“Don’t tell me how to live my life” – that phrase has been uttered at least once by everyone. It turns out that you have to teach, and practically all of them. Or rather, not so: learning is necessary, and practically everyone needs to learn. And that’s what a life coach does. Who is it: a magician that will reveal all the secrets of existence, or a simple man who teaches seeing themselves? Let’s find out.
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Who is a life-coach: scope of work
It’s worth saying right off the bat that there’s no magic on the horizon. Many people, when they hear the word “coach”, imagine a fashionable person, five times a year vacationing in Dubai and solving all the problems of life clients at the wave of a wand. It’s not.
A life coach is a person who guides clients in a direction flowing directly to their goals and desires. A specialist who helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses, emphasize the former, and change your life in all its areas.
Lifestyle coaching won’t show and tell you how to make your life better. But it will create all the conditions for you to realize how to do it yourself, too.
For example, you’re unhappy with your home environment, you’re always missing deadlines at work, you’ve lost all interest and personal time for a hobby you loved in the past. Your mentor in the form of a life coach will help you understand where the root of all these problems lies, will tell you how to adjust your time management and have time for everything – to be with your children, to deliver projects on time, to give time to yourself. No, he will not give a magic pill for all problems, but he will teach you how to spend your resources rationally and be happy.
Lifestyle coach vs psychologist: what’s the difference?
Many people still confuse these two professions. It is understandable, because the direction of activity is very similar – both specialists help to find the root of their problems, thereby solving them.
But in their essence, they are two different specialties. Not to mention that psychology dates back to antiquity, whereas life coaching began to emerge at the end of the last century.
In brief, the psychologist operates through the methods of questioning, testing, conversation, and observation. Based on the information obtained, he forms a portrait of the client and his social environment, and then advises on how to proceed. Or does not give, if the situation does not require it, but simply provides as much help as possible, listening to the client and reassuring him or her.
Life coaches are not subject to the board and are not required to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and its privacy rules.
Coaching, on the other hand, is based on other methods:
- identifying the client’s desires and aspirations;
- creating conditions for personal growth of a person;
- mentoring in the face of adversity;
- support every step of the way.
Features and techniques of life coaching
Lifestyle coaching isn’t just a trending trend. It is really demanded by different segments of the world’s population.
Lifestyle coaching works with areas such as:
- health (without treatment, but only in relation to how it can be improved);
- relationships (with parents and children, with a loved one);
- career (helps you learn self-actualization);
- finance (transition from debt to income and savings);
- development (both personal and spiritual).
And to do that, coaches use tools like these:
- planning techniques – help to organize the client’s personal time, prioritize matters and goals;
- debriefing techniques – needed to delineate milestones in the client’s plans and goals;
- destination techniques – help the client to realize his/her strengths and weaknesses, to discover his/her own possibilities;
- visualization techniques – help you focus on the tasks at hand;
- logical level techniques – help to “break down” a large-scale goal into specific tasks, the fulfillment of which will determine success.
And of course, that’s just a small fraction of what life coaches work with.
What kind of results can you get from life coaching?
There is a lot to be gained from regular sessions with a coach. For example, learning not just to dream, but to turn dreams into goals and achieve them. It won’t happen instantly, because just as you need time to get used to the support of another person, a life coach needs time to get to know you and your capabilities better.
All changes are individual, but one thing coaching can guarantee for sure is that you will become a more confident and self-aware person who knows what he or she wants out of life afterward.
