What is Life Coaching and
How does it work?
Let’s start with the first part: what is life coaching?
Life coaching and other kinds of coaching have one thing in common: to help you learn how to create changes in your life that will bring about more satisfying results.
Executive coaches, career coaches, or weight-loss coaches are like medical specialist. They focus on specific areas of your life where you would like to create new outcomes. For example, if you are dissatisfied with your job, and believe you need a change, you hire a career coach to assist you in planning your move.
Some of these “specialist” coaches prefer to coach only in their office. You go to them for coaching sessions. Others will come to your office. Executive coaches often do this because it is difficult for their clients to get away from their desks.
And some coaches hold online coaching sessions, for all kinds of reasons. Usually it is because of the distance between the coach and the client, but sometimes it is the preference of one or both of them.
“What is life coaching and how is it different?”
A life coach is like a general practitioner. You hire a life coach because your life is not going as well as you would like it to go and you are not sure why.
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In spite of your best efforts, you are not getting along as well with friends, family members, or work colleagues. Or, you are not as productive at work as you used to be. Or, you are trapped in a boring routine or a lousy job or an unhealthy relationship that you cannot escape. |
You are doing the best you can to change, but you are not seeing any improvement. All you have are frustration and disappointment and what look like huge bags growing under your eyes.
So you hire a life coach because you realize you cannot think or work yourself through whatever it is that is keeping you from moving forward. You need someone to help you get clear on where you want to go and how to get there.
“What is life coaching trying to do?”
The focus of life coaching is on the future, on where you want to go, rather than on the past, and on what may have happened to you. A life coach
- listens to your explanation of what is now happening in your life
- gets clear with you on what more you want to achieve
- assists you in pinpointing what is holding you back from getting it
- helps you identify your goals
- works out a detailed plan with you that will steadily move you forward.
Between coaching sessions, the coach gives you assignments geared towards helping you make the changes you have agreed to work on. At the end of each session, she or he reviews your assignments with you and helps you decide what you want to do next.
And all along the way, the coach supports your efforts and holds your attention on where you intend to go and how far along you have come.
If you are looking for a coach in Ottawa, Ontario, check out Ottawa Life Coach.
Or, if you are a life coach and would like to set up a web site, click on this link to discover an exciting program that can help you promote your coaching practice.
