What is Life Coaching

You can love your life regardless of what life brings to you!

Life Coaching is a dynamic professional partnership between a qualified coach and client (individual or team). Life Coaching is a thought-provoking and creative process where the client is inspired to maximize his/her personal and professional potential.

Co-active coaching involves the active and collaborative participation of both the coach and the client. Life Coaches believe that the client is naturally creative, resourceful and whole. Life coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs and desires. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client. The Life Coach contributes concepts and principles to help generate possibilities and to identify actions. Coaching accelerates the client’s progress by providing greater focus and awareness of possibilities leading to more effective choices and decisions. The coaching process provides the clarity that is needed to support the most effective action plans.

Through the process of life coaching clients focus on deepening their learning, creating and developing personally relevant goals, improving their performance and creating life changes that will enhance and enrich their creative and authentic selves.

Frequently Asked Questions about Life Coaching

1. Why is Coaching Important?

Our world has changed significantly in the past decade. For many reasons the pace has become faster and the list of stressors is growing daily. Coaching is a useful tool to manage and deal with many of these changes. This is especially important when you are trying to move from where you are today to where you really want your life to be. Coaching focuses on all the aspects of your life: family, friends, relationships, health, career, finances, physical environment, personal growth, fun and recreation and the dynamic balancing act that exists between them. Coaching will provide you with fresh perspectives, insight and guidance. Coaching will help you to identify and move beyond your barriers and fears in a safe, supportive manner. Coaching asks for accountability which is an essential key to your success!

2. How can you determine if coaching is right for you?

If you can you answer ‘Yes’ to any of these questions then coaching is right for your personal growth and development:

• Are you ready to make a change?
• Not sure where to start?
• Successful in many ways, but not happy?
• Tired of reacting to life rather than embracing it and creating the life you want?
• Do you feel like you are neglecting yourself, your family, your friends, your work?
• Do you find it hard to keep a smile on your face and a spring in your step as you feel the stress of too many conflicting forces?
• Feeling Stuck?
• Have you lost your Spark?
• Ready to devote your energy and time to make real changes in your life?
• Ready to try something new?

Coaching will provide you with a collaborative relationship where various alternatives, perspectives and viewpoints can be explored.

Even if you have a fairly clear idea of your desired outcome, coaching can be a useful tool for developing an action plan for how to achieve that outcome most effectively and with a higher chance of success.

3. What are some examples of reasons a person would work with a coach?

There are many reasons that an individual or team might choose to work with a coach. These are some examples:

• There is a big challenge in your life and you need help to manage it
• You have an exciting new opportunity but you are not sure where to start
• You have a need for additional resources, skill, knowledge, self confidence
• You have a desire to accelerate goal achievement and/or a change in your life
• You have had a setback and you need to get your life back on track
• You want to change your lifestyle but you need help to create a viable action plan
• You have major decision to make and you lack clarity
• You very successful but you are not happy
• You are in need of assertive and effective communication skills.
• Your work-life balance is out of balance and you need help
• You want to be more organized and spend your precious time on what is really important to you
• You are not honouring your true values.
• You are ready to take a personal journey in a customized, supportive environment with a professional
• You are ready to accept and act upon honest, insightful feedback
• You are ready to finally make that change you’ve been dreaming of!

4. What does the coaching process look like?

Coaching typically begins with a Discovery session (either face-to-face or by telephone call) to discuss and explore the individual’s current situation and challenges, as well as his/her opportunities and goals. The alliance between the coach and client is designed. This is how they will work together. For example, the how often they will meet and how long each session will last. They will also decide if the sessions will be conducted in person or over the telephone. Between scheduled coaching sessions, the coach and client will agree on specific actions the client will complete to that support their goals. To further assist the client, the coach may provide additional resources in the form of relevant reading, exercises, checklists and assessments. The duration of the coaching relationship can vary depending on the specific needs of the individual. For certain types of situations 3 to 6 months working with a coach is useful. For more complex situations longer relationships are beneficial.

5. What are the factors that should be considered when looking at the financial investment in coaching?

Your investment in working with a coach requires you to make a personal commitment of your energy and time as well as a financial commitment. Coaching fees vary by the coach’s experience as well as the specifics of the designed relationship. When considering the financial commitment of coaching it is wise to consider the lifetime of benefit that the results of the coaching can create for you. Communicate clearly with your potential coach any concerns or questions you may have before an agreements is made.