When I first started my second career as a life coach, I often wondered why it was that people were more reluctant to hire a life coach than say, a personal trainer or a tennis coach or baseball coach or soccer coach or golf coach, or even a tutor or a voice or music coach. People were willing to pay exuberant amounts of money for their kids to excel at a sport or get lead parts in a play or musical or improve their grades in a particular subject by hiring a sort of coach, but not for a life coach.
After much surveying and researching, I came to two conclusions.
The first one is that most people don't really know what a life coach is or does. It isn't a profession that's been around as long as a therapist or psychologist or sports coach. And to make matters not so helpful, if you google 'life coach' you get a definition that looks like this: "a person who counsels and encourages clients on matters having to do with careers or personal challenges". And yes, that is one aspect of what a life coach does, and if you look further, there are more definitions of the same two words that may or may not make the description any clearer. Bottom line, a life coach is like any other coach. He or she can help guide you to be better at something, and in this case, it's your life. So now the profession of life coaching is finally catching on and people are seeing the benefits that a life coach can bring to one's life, as proven by the crazy amount of Thumbtack requests I've had over the last couple of months. People from all over the country and even over the world are asking for career coaching, relationship coaching, wellness and health coaching and life coaching. And the cool thing is, you don't have to even step into a brick and mortar office anymore to receive life coaching. I have a handful of clients that I coach remotely, and live in other states. If I had more time, I would accept even more clients because my job is so amazingly rewarding for me as well as my clients. I also do a 'walk and talk' coaching session that has proven tremendous results in just one hour, and I'm thinking of implementing for my local clients, sessions at the beach or a more serene setting than our usual local coffeehouse. The solutions are endless, and this is such an exciting time to be a life coach or receive coaching because of the many ways it can be done.
The other conclusion I realized with why people were not responding positively to hiring a life coach was that they want to believe that their life is already perfect. After fighting it for some time, not because I didn't believe it was a good thing, but because I knew it would be a time drainer for me, I finally signed up for Facebook this past September/October. Have you seen what people post mostly? It's a wonderful vehicle for people to portray the perfect life they lead. Good friends, good family, successful careers, amazing children, amazing vacations, etc. Hey, I'm not saying that's a bad thing because I post all of those things as well since I've started, but this is what we see mostly. No one wants to post all the 'not so nice' things they experience in life. And we all do, experience those not so nice things, that is. We are human. And the reality is, we all go through ups and downs in our life. I've recently substituted the words 'happy life' for 'perfect life'. I used to strive for a perfect life, but then at some point I realized there was no such thing. You can't perfect life because there are some things beyond your control. However, you can have a happy life by working on those parts of your life that you do have control over by significantly improving the quality of your life and overall happiness. That is where a good life coach can come into play and help you see amazing results. Any questions?