Having a life coach is a valuable personal investment. It is one that will yield payoffs across all areas of your life, personal to professional. Life coaching is a collaborative learning conversation in which your coach won’t tell you what to do. Instead, they will ask probing questions to evoke your thinking. Within the coaching space, it will allow you to define your goals and figure out how best to achieve them by leveraging your strengths. It is a rewarding journey, alongside someone who will be your personal sounding board, hold you accountable and provide encouragement during tough times.
Why Embark on the Life Coaching Journey?
There are many reasons why people avoid even thinking about having a life coach. It may seem like therapy, might give others the impression that something is wrong or be a sign of weakness. The reality could not be further from these, and many other, concerns.
Trish Lord, Founder of the international leadership and developing company Braveheart, unpacks the value of a coaching journey like this: There’s a difference between being a round-the-block jogger and an Olympic athlete. If all you want to do is run around the block then it’s useful to tell a friend. They can support and encourage you, but otherwise, once your trainers are on you are good to go. However, if you want to be an Olympic athlete and excel as a runner, then you need a coach.
Do you Need a Life Coach?
Ask yourself if, as part of life, you seek a sense of excellence, striving, accomplishment, growth and challenge? If this sounds like you, then you are ready to embark on the coaching journey. By working alongside a life coach, you can get the type of committed support which cannot come from your round-the-block friend. This is because a friend is more likely to give you leeway when you provide excuses not to go run. Such as, you’re still stiff from your last run or you had a late night and need extra sleep… Essentially it comes down to this, if you want your life to be akin to winning an Olympic gold medal then you need a life coach.
How Does Life Coaching Work?
One of the key ingredients of a successful life coaching relationship is that your coach will not readily agree with excuses. This means you are less likely to stay in bed for an extended snooze if you should be running. Instead, a coach will first listen with interest and respect. Then they’ll ask you to stare that excuse of yours in the face and see it for what it really is. It’s a point you often get to when you turn back on your commitments. Thus, resulting in you turning your goals into good intentions rather than accomplishments.
While a life coach won’t tell you what to do, they will get you thinking. They’ll create an environment for you to face the assumptions that are running your life. Often these are the ones that send you in the opposite direction to the one you intended to go in.
A great life coach will continue to trust your intelligence and your intentions. Even when you’ve stopped. They’ll hold the view that your mind, despite seeing challenges, also contains the best solutions to those challenges. Through their attention and questions, your coach will help you craft solutions that will make you proud.
The End Goal
If they’re a good coach you will experience a relationship of trust, respect, attention and respectful challenge. A safe place in which you can be all of who you are. And in doing so, discover that it is more than enough for you to live a fulfilled and accomplished life.
Life coaching is a learning conversation. And learning is the attitude we need to cultivate towards ourselves and our lives if we want to achieve mastery. When asked what he thought about his achievements, Michelangelo (who knew a thing or two about mastery) said: “I am still learning.”
Together with a life coach, you will embark on a committed learning journey of life. They’ll hold up a learning mirror so that you can see yourself, your actions, your choices, your strengths and areas of development or blind points. Then help you persevere in tackling life.
“To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.”
Bruce Lee
The world doesn’t need more mediocracy. Do you want to be the person who can jog around the block or win the metaphorical gold medal? To do this, you need to start your learning journey alongside someone who’s committed to seeing you succeed. Thisis why a life coach is the starting point of your learning journey.
Become a Life Coach
If the quest to unearth excellence is something that appeals to you, then consider studying coaching. SACAP (The South African College of Applied Psychology) has been training students in coaching since 1997. SACAP is renowned for a unique blend of rigorous theory, applied skills and experiential workplace internships. Coaching courses at SACAP are accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and approved with COMENSA. For more information, enquire now.
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