Everyone amongst us wants to lead fulfilling and productive lives but doesn’t know how to begin. You may also hear of celebrities and sportspeople like Oprah Winfrey and Selena Williams have life coaches. Even the common people including your friends and relatives may also have a life coach who guides them in life-changing decisions in their journey and setting new goals.
Life Coaching is a great field for people who enjoy working with people and impact their lives positively when they are going through life crises or life-changing events.
If you are passionate, empathetic and a good problem solver then this the right career option for you – Becoming a Life Coach.
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Who is a Life Coach?
As a life coach, you are not only an advisor but also an entrepreneur, marketer and salesperson. They are great listeners who are genuinely interested in helping people, curious by nature and ask good questions.
A wellness professional that helps people makes progress in their lives to make it fulfilling and satisfying. They help their clients improve their relationships, career direction and development, and day-to-day lives.
They help people identify their strengths and weaknesses, identify their goals and guide them according to while help them overcome obstacles on their way and succeed in personal and professional lives.
Why you need a Life Coach?
The following are some of the indications that working with a life coach will be beneficial.
- Increased frequency of Irritability.
- High stress levels and anxiety.
- Incompetence to break bad habits.
- Unfulfilling social life.
- Continuous feeling regarding work dissatisfaction.
- Blocked creativity sense.
Types of Life Coaches
Some life coaches go for general and over all approach to help people while most of them specialize and focus on aiding people in specific areas. The following are areas of specializations:
- Addiction and sobriety.
- Business, Executive and leadership.
- Sports
- Mental Health
- Life Skills
- Spirituality
- Health and Wellness
- Career
- Family Life
- Financial
- Personal Development
- Group coaching
- Performance Management
- Retirement
Responsibilities
- Interviewing and gathering information of their clients including their personalities, background goals and their constant struggles.
- Help clients set functional goals and establish action plans to reach those goals.
- Continual communicating with clients to keep track of their progress.
- Assigning personality and skill sets that will assist the clients to understand their aspects of improvement or expertise.
- Help clients open up about their beliefs and values and their impact on their lives.
- Understanding and application of coaching frameworks and positive psychology theories.
- Prepare a coaching contract for various sessions while discussing confidentiality and work according to Code of Ethics.
How to become a Life Coach
- Choose a niche that best suits your interests and skill sets and professional goals.
- Bachelor degree in psychology, psychotherapy, counseling theories, organizational behavior and even marketing or business.
- Complete a specialized training program that is accredited by institutions like the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching.
- Then earn a certification by accredited institution like The International Coach Federation with programs ranging from 60 to 100 working hours and earn credentials at associate, professional and master levels.
Required Skills of Life coaches
- Entrepreneur
- Active Listener
- Budgeting
- Marketing
- Networking
- Creativity
- Leadership
- Strong ethics sense
- Compassion
- Communication
- Observation
- Setting of Goals.
Work Places
Below are some workplaces that employ life coaches.
- Coaching Businesses.
- Rehabilitation Centers.
- Residential Care Centers.
- Hospitals or Medical practices.
- Insurance Companies.
Salary and Career Prospects
The median salary for a Life Coach is $33.82. According to the Payscale salary database, the yearly salary of these professionals can range from $28,034 to $251,068. This salary is dependent on various factors such as:
- Selected niche.
- Geographical Job Location.
- Targeted markets as executive coaches earn well compared with coaches that work with individuals.
- Experience Level
- Undertaken credentials and training.
- Type of employment.
The following types of life coaches use similar methods and skills to support their clients
- Life skills trainer: $13.15 per hour
- Health coach: $14.94 per hour
- Career coach: $15.62 per hour
- Personal trainer: $21.42 per hour
If you chose to be accredited with a professional coaching body, then it is required you meet their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements.
If you move into executive, health or career coaching sectors then you can work within different organizations and with experience advance into management roles.
When you build a reputation with private clients, you can expand and build your brand by writing books, newspaper articles, magazines, blogs; posting vlogs and contributing to radio and T.V.
– Samiya Firdous
