All this requires an uncovering of the multiple layers within you and a lot of contemplation. Though you can take this journey alone, it can be quite overwhelming and confusing for you. What you require is the help of a professional who can guide you in this journey towards self-awareness.

• Helps you evaluate your thinking patterns and beliefs
  

  Every person has his own set of beliefs, attitudes, and thinking patterns. Some of them serve them while others limit them. These limiting beliefs are often the only thing holding you back from reaching your highest potential.

  Hence it’s important to identify and evaluate them in order to eliminate them. This requires a lot of questioning and addressing the source of these limiting beliefs. This can be quite a task. Hence, you require the expertise of someone who’s pro at this i.e. a life coach.

  They help you identify your limiting beliefs, trace their root cause, and eventually help reframe them. All this requires patience and a particular system, which is only possible through coaching.

The Main Benefits

There are numerous benefits of life coaching in your life.  Some of the important ones are as follows:

• It helps you in the identification and achievement of your goals.
• It helps increase your self-confidence and stay motivated.
• It helps you stay accountable to your responsibilities thereby helping you achieve your goals.
• It helps improve your emotional intelligence.
• It empowers you to face your challenges and fears more confidently.
• It can help you attain financial freedom and security.
• It can also help you grab your dream job.
• It can help you in improving your communication skills as well.
• It can help you forge better business relationships.
• It can help you get a promotion in your current role.
• It can help you identify your true purpose in life.
• It can help you in starting your own entrepreneurship.
• It can help you find a relationship you are seeking in your love life.

How Does it Work?

As mentioned above, coaching is a forged partnership between the coach and the client. It requires consistent effort from the client’s side. It requires the clients to work consistently on changing their thinking patterns and beliefs and implement strategies to achieve their goals.

Here’s the logical explanation of how coaching works:

• A coach is required to establish a relationship that is transparent and honest. Why? Because if they want their client to be open and vulnerable, they need to foster a transparent environment that enables them to speak their heart out.
• A coach is required to clearly define what the client’s goals are.
• During the first session, the coach draws a plan customized as per the need and requirements of the client. This is followed as a roadmap during the further sessions. A client is required to follow this plan diligently.
• A coach uses his skills and expertise to solve clients’ problems, helping them achieve their goals.
• A coach constantly motivates and inspires their client to continuously move ahead in their journey of self-growth and self-discovery.
• A coach helps you find your purpose by asking you a set of thought-provoking questions like ” What drives you to wake up in the morning? What makes you truly happy? What part of the day do you feel most productive? “
• A coach always keeps their client accountable for the assigned work.
• A coach makes sure the client’s productivity increases.

Is it the Same as Therapy?

People often get confused between coaching and therapy and hence use these two terms interchangeably. But, coaching and therapy are two entirely different concepts.

Here are a few ways in which coaching is different from therapy:

• A coach doesn’t diagnose a client for any specific disease while a therapist treats and diagnoses a client for a specific disease.
• A coach identifies a client’s problematic areas in their behavior. While a therapist analyses the client’s past to understand their present behavior.
• A coach focuses on the “How” while working on goal achievement. While a therapist focuses on “Why” while working on understanding a client’s certain behavior.
• Coaching is action-oriented as it involves tracking a client’s success with certain benchmarks and milestones. While, therapy involves examining and recognizing the client’s thinking patterns by understanding his past. Hence it is more insight-oriented.

What’s right for me – Life Coaching or Therapy

Now coming to the billion-dollar question, “ What’s right for me – Life coaching or Therapy?” There’s no one size fits all answer to this question. What may work for you depends entirely on the issue you face. 

So, if you are someone facing any mental health issue, then therapy or counseling may be the right fit for you. If you need someone to tell you what to do and how to go about things, life coaching isn’t for you, and you should opt for therapy.

Life coaching may be right for you if you are someone who’s quite proactive and wants a bit of guidance to achieve your goals and progress further in life. If you are capable of finding the answers by seeking a bit of guidance, it can work miracles for you.

So, if you are willing to put in the effort to change yourself in order to align with your goals, life coaching is the right thing for you. If you are committed to your personal growth, it can immensely help you.

Seek Counseling from a Trusted Provider with Docvita

So, if you feel stuck in life and want to get out of this rut, consider seeking the help of a life coach. How? Well, it’s super-easy. All you need to do is hop on to DocVita’s book from the therapist page and select from the list of various therapists available. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and take that step to alleviate your life to a higher level. Book a session right now.