What Does it Take to Be a Life Coach

Life coaching has become big business recently, as many people find that they need the advice to help them through their lives. Gone are the days when people were supposed to muddle through life on their own, solely drawing from past experiences and the advice of friends and family because now it is possible to find a professional to help you in almost every field imaginable. Life coaches can not only help you find the right career for you, but they can also help with setting individual targets and goals to help you through life. Maybe this sounds like a career you'd like to take up if so, read on, as here we will take a look at what it takes to become a life coach.

The first step to becoming a life coach is to choose what you want to coach. It sounds simple, but actually, it is harder than you think. You have to find something that you are deeply interested in and passionate about; otherwise, you will find it difficult to impart wise advice to your pupils. Do you want to enter business coaching, or maybe you want to give advice about romantic relationships or weight loss or how to achieve the perfect work-life balance? These are just some ideas, but there are literally hundreds out there. Think about your past career and the skills that you have built up that you can easily impart to others, as this might be a great place to start.

Once you have decided upon your chosen subject, you will need to take a course to understand how to impart your knowledge. If you have come from a teaching background, you will already be aware of the many techniques used to teach people, but for most people, teaching and sharing knowledge and advice is something new and has to be learned. Thankfully help is at hand as there are many life coach trainers you can turn to that can give you a guiding hand in this new industry. They will teach you how to coach people without being overbearing, how to convince people that the knowledge you are giving is credible, and most of all, humility, as your pupils, have to want to learn. Once you have completed your training course, you will be halfway to becoming a life coach.

If you were looking for a life coach, you would want to see some evidence that the person you have chosen is actually qualified to coach in their chosen subject. Sure, they may have a business degree, but that doesn't mean they are well-placed to advise your business. Similarly, if you weigh 20 stones, then somebody is unlikely to take your advice when it comes to losing weight as you clearly can't lose it yourself. On the other hand, somebody who has lost 20 stones themselves is ideally placed to help others in this field because they have mountains of personal experience to draw from. The other way of showing your credentials is to take a course or certification that shows you have spent a number of hours coaching at a high level. Depending on the course you choose this could be for 200 hours, for example. What you are looking for is something to prove to your budding pupils that you are well placed to coach them, either because of your past experience or because you have learned on the job.

Now that you have all the training and credentials necessary to become a life coach, you need to market yourself so that you actually have someone to coach. Think about the field you are going to be coaching in and find resources around that subject online where people congregate and discuss issues. This could be a good target audience for you to try and tap up. Befriend forums and groups on the various social media platforms and make sure you have your own online presence. At the outset, it is important to fill your website or blog with testimonials as these will further encourage people to hire your services, and you should talk to as many people as possible as word of mouth is great free advertising.

As we have discovered, becoming a life coach is not easy, however, with a little bit of application and training, it is entirely possible. The first step is to decide what you want to coach as it should be a subject you are deeply familiar with and have a lot of experience handling. Once you've made this decision, it is time to take some training courses so that you can learn how to share your knowledge. You then need to prove your credentials either by taking certification or by showing you have the skills through past experience, and then you are ready to start marketing yourself so that once you have that first pupil, you can finally call yourself a life coach.