Changing My Mind On Life Coaching
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Life coaches are for weak people, or so I thought.
Even after a year of doing serious work on leading an excellent life, I still had some pretty terrible ideas of what a life coach was, who it was for, and why it wasn’t for me.
Now, I’m excited to try out new coaches, go further with my first coach, and considering learning how to be a coach. Quite a turnaround in a few months. To give you a taste, the most meaningful piece of writing I’ve done, Love Letter to My Shadow, came out of a coaching session (more examples of what I worked on below).
My preconceived notions about life coaches:
- Who it’s for: Life coaches are for people who have screwed up lives and/or no idea what they want with their career
- Who coaches are: Coaches are life gurus that have unlocked all the secrets to life and are now helping teach what they have learned.
- How coaches treat you: Coaches are superior at life and therefore their customer, you, is inferior.
- What they focus on: Coaches focus on helping you with your career or other aspects of life that would impact your career.
- Their limitations: Coaches aren’t therapists so you can’t get into the deep stuff. I had some demons I was struggling with and was actively seeking a therapist. After months of struggling to find one, I gave up. But in no way did I think a life coach could help me with those more intimate challenges.
- How a session would go: Coaches would tell you some hard truths and then send you on your way to go try and fix your life.
As you can see, there was no way I was considering a life coach with those ideas in my head. But, little by little, my doubts and beliefs were chipped away as I read more about the practice and had some personal connections with coaches. This ultimately allowed me to approach coaching with a clean slate.
A few friends of mine are life coaches and I would see them post about it on social media. One person gave me a taste of what coaching was like by letting me submit a question and they responded with an audio recording response. It was enough to get me wanting more. Another friend offered a…
