Becoming A Life Coach As A Career
If you have ever thought about becoming a life coach you may be unsure of which is the best route to achieving your goal.
After all the term ‘life coach’ is now quite widely used and can encompass a variety of subjects ranging from relationship to a spiritual life coach.
With that in mind how do you become a life coach?
Becoming a life coach by identifying your skills
One of the first things you need to do if you are thinking of becoming a life coach is to identify what area you intend to work in and who you intend to deliver a service to.
Are you ready to invest in your future?
Do you care about personal growth in your own future?
Can you challenge others if you believe they are not being true to themselves?
Do you care about the welfare of other people?
Are you self-motivated and well organised?
Are you happy when you meet another person who is more successful than you?
Do you want to work the hours that suit you?
Are you able and willing to work in the evenings from home?
Do you easily give praise to others ?
Would you like to work from home?
Do you believe you are ready to take the necessary steps to start your own Life Coaching practice?
Are you happy at the thought of being self-employed or owning your own company?
Can you see potential in people when they themselves cannot?
Answering these questions will help you decide whether you should seek life coach training.
It is reasonable to assume that without the necessary commercial expertise and experience, you will more than likely lack credibility and put yourself at a disadvantage to competitors if you cannot demonstrate your ability to deliver structured, believable advice in your role as a business coach.
Key Skills You Need If You Are Thinking Of Becoming A Life Coach
There are however some key skills that are extremely important if you are thinking of becoming a life coach.
- To begin with, you have to really like and care about people, you need to be a good listener, a resourceful problem solver and have considerable knowledge of human behaviour.
- You need to be able to set achievable goals and develop plans of action that allow your client to bring them about. A life coach should be organized and able to pay careful attention to detail in order to regularly monitor results.
- Coaching is an agreement between you and your client; so patience and the ability to deal with frustration are crucial. Unfortunately clients don’t always do what they agree to do and as a life coach you will find that getting people to suddenly give up negative behaviour patterns can be a great challenge.
- As a life coach you need to know how to inspire, encourage and also be creative in overcoming barriers and doubts. You must also be able to accept disappointment as not all clients will accept change.
Becoming A Life Coach: Life Coach Certification
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If you have ever seen the film The Wizard Of Oz, you may recall that the Tin Man was told that a piece of paper didn’t prove that he had a brain – it was his actions that counted.
As coaching is very much a trust and results based business, there are great benefits of gaining recognised, credible accreditation.
A professional qualification implies that the holder has devoted their valuable time to learn the ins and outs of being a professional life coach and is therefore likely to be better equipped to do the job.
However it is worth remembering that unless you can verify the merit of the qualification; it may as well mean nothing. There are many ‘life coach academies’ that offer certification based on a variety of criteria ranging from simply paying a fee after attending a short course to gaining a qualification by registering online.
Whilst the qualification might be genuine, it may not be easy to verify.
It is a fact that at present not all life coaches are required to be accredited. There are many coaches who give advice on a subject yet might not have a ‘recognised’ qualification, however can demonstrate tremendous success over a period of time. .
There are many life coaches who have used their transferable skills and experiences in other fields to make effective, successful coaches. A former social worker might have all the experience required to give credible, structured relationship life coaching advice if that was a major part of their previous role.
A good life coach will usually have clients you can contact who will be happy to act as references. Taking the time to speak to these references will give you a feel for a coach
The bottom line is that a coach with a qualification from a recognised accredited professional body offers the client recourse to that organisation if unsatisfied with the service they have received.
We recommend that you take a look at the following sites for further explanation of accreditation and membership to bodies.
International Coach Federation
The Institute for Life Coach Training
Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching
Useful Life Coach Training Course Sites:
If you are interested in becoming a life coach we have listed a few sites that may be of interest to you. We would welcome your comments on the sites we have listed and also welcome recommendations for sites you think should be added to the site.
Life Coach Training and Life Coaching Certification Courses – Coach Training Alliance
Life Coaching Courses | Life Coach | – The Coaching Institute
Note: The inclusion of the above sites is not an endorsement from The Personal Development Cafe.
Are you thinking of Becoming A Personal Life Coach? Then complete our quick Life Coaching Quiz and see how you fare. It might give you that added spur to take the coaching courses needed to become a Personal Life Coach.
You can also find out just What is the Role of a Life Coach?, the Principles of Life Coaching, and the different areas of life coaching in our about life coaching section.
Life Coaching is about self-growth, personal development and becoming the person you want to be; either in your personal life or professionally. Sometimes the hardest step needed to change your life is the decision to start the process of change. However taking that first step is often the best move you can make.
If you are looking for a life coach or wish to advertise your services, then go to the NLP Life Coach Directory where you can find life coaches, NLP practitioners and hypnotherapists in your area and internationally. Many offer telephone, skype and online services you can access wherever you are located.
If you have any life coaching advice, suggestions you want to share with others, questions that you would like answered or useful articles or comments that will be of help to others – simply use our form below to post or reply to a topic.
