Life coaches can be an amazing investment that ensures you understand what you want and how to get it.
You may have become interested in a life coach after a particular event, for instance, losing your job. Or you may be looking to improve your life and want someone to help you on this path. Life coaches provide advice and motivate you to achieve the changes you have been dreaming of.
A life coach helps facilitate your growth and progress. Unlike a counsellor, life coaches tend to focus on your current behaviour and assist you with creating a life plan that suits your goals. Counsellors, on the other hand, tend to focus more on analysing your past.
What does a life coach do?
A life coach isn’t there to tell you what you should or should not do. Instead, they are there to empower you to make decisions and take action yourself.
One of the essential tools of a life coach is the ability to ask the questions that matter. The right questions can help you think about things differently and more deeply to come up with answers you may not even know you needed.
Advantages of working with a life coach
Life coaches offer unbiased feedback and act as cheerleaders. They will celebrate even small steps forward and hold you accountable if you move away from your goals.
Life coaches can help you progress in your personal, professional, and financial lives. Expect to set your agenda for each session so you can work together to break down barriers and realise your full potential.
- Gain clarity
Many of us don’t know what we want from life. Those big questions can feel overwhelming and leave most people feeling uncertain. A life coach will work with you to discover your purpose so that you can begin pursuing it with passion.
- Feel more confident
Confidence issues affect many of us, especially if we have experienced recent difficulties. Studies found that 80% of those working with a coach felt more confident as a result. This self-faith is essential, particularly if you want to make significant changes.
- Become more self-aware
Self-awareness involves knowing yourself, your strengths, weaknesses, wants, and fears.
It takes time, introspection, and reflection to develop self-awareness. But the rewards are worth the effort since heightened self-awareness can increase the effectiveness of other tools you learn through coaching.
- Be present
So many things demand our attention. A life coach can help you learn to recognise when you are being overwhelmed so that you can take a step back and fully engage in the present.
As important as your goals are to you, it is also vital that you take time to stop and smell the flowers. Allow yourself to enjoy the small moments, and you will find yourself better able and more prepared to handle whatever life throws at you next.
- Improve productivity and time-management
Saying that we all have the same 24 hours is an oversimplification of reality, but a life coach can work with you on your motivation and time-management skills so you can use your same 24 hours to do and achieve more.
- Improve your communication skills
Communication can be tricky. But effective and calm communication helps internally and interpersonally.
- Enhance your relationships
Highly connected to your ability to communicate and empathise, life coaching will help you (both directly and indirectly) to work on your interpersonal relationships.
- Feel physically better
Our minds and bodies are connected. If one suffers, so does the other. Life coaches can work with you towards specific fitness goals or healthy living in general.
- Feel mentally stronger
Difficulties like anxiety and depression are becoming more common among people in society today. While there is no one quick fix for such complex problems, there are still things we can do to feel better. A life coach will help you identify symptoms and triggers so you can develop better coping mechanisms.
- Strengthen your career and finances
A life coach will be by your side, pushing you to achieve your desire. Even if your coach does not specialise in your industry or finance, they will be able to connect you to the right resources. For instance, they may work with you on understanding how to make money work for you so you can create a plan that works for you.
- Make better decisions
No one makes their best decisions when they are stressed and under pressure. Learn to take a step back, evaluate situations, and make decisions that contribute to your goals and desires.
- Look at things from another perspective
It’s easy to get stuck in our presumptions and perspective, but only seeing things from our own perspective can also inhibit our ability to move forward.
- Be more appreciative
Most of us take things for granted at one point or another. Life coaching can help you reset and re-evaluate the good in your life.
Our attitude can determine a lot. It affects how we enter situations and the results we accomplish.
- Fighting your fears
Life coaching is not magic. You won’t suddenly overcome your fears, but your life coach will teach you how to manage your concerns.
How long does it take?
As we know, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Working with a life coach is a long-term project, and you shouldn’t expect to see significant results overnight.
The time needed to reach your goals will depend on what you set out to achieve. For instance, do you have just one target? Are you working on a major life change? Or are you looking to change the way you live without any set goals in mind?
Many people can achieve their goals within 8 to 16 sessions. However, some continue working with their coach on a more infrequent basis, for example, if they want to be held accountable for continuing to succeed with more significant lifestyle overhauls.
How much does a life coach cost?
Most life coaches charge per hour, though some may offer a discount for clients booking a set amount of sessions.
In general, life coaching sessions cost between £40 and £70, though you may pay more for someone with special training or expertise.
Where to find your life coach
Life coaches are now more accessible since many provide sessions online. You don’t have to be in the same location as a coach to work with them.
A great place to start your search is Google. Just remember to check unbiased reviews to make sure you choose someone who can really help you.
Start your life coaching journey
To get the most from a life coach, you should try to keep an open mind. Remember that a life coach is there to work with you, this is still your journey, and you are still in control of where it goes.
A life coach is your ally. They will help to guide you and hold you accountable as you work towards your goals.