Becoming a life coach is more than just learning the fundamentals, such as active listening skills and creating a trusting environment for your clients. It also involves understanding the business of life coaching, ethical concerns, and the ability to provide a fresh and informed perspective on the issues faced by clients. A life coach can help you focus on negative patterns that could hinder your success, as well as increase your human potential, personal growth, and leadership qualities. In addition to training skills, learning to be a life coach requires you to learn and follow a business model that other successful coaches are using.
Obtaining life coach credentials from a recognized organization such as the International Coaching Federation (ICF) increases your credibility. Good life coaches are good listeners, but there's more to life coaching than just listening. Life coaching is designed to help people in various aspects of their lives, such as career and work, finance and wealth, life planning, spirituality, health and wellness, relationships, and the physical environment. Life coaches cannot treat mood disorders, anxiety disorders, addiction, or any other mental health condition.
Certification can take 16 to 100 hours to complete depending on the program. Frederickson's theory regarding the psychological effects of positivity is closely related to life coaching. For help finding a qualified life coach, try consulting an organization such as the International Coach Federation. According to a survey conducted by the ICF, those who hire a coach can experience a wide range of positive effects on their lives.
A life coach begins by asking questions about the client's ideal vision for their life and helps refine this image, set goals and create a strategy. Like a therapist, a life coach is someone who can help you identify strengths and weaknesses and overcome obstacles that hold you back. A growing number of creatives, executives, and entrepreneurs are partnering with life coaches to achieve success in their professional and personal lives.
