Why become a life coach? You may find yourself interested in learning how to help someone improve their life, or you could want to learn a new skill. Here are seven powerful reasons that will help you decide whether or not being a life coach is for you.

1. Life coaching: it’s not just about goal setting.

There’s an assumed belief that all a life coach does is to help people to achieve their goals. To some extent this may be true, primarily life coaching is about living a more successful life and a lot of how people define success comes from being able to achieve their goals.

But life coaching is a broad field. How much so? Well, would you define yourself as a one track person? Of course you wouldn’t. Your life has many facets, you play several roles and many of these have nothing to do with goal setting.

When you become a life coach, you bring your unique life experience along. There’s a unique purpose for which you are suited and because of this, you are probably well equipped to help others in ways that nobody else can.

Your challenge is in finding what that is and then working diligently towards meeting your call.

2. Life coaching improves people’s lives.

A lot of people look at life coaching wearily. There are plenty of charlatans promising their share of ‘pie in the sky’ and a world viewed through rose tinted glasses that call themselves “life coaches.”

But there’s ample proof that coaching improves people’s lives. In the executive coaching field, companies have long known that working with a coach not only makes perfect business sense, but that it also generates a huge return on investment (as much as 300%.)

Done right, life coaching can be a catalyst for change. In the process of being coached, people report improvements not only in the area they’re working on but the benefits frequently spread to many other spheres.

Change is never easy for most people; but no matter how hard it is, it’s one thing we can count on to happen. This day in age, life coaching may not only be “nice-to-have” but a necessity.

3. You can help people step out of their comfort zones and work with change

While we’re on the subject, a lot of us recognize that if our lives are going to improve, we’re probably going to have to change ourselves. Whether that means that we learn new habits, acquire new ways of thinking or just look at things differently, we’re going to have to step out of our comfort zones.

This is frightening to a lot of people and since we have a tendency to fall back on the way we’ve always done things, it’s what keeps us from really changing for the better.

As a life coach, you can frequently spot those difficult areas where it’s clear that change is needed and then help your client recognize a path to breaking through their limiting beliefs.

4. You’re helping people find solutions

Are your clients problem or solution focused? Most people who have never worked with a life coach tend to believe that coaching is a tool to help them find and correct problems. And while they will probably identify problems to address, it isn’t necessarily the focus of the work they’ll do.

There’s a shift in perspective when you focus your client towards finding solutions; and frequently, it’s this change that opens the door to lasting benefits.

When coaching focuses on finding solutions, it helps people get what they want more of in life and at work. By identifying and working to achieve their greater goals, it allows them to live better lives. A coach isn’t there to “fix” problems, but to help your clients find a more compelling future.

5. Life Coaching can be a quick way to get positive change

One of the big advantages of the coaching process, is that is has evolved by taking the strategies and techniques of other fields, such as business, psychology, education, and using them as tools for change.

And although coaching is not for everyone, it’s a flexible and adaptable way of achieving results. By using what’s been proven to work, people can and do change quickly when they work with a life coach.

As a coach, you’ll help your clients explore and come up with the best choices for them based on where they are and the vision they have for their future. Coaches are experts at the process of changing behavior, which is much more valuable than giving instructions.

Between two and four 20 to 60 minute sessions per month is a tiny investment of time for achieving results.

6. You can make a great living as a coach

Some executive coaches cost up to $3,500 for an hour of coaching according to the Harvard Business School. While there is a gap between what executive coaches and life coaches make in practice, life coaching is growing as people seek to continually improve their lives and wellness, and there is money to be made.

Most personal coaches charge a monthly retainer of between $500 to $2,000 a month; when you do the math, if you coach just five people a week and charge a conservative $125 an hour for 4 sessions a month, you’d be making an extra $2,500 a month. And as you gain experience, you can also take on more clients of charge more for your coaching.

Bottom line, becoming a coach is an investment that can produce monetary rewards above and beyond the cost.

7. Being a life coach helps your personal and professional development.

There is no quicker way to grow, than to help others grow. The value of helping others achieve their goals is that your learning is naturally accelerated as you learn from your clients and them from you. It’s that simple.

This may be a powerful change in how you view the coaching relationships that you have with your clients; however, this one change is probably the most important step you’ll take in your personal and professional development.

In summary, these are just a few of the reasons why becoming a life coach is a good idea if you choose it as a career. Of course, there are many more and in any case learning some coaching skills is always a benefit for practically anything you do that is related to helping people.

Find a treasure trove of personal development tips and simple and effective ideas for becoming a life coach that you can start using right now. Head down to www.what-is-coaching.com today.

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jean-Paul_Cortes