“He can’t see the wood for the trees.” This is when a life coach helps someone recognise and refresh their focus.
There are many interpretations of a life coach and there are many different types of life coaches. Ask any life coach and they will say the same thing. “What is it you actually do?” “How do you really help others?” The dictionary definition of a life coach is ‘a person employed to help people attain their goals in life’.
Have you heard people say “I’m working hard but I’m not getting anywhere”? Maybe you’ve seen good people running around in circles, getting more frustrated by the day… Do you see people climbing the ladder of life, but they haven’t noticed it’s parked against the wrong wall? These people, and thousands like them, need help. They need a life coach. Being a Life Coach is about helping people, not by ‘being nice to them’ but by showing people how to get more from life, without anxiety, frustration and tension.
We could argue that no matter what job or business we are in we ALL help others. Life Coaches do support their clients to attain their goals in life but in many different and individual ways. Life Coaching is such a personal and unique service, each person brings something different. How can one determine WHO can or should be a coach? What are the ‘qualifications’ or the ‘attributes’? How might a person determine they have enough experience personally and professionally to advise, support, mentor others?
We are aware there are courses people can attend to become qualified, these are helpful to provide credibility, however, the real ‘qualification’ is the experience the prospective coaches have, the advice they offer, as well as how they impart this to their clients that is both unique and helpful to their clients. The key thing isn’t so much what life coaching is and why it’s helpful, more how can one be a coach and be able to help someone.
Being able to determine in what way a ‘life coach to-be’ might be able to help someone is to consider what specific area(s) they have enough academic, personal and professional experiences to warrant them to an ‘expert’ or sufficiently knowledgeable in their field. Building credibility and developing a niche is crucial to be a successful life coach. It makes it clear for the prospective client and it enables the life coach to market themselves clearly attracting the clients they want. Only then might a life coach be able to answer the question what is it you do, why is it helpful and how you can help someone.
