Are you feeling stuck, struggling to reach your goals, or feeling overwhelmed with your current life situation? If so, you may want to consider working with a life coach. Life coaching is a process of self-discovery and personal growth that can help you unlock your full potential and create a more meaningful life. There are many life coaches out there who specialize in different areas. They can help you identify strengths and weaknesses, create a plan to reach your goals, and provide guidance, support, and accountability to help you stay on track.
In this article, we will explore the various aspects of life coaching and discuss the key benefits of working with a life coach to help you understand why it can be such a powerful tool for achieving success. We will also look at some of the latest scientific research on life coaching, and provide tips on how to find a great life coach.
Who Life Coaches Work With
Life Coaches work with people from all different backgrounds.
Life coaching is becoming increasingly popular as a way for people to reach their goals. This is due to the fact that life coaches provide individuals with a supportive and non-judgmental environment that helps them take the necessary steps to achieve the life they desire.
Life coaches work with a variety of people from different walks of life–individuals, couples, families, business owners, and entrepreneurs, depending on their area of expertise.
They also work with ‘successful’ individuals who, despite their outward success, feel stuck and uncertain of their direction, unmotivated, and without the sense of fulfillment they had hoped for. Despite having achieved financial success, these high achievers have arrived at a place of affluence feeling somewhat empty and lost.
What Can a Life Coach Help With?
Life coaches are not therapists or counselors; instead of focusing on past issues, life coaches focus exclusively on the present in order to empower clients to create better futures for themselves.
They help people assess their life situation, create goals, and come up with a plan to make those goals a reality. Life coaches provide guidance, support, motivation, accountability, and encouragement throughout the process of life change creating a positive, upward spiral.
It is essential to mention, however, that true life coaching is not just about goal attainment, peak performance, and 10X-ing your life. As a matter of fact, it is often not about any of these at all.
While success and achievement are important components of life, there are many internal factors that determine how life is experienced. Life coaches often work to help clients build a meaningful, fulfilling, and satisfying life that goes beyond just the goals they are trying to attain. At the end of life, we look back fondly at the quality and depth of how we lived, not the quantity of material items in our lives.
Personal Growth
Personal development is at the heart of life coaching – an ongoing process of self-improvement that involves increasing self-awareness and striving to become a better human being. It involves challenging yourself to learn new skills and improve in areas that are important to you. It can include breaking bad habits and developing healthier ones, building self-confidence, improving interpersonal relationships, and becoming a more productive and successful person.
A life coach can provide you with invaluable support in order to step back from your current circumstances and gain a broader perspective on your life as a whole and experience positive emotions more frequently. Furthermore, they can help you to identify and address areas of your life and relationships that could be improved in order to ensure that you are headed in the right direction.
Career Coaching
Many career coaches are skilled at optimizing your CV and preparing you for interviews.
Career coaches provide insight and guidance to those looking to advance their careers or transition to a whole new path. Coaching sessions often involve evaluating current job satisfaction and developing a plan to set realistic goals and actionable steps to reach them. Career coaches may provide advice on resumes, interviews, and job searches, as well as guidance on professional development, networking, and communication. They may also offer resources and support to help individuals create a vocation path that fits their interests and skills.
Life and career coaches also provide you with emotional support during challenging times, while looking for a new job or transitioning into a new role. This support can include practicing resilience strategies so that you can move forward despite setbacks or working through doubts that could potentially hold you back.
Life Planning
Life planning is an essential process for people of all ages. It requires taking the time to reflect on your current situation, where you hope to be in the future, and the steps needed to get there. This can be a difficult task to complete independently as conflicting priorities can make it challenging to objectively plan ahead and prioritize the most important areas of your life.
The Wheel of Life is a popular tool used by coaches to help their clients gain a holistic view of their lives and assess their level of fulfillment in various areas such as money, health, wellness, and career. When clients gain an understanding of their unfulfilled areas, it can be a painful yet powerful realization of the work that needs to be done. Part of a life coach’s role is to help their clients envision a desirable future and create an action plan to help them get there.
Wheel of Life example. A meta-view of current life satisfaction and areas for improvement.
Stress Management
Stress is a normal part of life and according to Stanford research (1), not all stress is bad for us. Excitement, for example, can create short-lived, positively experienced stress in response to a desirable situation in your life.
When your body’s stress response is activated for long periods of time though, it can lead to chronic or long-term stress. This could be the result of one overarching stressful situation, such as providing care for someone with an ongoing illness, or it might be due to a number of smaller stressors that don’t give your body enough time to return to its normal state.
Life coaches can play a valuable role in helping you stay healthy with strategies for managing stress and remaining resilient with positive emotions in difficult times. With the support of a life coach, you can learn how to identify your sources of stress, develop effective coping skills, like learning a box breathing technique, create healthy boundaries, and find balance in life by taking action to prioritize self-care and well-being.
Issues with Self-Esteem
Low self-esteem is an individual’s negative evaluation of themselves and is often experienced as a feeling of not being good enough. People with low self-esteem also have feelings of shame, guilt, worthlessness, and inadequacy. They may have difficulty trusting others, believe they are unlovable or unacceptable, and struggle to take risks or be assertive in the face of uncertainty.
A life coach can help you see the triggers and situations that lead to your low self-esteem and work to address the root issue of the problem. For example, coaches can assist you to identify your negative thought patterns and self-talk and help you to reframe those thoughts in a more positive light.
The right coach can help with self-esteem and self-worth.
Having a good coaching relationship will create a safe place for you to express your internal struggles and self-judgment and help you make positive changes in your behavior. Your coach can provide carefully curated resources such as self-help books, articles, and even mindfulness practices that can help you build your confidence.
Improve relationships
A life coach can be a great asset in helping you foster positive relationships. They can help understand and improve interpersonal communication skills, offer insight into different perspectives, and provide strategies for resolving conflicts, both at work and in your personal life.
One of the many advantages of engaging a life coach is to become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This can help you to recognize and adjust any patterns that are not beneficial to you. Through learning how to communicate effectively and to build strong boundaries, life coaching can help you to enhance the connections you have with yourself and those around you.
Social Science Research on Life Coaching
Life coaching is based on cognitive behavioral principles and research and is a powerful tool that uses a combination of strategies and techniques to help people gain clarity and achieve their personal and professional goals. Through the coaching process, individuals are guided and empowered to make changes that will lead to greater satisfaction and well-being.
While life coaching is a relatively young field, there is a growing body of research that shows the positive effects of working with a life coach. Multiple studies (2) have found that life coaching helps people to increase their self-awareness and gain perspective, set more meaningful goals, develop action plans for reaching those goals, build greater self-confidence, overcome obstacles, and make lasting changes in their lives.
According to leading researchers like Grant, A.M.(3), from the University of Sydney, life coaching has a tremendous impact on goal attainment, metacognition (which refers to the ability to think about one’s own thinking process an element of self-awareness), and mental health.
Video: How Life Coaching Works
The Benefits of Life Coaching
Below we have summarized some of the key findings on the positive effects of life coaching according to the research:
- Life coaching can help people identify and overcome limiting beliefs that may be holding them back from reaching their full potential.
- It can tap into individuals’ self-empowerment and ‘signature strengths,’ allowing them to gain greater self-awareness and confidence in pursuing their goals and procrastinating less.
- Provide tools and strategies to help people stay focused and motivated.
- Cultivate self compassion, helping individuals to approach themselves and their challenges with greater kindness and understanding.
- Provide insight into negative patterns and blind spots, helping clients to recognize and shift these patterns in order to make positive changes in their lives.
- Research has found that life coaching can be particularly beneficial for individuals who are facing difficult challenges or major life transitions, such as caregiving for a loved one with dementia, navigating a career change or burnout, or adjusting to a significant life event like a divorce or loss of a loved one.
- Studies have also shown that life coaching can improve psychosocial well-being and increase emotional intelligence, making it a valuable tool for personal and professional growth.
Coaching works fast and has many benefits. Depending on individual circumstances and the level of personal awareness someone has, coaching can deliver lasting results in just a few sessions.
According to our own experience coaching clients for 15-plus years, the average length of the coaching engagement is 12 sessions or about three months. The goal of an experienced coach is to get you moving in your desired direction as soon as possible.
Finding a Life Coach
There are various ways to find a life coach. One way to start is by searching for a life coach online using search engines like Google or Bing to find them. Google prioritizes local results, and if you search for a “life coach” while in Houston for example, the search result page will provide you with coaches serving the Houston area first.
Another option is to check online directories such as the International Coaching Federation (ICF) directory or Noomii.com, or you can use a coach referral service that can match you with a coach based on your needs and goals.
Whatever research option you use it’s important to take your time and find a life coach who is a good fit for you and your goals. Many coaches offer services online, so you have the convenience of being able to work with them remotely.
Determine your goals
When you begin your search for a life coach, it is important to consider what you want to achieve through the coaching process. This will help you find a coach who has experience in the specific areas that you need to focus on for accurate goal setting. However, if you are not sure of your goals or feel stuck and unhappy in your current situation or unable to identify a clear path forward, it is understandable to feel overwhelmed and confused. In this case, reading online reviews can be a helpful tool in identifying a coach with a successful track record in working with clients facing similar challenges.
Look for reviews that resonate with your situation, and pay attention to the ways in which the coach has helped their clients move forward.
Read reviews and testimonials
As already mentioned, reading reviews and testimonials from past clients can give you a better sense of the coach’s style and personality. When reading reviews, look for patterns in the feedback. Are clients consistently satisfied with the coaching services? Do they mention specific areas where the coach was particularly helpful (like improving relationships, communication skills or building confidence)? Did they achieve the goals they set out to achieve with the coach’s support or did the coach provide them with a new opportunity they couldn’t have seen before?
Testimonials can also give you a better idea if the coach’s approach is a good fit for you. For example, do you prefer a coach who will pump you up to 10X your life, or would you rather work with a life coach that will create a safe space for you to explore your own thought and ideas?
Look for testimonials that mention the traits that appeal to you.
Schedule a trial session
Free trial sessions can be a great way to test the waters and see if a life coach is a good fit for you. Most coaches offer free consultations (trial sessions) where you can ask questions and get a taste of what coaching is like, experience the coach’s coaching style, and see if it resonates with you.
A free trial session can help you determine if you feel comfortable and connected with the coach, and whether you think you can work together effectively. It also allows you to try before you buy: Life coaching can be a significant investment, and a free trial session allows you to experience the coach’s services before committing to a coaching engagement. Take advantage of these consultations to get a better understanding of whether the life coach is a good fit for you.
Choose between in-person or distance coaching (online and phone coaching)
In-person coaching offers several benefits, including the opportunity for a more personal and direct connection with the coach. Being in the same physical space as the coach allows for nonverbal communication and visual cues that can enhance the coaching relationship and understanding between coach and client. In-person coaching also provides an opportunity for the coach to observe the client’s body language and behavior, which can help the life coach to tailor their approach and provide more effective support.
Life coaching by phone offers several benefits, including convenience, flexibility, and increased accessibility. Phone coaching allows clients to receive coaching services from the comfort of their own home or office, without the need for travel or scheduling conflicts. Also, phone coaching can be more flexible than in-person coaching, as sessions can be scheduled outside of regular business hours such as early morning. Phone coaching also provides increased accessibility to clients who may not have access to a local life coach, or who may have mobility or transportation issues.
Another benefit of life coaching by phone is the increased sense of anonymity and privacy it provides. When working with a life coach over the phone, clients can speak more freely and openly, without worrying about being judged or observed. This can be especially helpful when working through sensitive personal issues that may be difficult to discuss in person. Clients may feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts, feelings, and experiences over the phone, which can lead to deeper insights and more meaningful breakthroughs, thereby expediting the coaching process.
Evaluate the cost of a life coach
Life coaches may have different pricing models, but some common ones include:
- Hourly Rate: The coach charges a set hourly rate for each coaching appointment.
- Package Rate: The life coach offers a package of coaching consultations for a set price, often at a discounted rate compared to the hourly rate.
- Monthly Retainer: The coach charges a set monthly fee for a specified number of coaching conversations per month.
- Value-based Pricing: This pricing model is based on the highest value service a life coach can deliver. The coach usually charges a flat fee determined by the unique needs, goals, and circumstances of each client, and gives the client unlimited access to coaching sessions for an agreed period of time
It’s essential to clarify the pricing model with a life coach upfront and understand what is included in the fee, such as additional support outside of coaching sessions via email or text, or access to curated resources.
Remember, finding the right life coach is an important step towards achieving your goals. Take the time to research and evaluate different coaches to find the life coach that is the best fit for you.
Conclusion on the Benefits of Finding a Life Coach
In conclusion, life coaching can be a powerful tool for anyone who wants to make positive behavior changes, identify their strengths, and work towards becoming their best self. A good coach can help you build confidence, improve relationships, set attainable goals, and ultimately achieve overall well-being.
Research has shown that life coaching can be particularly valuable for those facing major life transitions or difficult challenges. By addressing limiting beliefs and negative thought patterns, you can break through barriers and open up to greater possibilities.
Some of the many benefits of coaching come from gaining clarity and understanding of your identity strengths and values and learning to set goals that align with your vision for the future. And with the help of a dedicated coach, you can take actionable steps towards achieving these goals and creating the life you desire.
Moving forward with the help of a life coach can lead to profound positive changes in your life, both personally and professionally. So if you’re ready to take the next step towards your goals and live your best life, consider seeking the guidance and support of a qualified life coach.
Paul Strobl, MBA, CPC
Owner of Confide Coaching, LLC
Paul is a Master Life Coach for GenX and GenY executives and business owners. Originally from Houston, Texas, he has been location independent for most of his adult life. He currently resides in the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria near the Greek border with his brilliant wife, 13-year-old stepson (officially adopted in 2021!) and a Posavac Hound rescue.
References:
- Stanford Medicine 2012. Good Stress Bad Stress. Retrieved March 04, 2023, from https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2012/12/good-stress-bad-stress.html
- Miller, K. (2019)30 Proven Benefits of Life Coaching & Mentoring. Retrieved March 04, 2023, from Positive Psychology https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-life-coaching-mentoring/
- Grant, A.M. (2003) The impact of life coaching on goal attainment, metacognition and mental health. Retrieved March 05, 2023, from Research Gate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233682110_The_impact_of_life_coaching_on_goal_attainment_metacognition_and_mental_health
