Life coaching is a powerful tool to make changes that make life better. But there are some misconceptions about coaching. Let’s dispel the top 5 myths about life coaching.
#1 Life Coaching is for people that are self-consumed.
Life coaching is about intentionally making positive changes or working through transitions that you are finding challenging. Some of the different areas that I have coached women on have been: preparing for a difficult conversation with a coworker, healthy eating and self-care, wanting a closer relationship with a daughter, transitioning through a spouse going back to work, and working through relationship struggles. Do these sound selfish?! Most often the changes that people come to me with are areas where they have gotten stuck and just need some tools to move forward that will bring good not only to themselves but also to their friends and family too.
#2 The Life Coach’s job is to tell you what to do.
Though that might be a fun job…that is not at all what I do as a life coach. The key to good life coaching is to provide questions, exercises, and conversation for you to empower yourself to make positive changes. People rarely like to be told what to do, and I certainly don’t have all of life’s answers. What I do have are techniques that can help you gain a new perspective to see and approach life differently.
#3 You have to spend months seeing a life coach to get results from it.
People see me for varying lengths of time for life coaching. Sometimes you just need clarity to make a difficult decision and this may just take a few sessions. Someone else may be working through a tough transition and need several months of sessions. Everyone is different. At the consult, we discuss how many sessions it would be good for you to commit to and then we go from there to determine how many sessions are needed depending on the desired change.
#4 Life Coaching is the same as counseling.
Let me tell you how coaching is different. It is future focused. A coach does not treat mental illness. Coaching is led by the client instead of the coach and is also done mostly over the telephone. A counselor works as an authority to help a client through psychological problems, whereas a coach works with a client in a partnership where the client is held accountable to make the needed changes. The progress the client makes in between each session is just as important as what happens in the session itself.
#5 If you have a good friend to talk to, that’s as good as working with a life coach.
While friends and a good support system are vital to meeting goals we set out for and seeing our way through changes in life, a life coach does what your close friends can’t do. I am an objective professional, who has a master’s degree and postgraduate training in coaching that give me knowledge to provide powerful open-ended questions and exercises that help you to draw on your internal and external resources to find strategies to make changes that you didn’t know were possible.
Hopefully this has answered some of your questions about coaching. But even better, schedule a sample session to see what coaching is like for yourself.
