Who Needs a Life Coach?
Nowadays you hear the term life coach more and more frequently. For many, life coaching sounds like something rather extravagant for people who have the time, the money and the need to spend their lives climbing mountains or sailing oceans. “What kind of information,” you might wonder, “do life coaches have that these people seem to need so badly?” Some might question the need for professional coaching when there are so many self-help books on the market. Interestingly, those men and women read the self-help books are often the ones employing the professional life coaches.
Someone said that a life coach is just a paid, professional friend. Well, a life coach certainly takes an interest, as we would hope our friends do. But you won’t burden your friends with the same expectations you have of a coach. You won’t engage with friends the way you will engage with a coach. The coach and student relationship is one of expectation, accountability and a certain, constant tension. Friendship subjected to such an environment will not remain friendship for long. Still, lots and lots of people, and their friends, seem to get along just fine without the help a coach, per se'.
So, who needs a life coach?
Those who seek the help of a life coach do so because they have come to see life as the most awesome responsibility; it's a one-time, irreplaceable gift. Viewing life in this way they tend to hold very high personal expectations and to set high goals. Anyone who has invested a lot of money, time or effort into a cause knows that the greater your investment, the greater your risk and the greater your need of expert advice. In particular, people who invest deeply in life seek advice from those who specialize in the study of personal life management.
What should a life coach offer?
What should you expect from a life coach? You should certainly expect a coach to comprehend and motivate. But above all, you should expect a life coach to introduce you to a systematic model of life, a model that you will naturally relate to and quickly refer to whenever you feel the least bit disoriented. Having a systematic model of life allows us to perceive and arrange life so that it all makes sense. It’s like having a pair of eyeglasses through which we view not one area of life, but each and every area of life. We can’t predict what will happen from one day to the next, but with the proper systematic view of life, we can always understand what is happening and know how to properly respond. A good systematic model of life also enables us to remain positioned for advantage because it helps us to understand the laws by which life is governed.
Some Reasonable Objectives of a Life Coaching Program
Learn to:
- Recognize and define your overall objective
- Recognize and establish values
- Articulate and orchestrate intermediate goals
- Recognize and maximize individual strengths
- Recognize and overcome personal obstacles
- Discover and hone new skills
- Enlarge your world and prepare for greater responsibility and success
- Explore and cultivate a greater sense of self
- Be at peace with who you are
Learn about my Life Perspectives model