I have recently taken up an online course about Life Coaching. Specifically, this one on New Skills Academy: https://newskillsacademy.co.uk/course/life-coaching-course
If you fancy doing a course from New Skills Academy, consider using this affiliate link which will give you a massive 75% off a course: https://newskillsacademy.co.uk/refer/IAINDOUGLAS75-1226. It will also give me 75% off my next course, so it’s a win-win scenario for both of us!
I’m going to write about what I learn as I go along as I feel it helps me solidify the learning in my mind. The first module is titled: What is Life Coaching? The Benefits to Clients; the Differences between Counselling and Life Coaching
I was not at all surprised at the amount of transferable skills there are between counselling and life coaching as I have read a book or two about coaching before, so know they use similar processes. This pleased me somewhat. I already have a level 2 and a level 3 qualification in counselling, so I feel like I’m off to a good start. Both disciplines are aimed at helping people live happier and better lives, but where counselling helps clients process past experiences and release their pain, coaching is focused on the present and the future.
The human experience can be challenging. Life coaches empower people to rise to this challenge.
I like the idea that life coaching is about analysing and closing the gap between your reality and your dreams. This reinforces my belief that congruence is one of the most important aspects of a person’s personality. A person must strive to be who they really are, or who they truly want to be. Some people need help to do this, and that’s where coaches come in. They help people identify, and then solve their problems. Coaches take a look at a person’s struggles from a fresh perspective, which relayed back to the person can assist them in seeing this new dimension. They also help their clients identify their goals, and devise ways to accomplish those goals. Coaching is more about asking the right questions than providing answers.
One of the things that appeals to me when it comes to life coaching is that you don’t need to be academically minded or have a degree and a masters. Ironically, I do enjoy writing, but I would rather learn something intuitively or through experience than just reading something or being lectured at, and then having to write a two-million-word essay. Writing helps me solidify the knowledge that is being taught. Another thing that appeals to me about coaching is the scope for specialisation, and the granular nature of a coach’s skillset. Coaches with specific skills and experiences that choose to target a suitable audience tend to be more effective. It’s not a rigid profession bound by specific targets or qualifications, everyone arrives at this destination by a different route, and I appreciate that.
One memorable takeaway from the first module is that life coaching can be likened to physically working out in that it makes the body stronger, whereas coaching helps strengthen the mind. It helps a client’s growth as an individual, and can lead to them defining themselves mentally, to stop and take stock of their values and beliefs. Coaching offers proactive options to improve a client’s life. People so often just go with the flow of life, and never stop to consider their options that could enable them to live a happier and more fulfilling life.
A good coach helps clients identify their values and goals and assists in creating a plan that aligns with those values and allows them to complete those goals.
A good coach acts as a kind of non-judgemental sounding board for clients and provides motivational and emotional support to them.
A good coach helps clients identify limiting beliefs they may hold, and such information, if used wisely, can help them with their present struggles and help them form a clearer vision of their future.
A good coach encourages a client to live congruently, and to develop an internal locus of judgement, and live their full potential by keeping the client on-track and accountable.
A good coach can help a client realise and maintain their ideal work/life balance, which in turn benefits those around the client, such as loved ones and colleagues.
My own personal motivation to be a life coach
I want to help people, and I want to see people succeed in their lives. People should not feel they have to live out a life of mediocrity. I want people to feel that their goals are achievable, and that being the person they truly are, or want to be, is a legitimate and worthy life goal.
Three goals that I would love to achieve as a life coach would be:
One is to run a successful private practise, which I have written about here; a second is to one day open a hub where other coaches and counsellors could rent rooms or run workshops. But I think my most important one is this: it is said that one person cannot save the world. But if you save one person, then you’ve saved their world. I hope to save the world one person at a time. I want people to know they don’t have to live out sad little lives of quiet desperation. They can be so much more. I would like to help them realise this.
In terms of specialisation, I think that my own personal experience would be to help men in and around their midlife. I’ve written extensively about this in my counselling coursework, a good example can be found here.
