The world can be a challenging place to be at the best of times.
But in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic we find ourselves facing unparalleled challenges, with many people experiencing high levels of uncertainty and anxiety around their work, businesses, relationships and health.
Helping others to work through difficulties and obstacles, and challenge assumptions and beliefs to enable positive change are at the very heart of coaching.
It’s all about helping, and now, more than ever, is a time to help.
In this article, I explore some of the reasons why now is an important time to become a coach, both for yourself, and the wider world.
What is life coaching and what does a life coach do?
You likely have an idea of what a life coach is, and perhaps even what the work of a life coach entails. For those of you that don’t, 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 lives.
From helping to gain greater clarity around purpose and passions in life, to enabling individuals to develop better self-awareness and accountability, there are many benefits to working with a life coach, and many more areas in which a life coach might work with an individual.
So with that brief background to what a coach does let’s explore why now is an important time to become a coach.
Why now is an important time to become a coach
During present times of uncertainty coaching is more needed than ever before. Emotions are heightened at a global level and there are a lot of things that many of us don’t feel in control of.
As a life coaching school that has trained almost 3000 coaches through our coaching course, naturally we believe in the huge benefits that can come from working with a life coach, because we see it first hand every day. And right now, more than ever, there’s a need for coaches.
FOR THE WORLD
Global uncertainty in a VUCA world
There’s a lot of uncertainty, anxiety, fear and heightened emotion around right now. And that’s before we even think about what the future might hold! Nobody has any of the answers around what might happen next week, let alone after the pandemic has ended, and this uncertainty stretches to every corner of the globe.
An acronym often used to describe the current state of the world is VUCA, meaning:
- Volatile
- Uncertain
- Complex
- Ambiguous
Living in these disruptive VUCA conditions can be incredibly tough to navigate.
Whether it’s uncertainty around work, relationships, finances or just the state of the world, as a coaching school, you won’t be surprised to hear that we know coaching to be a truly effective way of tackling uncertainty, negativity and anxiety. And the growth of the coaching profession in the past decade, and the amount of people choosing to work with coaches would seem to support this.
Coaching can be so powerful in allowing individuals to reframe negative thoughts and limiting beliefs around what might be happening for them in this moment, what might come next and what they can do about it. As a coach equipped with the tools, skills, training and confidence to help bring about positive change for those that you work with, you will be able to directly impact the lives of so many people that are currently struggling to come to terms with the world right now, and help to make the world a more positive and empowered place, one individual at a time.
Self-awareness shift
The Coronavirus pandemic has brought with it talk of humanity shifting to more consciousness and self-awareness. Whilst this is only anecdotal, there’s no doubt it’s something we have noticed too.
While this shift may have already been underway, the arrival of Covid-19 seems to have served as a strong reminder that we’re all in this together as human beings.
Despite current distancing measures which mean that we’re physically isolated, there’s a feeling of connectedness, mindfulness, selflessness and unity that many of us have never experienced before. Individuals are focussing on how they can help others, and presently it seems as though we’re starting to see and understand ourselves not as members of individual families, or as belonging to a certain nation or group, but as collective members of the human race. With many of us realising that we face little chance of overcoming the virus or saving the planet unless as a species we develop a more collective consciousness and greater self-awareness.
Improving self-awareness is one of the key benefits of working with a life coach. With more and more people putting a focus on self-awareness, and the importance of understanding themselves, the need for coaches to help navigate and interpret the self-reflections, thoughts, questions and internal dialogue that come up for people increases too.
FOR YOU
You have an innate desire to help others
It feels good to help others right? Yet in the midst of the current chaos, it can be difficult to work out how we can do this in the most impactful way. For many, this aspiration to help is the first thing that comes to mind. It’s warming to read so many stories around people helping those less fortunate, or initiatives that have been set up with the same goal both within the Animas community and externally. Whether, helping neighbours, or close friends and family, every act of selflessness goes a long way. But what if you want to have a bigger impact?
The innate desire to make a difference and help others is one of the fundamental traits at the heart of every great coach. Coaching is all about helping and empowering others to make changes in their lives. While the current circumstances make it difficult for many to help others in the way that they would like, virtual coaching enables you to be a positive changemaker from anywhere in the world.
You can be that huge difference to people, that catalyst for change and renewed positivity all from the comfort of your own home. Who’d have thought?
Green and growing or ripe and rotting?
Perhaps you’re familiar with the personal development question: ‘Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?’
Of course, this isn’t meant to be taken literally! But it does raise an important question for us all: do we want to learn, develop and improve ourselves… or not?
Across the world, humanity is for the most part housebound. Every individual’s work situation is different, with some working, others not, while all ability to socialise in-person is currently out of the question wherever you are. For most of us this means that we find ourselves with more time, and if we simplify it to fit the above principle, you’ll either use this time to grow, or you won’t!
Learning a new skill provides the perfect opportunity for you to learn something new about yourself; your sense of self grows. Deciding to tackle a new task or goal, is a reflection of how important that thing is to you. When you go about confronting a brand new interest or skill, you find a new piece to the unique mosaic that is you.
You glean a better sense of what you like and dislike, what resonates and clicks with you, and what doesn’t. As you do this, your understanding and awareness of who you are grows too.
So, in actively investing time and resources into your interests, there’s a good chance that you’ll feel more in control of your life – an invaluable , particularly in this moment, where ‘control’ is one of the things many of us feel we’re currently without.
Take Control Now.
Opportunity to upskill yourself
We each find ourselves locked down to varying degrees, and while this perhaps feels claustrophobic or restricting to some of us, it actually presents us with an opportunity to grow, and develop our skill set.
How often do we talk about doing something if only we had more time? Whether that thing is learning an instrument or second language, brushing up on your painting prowess or training to be a coach, now presents a moment where many of us find ourselves with extra time, and lots of it. And so, if you are someone that wants to help others or has ever contemplated online coach training, what better time than now?
Maintain your momentum
The current pandemic has forced many businesses and individuals to grind to a halt, or at the very least drastically alter their approaches and processes to tackle the difficulties posed by the Covid-19 crisis. For so many it has ruined any flow, plans, projects or upcoming goals that were in place, but it doesn’t need to stop everything.
You can maintain your momentum and stop a learning lockdown by training in a new skill at home.
Practicing a new skill is known to increase the density of your myelin. The white matter (don’t ask me for more science than that!) that forms around the nerves in the brain which can help to improve your performance on many different tasks. Furthermore, learning new skills stimulates neurons in the brain, which in turn forms more neural pathways, allowing electrical impulses to travel across them faster. The combination of these two things helps you learn better, and according to research can even help to prevent the onset of dementia.
So learning a new skill doesn’t just feel good, and allows you to continue to grow, it can also benefit your health too. And if you have a true desire to help others, then why not train as a life coach?
Even if it wasn’t what you planned to be doing, you’re still moving forward, and growing, just in a different direction. Learning new things is a great way to break yourself out of a mundane routine, and wake your brain up from the slumber of monotony that being in lockdown can bring.
Build a crisis-resistant business
While no business is crisis-proof, there’s a certain resistance to crises that comes with coaching in that it’s a practice that more often than not takes place online. What this means is that being in lockdown is unlikely to seriously hinder your chances of finding and working with individuals who are looking for coaching during the current pandemic as it doesn’t rely on person-to-person sessions to effectively enable profound change.
The fallout from Covid-19 will undoubtedly continue for months after social distancing measures are lifted, and nobody knows quite how life might resume, particularly in the early days. Whatever lies ahead, as long as you have a computer, tablet or smartphone with a camera, stable internet connection, and headphones, you can continue to coach and make a difference to people’s lives from anywhere in the world.
So there you have it, some of the reasons that we feel right now is an important time to be a coach.
What will you do in this moment?
Interested in becoming a coach?
You have this opportunity during lockdown to meet goals, develop yourself, and if helping others is at the core of your motivations what better time than now?
Book a spot on one of our free virtual introductory days to find out how you can make a difference to the world.
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