What is a Life Coach Anyway?

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear and has you see what you don’t want to see, so that you can be who you’ve always known you could be.”  -- Tom Landry

If you asked a sports fan, of any sport, how important is a good coach, they will look at you like you have three eyes.  It is almost a no brainer to understand that a good coach can make the difference between being a winner and being, well, a loser.  It is the responsibility of the coach to see that the player or players are fit, know the game, practice the plays and does what it takes to win.  No coach leaves winning to chance.

When you ask people how important a Life coach is they will again look at you oddly, but for a different reason.  They are surprised because they never thought one was needed for life.  They just go on, trying to figure things out as they come and doing it all on their own.  That is the problem.  They do not know or sadly care if they win in life.  Success minded people know the importance of understanding how to win in business, relationships, spiritual life, health and all other areas.  They understand the importance of having a coach.

A life coach has the same responsibility as a sports coach does.  It is up to them to help their player win.  They help them create and execute solid strategies for success.  They keep their player accountable and on the right track for what they, the player, want out of life.  No life coach leaves winning to chance.

There are four key areas where a Life Coach can help you to win in life.  These are in your career, professional life, personal life and spiritual life.  It is not a pick and choose thing here where you decide which area you need help in.  To win as a whole person, you much look at the whole of life.  A Life Coach will help you in all areas all at the same time. 

“Use the talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those who sang the best.”  -- Henry Van Dyke

1)     Career Coaching.

In a 2007 survey by CareerBuliders.com 4 out of every 5 U.S. workers said they hated their job.  In another survey done in April of 2008 that number was 84%.  Are you working in a job you hate or are you in one you love?  Most people stay in a job they hate because they do not understand that they can find a dream job or create one.  There is no reason for you to live your life in a job that you hate going to every day.

Orison Swett Marden said, “Analyzing what you haven’t got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career.”  A Life Coach can help you to discover what your strengths and weaknesses are and how to use them.  You build on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.  Many who are unhappy in their career are focusing on their weaknesses and not using their strengths.  This causes frustration and dissatisfaction.  A Life Coach can help you to identify these areas and lead you to ways of making them your career focus.

Career coaching is not just for the unemployed.  It is for working people who want to build a life long career doing what they are good at and what they love.  You are never too young or too old for a change that will make your dreams come true.

 “Great moments are born from great opportunities.”  -- Herb Brooks

2)     Professional Development.

“Isn’t career coaching and professional development the same thing?” you may ask.  No.  They are very different indeed.  Career coaching is to help establish you in a career you love; professional development is to help you to succeed. 

A Life Coach will help you to understand how to succeed in business and your purpose in life.  What principals you need to follow and how you can develop the best strategies to move forward.  Your coach is a vision thinker and will help you look ahead to know what is the best next step.

We live in a fast changing world and those who will succeed will be those who can see the next trend, the next move, the next big idea.  A Life Coach is there not to give you these ideas but to help you find them in yourself.  The encouragement and inspiration they give will help you to take the step you may otherwise not see for the opportunity it is.

 “Leaders aren’t born, they are made.  And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.  And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.”  -- Vince Lombardi

3)     Personal Development.

One of the greatest tragedies happening in the world today is that people are working so hard to build a career and make money that they forget to work on being a better person.  With out a deliberate and thoughtful effort to develop as a person we fall into the traps of dishonesty and compromise.  We see it all the time.  Talented and creative people who waste their lives trying to get a head and forgetting to be solid as a person.

Personal development is working on the things that really matter, who you are as a person, your character.  A Life Coach will first be concerned with you as a person before they work on you as a businessperson.  This is where things like accountability and trust come in.  In you are the seeds of greatness and the Life Coach is the gardener who will nurture the plant to maturity and abundant fruit.

A Life Coach will help you to make right choices and to understand the fundamental principals of successful living.  They are there to help you see that you can achieve your dreams.  The late Christopher Reeve said, “So many dreams at first seem impossible.  And then they seem improbable.  And then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”  Your Coach is there to help you see that you can not help but to succeed.  It is in you.  It is your destiny. 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” – Mark Twain

4)     Spiritual Development.

As I said at the beginning, you must develop the whole person not just sediments.  Your spiritual life has a great impact on you success in all other areas.  In career it the discovery of your God-given talents that lead you to the dream job.  In professional and personal development it is the foundation of your ethics and behavior.

A Life Coach can help you understand and use the godly principals of life to become all you can be.  Moral and ethical people are not that way because they don’t do immoral or unethical things.  They behave a cretin way because that is who they are.  It comes from deep within a person. If you have a solid spiritual life you will behave accordingly.

It is about now that someone may say, “What about spiritual leaders who have been caught doing unethical or immoral things?”  That is the point exactly.  These “leaders” did not feel they needed any help in their spiritual life and fell in the process.  Just because you hold a position or a title does not mean you are more secure than others.

A Life Coach will help you to build your relationship with God.  They will encourage you to go deeper and be the anchor you need to stand firm when things get rough.  They are not your source, that is Jesus’ job, but they are your encourager and someone you can go to for support and accountability.

“I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.” – Mother Teresa

© Jack Hickey 2010