Why Would I Hire a Life Coach?

Many of you know, I recently attended Life Coach Training through Coach for Life.  I had an amazing and enlightening time, and I learned a lot–about myself as well as the coaching profession.

When I tell people that I am a Life Coach, most people don’t understand what I do. That’s understandable, even when I knew I was going to the training, I had a hard time describing what it was I was going to be learning how to do! And I often dismissed the idea of hiring a coach as frivilous.

Well, I have now changed my mind! And not just because I am now a coach myself… I have begun receiving coaching, and it has already made a difference for me.  So here are some of the reason I would hire a coach:

• I want to accelerate my learning/growth/business

We all know that professional, high-performance athletes have coaches to help them get to the top of their game. A coach observes the client from the outside, and can therefore see things that the client may not be able to see about themselves.  By pointing out where I am excelling, and sometimes where I may be able to tweak my performance, my coach helps me grow much faster than I could on my own.

• I want accountability

I used to joke in University that I wore the Crown of Procrastination.  I would wait until the very last minute to get my assignments completed.  Even now, I will find myself waiting until the last minute to prepare for a presentation, or read that book that I borrowed.  Each week I decide on action steps with my coach, and then I have to report back to her on my progress.  Now, she’s not going to get mad if I don’t complete a step.  In fact, I will probably be much harder on myself than she will.  However, just knowing that someone else knows what I have told myself that I am going to do makes me want to accomplish it even more.

• I want to know what I am already doing well

So much of the time I am so busy in the “doing” of my life, I don’t necessarily catch myself in my brilliance.  My coach can see those things that I already do well, and she points them out to me.  It is a tremendous boost in my self esteem!

• I want to find my own answers

I hold the belief that any question I can come up with, I also have the means to find the answer to.  On my own, I can get caught in a tape loop in my mind.  My coach helps me step out of that loop, by breaking the cycle.  Hearing myself speak out loud can often help me find my own inspiration, and if not, my coach has other tools to help me re-connect with my own Divine Source.

• I want to raise my level of awareness

In case you missed it in any of the previous bullet points, my coach points out things I miss.  Whether it is a belief I am holding that may or may not be serving me, or something I am already doing that I didn’t think I was, my coach is a much more objective observer than I am.

I’ll close off with this quote from the Coach for Life website, in answer to the question, “What is coaching?”

Coaching is holding a space of total acceptance for your self and for your client as you facilitate the client’s self-discovery and re-connection to their inner most truths about them self – their qualities, their gifts and their life purpose. The coach also facilitates the client with their conscious alignment with their inner most truths in their everyday decisions. The coach’s role is to raise the level of consciousness of the client through questions that allow the client to choose what they want, what they are prepared to do and what they are prepared to commit to them self in the present moment. The coach is charged with the responsibility of supporting the client by asking them what awareness came up for them in doing (or not doing) the commitments the client had made to them self.

Blessings,

Mary