There is a good chance that you will have heard of life coaching, and might have an idea of what it involves, but are you really familiar with the benefits of having a life coach yourself?
In recent years, more and more people are seeing the benefits of working with life coaches for their personal growth and development, and are turning to coaches for help solving their problems, and making steps towards their goals. As a life coach training school that has trained more than 2000 coaches through our main coaching course, naturally we believe in the tangible and profound benefits that can come from working with a life coach, because we see it first hand every day! And so, in this article we will share with you what we feel are eight of the top benefits of having a life coach.
What is Life Coaching?
First thing is first, what is life coaching?
Well, at its most basic, life coaching is a non-directive, collaborative conversation between coach and coachee that can enable profound change through choices, questions, reflections and new behaviours. As part of this process, clients are empowered to make courageous decisions about their life, work, relationships, and more.
The key thing here is that the coach helps to empower the client in making these decisions for themselves. There is no guidance from the coach, and it is precisely this element of the life coaching dynamic that makes the impact and change often so profound for the coachee.
So that’s what life coaching is, but what are some of the benefits to having a life coach? Here are eight of the benefits that can come from working with a coach.
A Life Coach Can…
1) … Help You Gain Greater Clarity Around Your Purpose And Passions In Life
Some of us know exactly what we want from life, why we want it, and how we can go about getting it… however many of us don’t! To be clear on these things you need a better idea of who you are, and what makes life meaningful for you, and gives you a sense of purpose. Working with a life coach can be a great way to get a better sense of who you are, unearth your skills, talents and gifts, and discover what gives your life meaning.
There may often be blind spots below the surface that you struggle to uncover yourself. However with the help of a coach and their use of open, catalytic questions and deep listening, you can get clearer on what you really want, and in turn the direction and steps that you need to take to get there.
2) … Better Equip You To Work Through Solutions To Specific Problems
Every coaching session and relationship is unique. Some people will come to a life coaching session with no specific goal in mind, others will have specific problems that they want to work through and find solutions to.
Whether your goal is to improve the relationship you have with your peers, or starting your own business, having a life coach can really assist you in identifying specific obstacles or barriers that might be preventing you from achieving your goals. It is often difficult to see the situation exactly for what it is when you are knee-deep in it. A life coach can help to change your perspective and identify new solutions to specific problems.
3) … Help You To Learn To Engage In Being Fully Present
Life can be hectic, there’s no two ways about it. Most of us often feel like we never stop, and that we are speeding through life at a million miles an hour, especially if you have a particular goal or destination that you are striving toward. In doing this however, it is so very easy to miss one of the most important, and enjoyable parts: the journey.
Many coaches incorporate mindfulness techniques into their approach, and learning to implement mindfulness practices allows you to bring yourself back to the present moment, when things feel too fast, or too big and check in on how you are feeling in this moment. It will also likely mean that you are better able to find joy in some of life’s simpler things that are happening in the here and now, as opposed to constantly thinking about and striving toward the big, future goals.
4) … Help You With Goal-Setting And Making A Plan Of Action To Achieve Them
It can be a tricky process setting yourself goals. Short-term goals can be difficult to pull from a constantly evolving wave of thoughts, wants, and beliefs, and longer-term ones can often be difficult to visualise. An understanding of where you would like to be in the future and the steps to get there can be invaluable, but for many individuals this can be an overwhelming and daunting prospect.
In holding the space and asking open, reflective questions a life coach will be able to competently guide you through the tricky process of goal-setting by improving your understanding of both your immediate and future wants and needs.
A life coach can also help you to reach these goals by working with you to create a plan of action to achieve the outcomes that you desire. Often when thinking about future goal-setting, one of the most difficult aspects is to make a plan that is actually realistic.
An effective life coach will be sure to check that each and every part of your plan is not just achievable, but also work with you to determine the extent to which you need this plan fleshed out, so that you have the level of clarity you need to sustain genuine change.
5) … Help You To Create Different Systems And Structures To Increase Your Productivity
How often do you hear people wishing for more hours in the day? But often this is less about lack of time, and more about how you currently spend yours. Focusing on increasing productivity can provide a solution to a lack of time and this is another area that a life coach can you help with.
A life coach can help you to put various routines and structures in place, that means that you can make better use of your time, and in turn increase your chances of more consistently hitting your goals.
Whether it’s setting yourself up for the best start to each day by incorporating a regular morning routine that puts you in a good frame of mind, or a structure that allows you to free up time by better managing meetings and emails, having a life coach can help to increase your daily productivity giving you more time to spend working towards your goals and personal development.
6) … Help You To Develop Better Self-Awareness
This is one of the most pivotal techniques to work on if you’re serious about achieving your goals and growing as an individual, and is at the heart of almost every good coaching relationship. A greater level of self-awareness will also improve the efficacy of all of the other tools that you acquire throughout your coaching journey.
It is difficult to overstate the value of uncovering the layers of who you are in this current moment – what you are thinking, what challenges you find difficult, what drives you forward, how you are behaving, the beliefs and assumptions that you have, which strengths you are utilising, where your current weaknesses are, where you are becoming unstuck. Doing this can help you ensure that your goals are genuinely the right ones for you and make it so much easier to move forward in a way that works well for you.
7) … Help With Accountability
Many of us, if we are to be completely honest with ourselves, probably don’t reach our goals quite as often we would like— whether it’s because you’re distracted by life’s interjections, struggle to prioritise your time effectively or simply just lose every ounce of motivation at some point, working with a life coach can help to address some of these problems.
Accountability is an important element in your pursuit of your dreams and goals. We often aren’t great at following through with things when we are the only ones holding ourselves accountable, and so this added accountability means that you are being held responsible for taking action by someone other than yourself. In sharing your goals with your life coach, you will be much more likely to make progress with them, and more quickly too.
Being able to touch base with your life coach will likely keep you on the path towards your desired outcome. They will have a great understanding of your plan, next steps and the journey ahead, so you can take solace in the fact you have someone there to make sure that you stick with it.
8) … Keep You Honest And Enable You To Re-Evaluate Your Thinking, Assumptions And Beliefs
Each and every one of us have a set of ever-changing thoughts, assumptions and beliefs. And a lot of them too! It’s part of what makes you ‘you’. And yet while some of these are a positive force and helpful in allowing you to be the best version of yourself, others can cause mental blocks, feelings of stuckness and ultimately prevent you from meeting your aspirations.
Working with a life coach not only serves to make you more aware of these limiting beliefs, thoughts and assumptions that might be stopping you moving forward, but in the process of working with a coach as you begin to unpick these, you will also likely identify various strategies that allow you to not only challenge, but actually reframe these specific limiting thoughts that might be preventing your progress.
So there you have it, just some of the many benefits of having a life coach.
If you can now see where having a life coach might benefit you, bear in mind that there are some things to look out for when trying to find a life coach, but if you take your time to find the coach that is right for you, it could be the start of a powerful journey of self-growth, personal development and greater happiness and fulfilment.
Interested in finding out more about coaching? Check out the Animas blog for lots more informative content around life coaching.
We hope that you found this article useful!
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