With few exceptions, just about anyone can benefit from the services of a good life coach.
I’ve said it many times before. I don’t believe we, in the life coaching industry, have done ourselves any favours by coining and promoting the term ‘life coach’. It simply isn’t specific or descriptive enough to communicate the true power of what it represents
To my mind, that is a big part of the reason so many people miss out on the benefits of life coaching.
They simply misunderstand what life coaching is and what life coaches do.
What life coaches are NOT
Before we consider what life coaches do and why you should seriously consider hiring the services of one, let’s briefly consider what they are not.
Not counsellors or therapists
Life coaches are not trained to offer counselling or psychotherapy or any form of treatment for people who require assistance in coming to terms with severe mental or emotional distress caused by trauma, anxiety, depression or some form of mental health condition.
Not mentors
Mentors rely on their superior wisdom and experience to help guide and advise people who want to advance in a chosen field or profession.
Life coaches, on the other hand, never enter into coaching relationships by positioning themselves as ‘experts’ in their clients lives.
Not consultants or advisors
Life coaches do not specialise in providing advice or designing specific solutions that they think will meet their clients’ needs.
Not ‘agony aunts’
Life coaches are not there to provide a shoulder to cry on for clients who simply wish to air their concerns, grievances and ills. Life coaches don’t help their clients by focusing on their problems.
Not motivational speakers
Life coaches are, indeed, experts in human motivation but they do not operate by imparting one-off, one-way motivational talks to groups of people who may or may not be inspired to act on their messages.
What then IS life coaching?
In describing what life coaching is, and what life coaches do, it is often helpful to deal upfront with the common misperceptions about life coaches being like this or like that when it comes to the disciplines mentioned above.
In reality, apart from the fact that life coaches also operate in the field of human motivation, what they do is distinctly different.
Here are a series of statements that attempt to explain how and why:
Life coaching …
involves working with mentally well, effectively functioning people who simply want to achieve more or get more from life.
Life coaches …
work from the premise that their clients are the only true experts in their own lives.
The expertise of the life coach lies in his or her unique ability to relate to individual clients and to prescribe tools, techniques and processes to help those clients achieve specific goals and derive more joy and fulfilment from life.
Life coaches …
do not, as a general rule, offer advice to their clients. Rather, they help their clients to re-connect with the repository of their own best advice – their all-knowing inner beings.
Life coaching …
focuses, not on problems, but on solutions.
Life coaching …
recognises that the past does not have to dictate the future. However, the past holds valuable lessons and experiences that, if understood and applied, can have a powerful influence on extracting the best from the present and enhancing the future.
Life coaches …
respect the fact that every client is unique, and will tailor their coaching engagements accordingly. Although they may resort to common tools, techniques and processes, the application thereof will differ for each and every client.
Life coaches …
understand and appreciate that taking inspired and directed action is the only way to ensure that the change desired is the change achieved.
Life coaches …
will never do the work for their clients. They are expert facilitators, who inspire, empower, encourage and gently push their clients to do more, be more and have more.
Life coaches …
refuse to tolerate mediocrity. They hold their clients to the high standards they know their clients are capable of. They are masters of the art of challenging their clients … but with due compassion and integrity.
Life coaching …
is not a one-off event. To be effective, life coaching involves a number of in depth sessions. Change is a process that requires both time and commitment. That said, the power of life coaching is such that the effects of years of procrastination and postponement can be halted and reversed within just a few months.
The New Insights difference
Hopefully from the ‘sound bytes’ I have used to describe life coaching above, you are beginning to appreciate why almost anyone who wants to achieve a goal, aspiration or dream – or simply be more effective and fulfilled at what they do – can benefit, substantially, from life coaching.
New Insights certified and licensed coaches, who go through comprehensive and rigorous training, take the ‘art’ a big step further.
They are specially trained and equipped to offer coaching that is transactional in nature (less structured and more short-term goal driven) as well as that which is nothing less than transformational in nature.
Transformational life coaching is made possible with our amazing New Insights Life Coaching System that employs our proprietary INSIGHTS coaching model.
This System has been specifically designed and structured to move the client towards the clear identification of his or her life purpose. It also facilitates the alignment of the client’s values, goals, actions and behaviours with his or her reason for being.
Approximately six to seven months of coaching on a two-weekly basis can bring about a life changing shift that, while limited in cost, can prove truly priceless in value.
New Insights certified life coaches can be found all over the world. Some promote their practices on our Directories:
Successful coaches are willing to show up. They build community and make it look easy.
WHY GET A COACH?
WISDOM – YOUR OWN
Learn to tap into your own wisdom and connect with what really matters in your life.
HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS
Get crystal clear on your values and how you measure your success & happiness.
YOUR STRENGTHS AND TALENTS
Shine! Discover your strengths and talents and how to apply them in your life.
GET ‘THERE’ FASTER
Not only will a coach help you to decide where ‘There’ is, a coach will stretch and challenge you to get there faster.
EXPERIENCE BOLDNESS
Learn to be bold in life, go after what you want, face your fears and get out of your comfort zone to be your best.
TIPS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
Coaches are brimming with new perspectives, tips, tools and inspirational ideas to absorb.
ACCOUNTABILITY
A coach looks out for you, holding you accountable for what you say you’re going to do.
CUT THROUGH YOUR LIFE CLUTTER
Unpack your self-destructing habits and clear whatever you’re tolerating in life.
OUST YOUR OVERWHELM
Work towards your vision of life balance! Importantly learn to say “No” to yourself and others.
AMAZING, AUTHENTIC YOU
A coach will help you take steps to express the uniqueness you have to offer.
CHOOSE YOU
Let go of your limiting beliefs and your inner critic. Find your inner strengths and start afresh.
HARMONY & FULFILMENT
When who you are, what you do and what you say are in alignment, fulfilment and inner peace is possible and you can have what you want.
Thanks Bill, as always, for your powerful words and this phenomenal reminder to us New Insights Life Coaches.
Apologies for this long ‘comment’, but I wanted to share a piece I’ve knitted together over time with inspiration from various sources incl. New Insights obviously. If you take the first letter of each Headline it spells: WHY GET A COACH 🙂
A little ‘tool’ that helps with client conversion.
Very clever Jan – thanks for this great contribution!
Hi Bill,
Thank you for this valuable post, well described and will be shared with prospective clients. Really a great help.
You’re welcome Karen
Thanks for this – great resource to share with potential clients.
How do we get listed on UK register?
Hi Rhona, its in pilot mode at present. Drop me an email if you’d like to participate ?
Great post Bill
Accurate and informative.
I will soon be qualifying with New Insights and will be directing prospective clients here. Very useful marketing tool for me.
Thanks again!
Thanks Craig, Feel free to share and use the post wherever and whenever you wish (with due attribution). Kind regards
An absolutely superb description, Bill, of what life coaching is, what it is not and what its life-changing benefits are. It offers one a very unique opportunity to add depth and meaning to one’s life and motivates one to continue, with confidence, to use one’s newly acquired freedom to learn, grow and re-design one’s life. How exciting and enticing!
Thanks for adding value to this post Karen … greatly appreciated!