If you've never worked with a life coach, you may be
wondering how life coaching works and how it can help you. You may have been
asking yourself questions like How do I find the right life coach that is right
for me? (I've written a detailed guide on it. You can read it here). How do I
enter a coaching relationship? How will a life coach actually help me? What
happens in a coaching session? How long and how often will we work together? In
this article, I'll answer these questions and help you understand how life
coaching can help you.
How does it start?
Typically, before you agree to work with a coach for some
time, you two will have an initial consultation. This is an important step as
it allows you to get to know the coach and how s/he works so you can decide
whether it would be the right life coach for you, and the coach can explore
what it is you need help with and how s/he would coach you through it.
Make sure that in this initial consultation, you pay
attention to how you feel speaking to the coach. Do you feel comfortable and
are you getting value from the conversation? Can you see yourself regularly
working with the coach for some time?
People are different, and not everyone gets along. That's ok. If you don't feel good about it,
keep looking until you find the right one.
How can life coaching help you?
If you've found a coach you have the right chemistry with
and you believe he or she will help you progress in life, then you'll most
likely agree to meet for regular sessions in person or via phone/video call.
Your sessions can be quite frequently, such as weekly, or less so, such as
monthly. The sessions should be far
apart enough so that you have enough time to progress between the session, but
no so sparely that you'd fall off the track or not have enough guidance. In my
experience, fortnightly is usually the perfect rhythm. There are three main ways life coaching will
help you.
1) Clarity - A life coach will help you get more clarity
about your situation and why you may be stuck. The coach will also help you
clarify what your new goals may be and what areas you need to work on and
improve. Having worked with hundreds of
clients, the lack of clarity is one of the main reasons why people are not progressing
in life. If you don't know what needs to be fixed or how it can be fixed, you
cannot move forward.
2) Strategy - Having clarity about your goals or what needs
to change is not enough to make a change. When you know what your goals are,
you'll need a plan to start working towards them. Your coach should have great
goal setting skills and help you create a strategic plan with steps and
milestones that you can follow. This makes your progress much easier because
you won't need to wonder what you need to do next. Be prepared that your plan may need some
changes and improvements as you go because circumstances may change and you
will need to adjust to it. It's ok. As long as you're making progress.
3) Accountability - Amazingly, some people are perfectly
clear about what they need to change, they even have a plan or know how to
change it, yet, they still can't get themselves to get going. This is where
your coach will become extremely valuable by holding you accountable and making
sure you stay on track with your plan and commitments.
Your life coach may hold you accountable from session to
session or even daily through you checking in with him or her. That depends on
how involved the coach is ready to be.
Keep in mind, your coach should not chase you. It's your life and you
should make sure that you care about it more than anyone else. If your coach is
chasing you, then you're not taking it seriously enough.
Clarity, strategy and accountability are the three amazing
gains you will get from working with a life coach.
