What is Life Coaching?
Life Coaching is a relatively new industry, yet the foundations that underpin the industry are as ancient as ever. Put simply, life coaching is about connecting with people and helping them achieve success in their life.
So often there are many solutions to seemingly immoveable problems, problems that we often continue to run into. Life Coaching assists you to understand the cause of the problem, brainstorm a way forward that fits neatly within your own ability, and then clearly identifies a preferred way forward.
Life Coaching is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and for good reason. Our lives are more complex than ever before. We’re required to make more decisions, more quickly and our lives are moving at breakneck pace. Our postmodern, westernised lifestyle has created a cocktail that’s caused all sorts of problems, with the main problem being thousands of people living with little to no purpose. Life coaching seeks to help people change that, by creating purpose, setting simple goals, finding solutions to regular problems and assisting people to live a more meaningful life. It’s that simple.
For years and years, it was our friends and family who helped us make good choices. Even teachers, pastors and other influential figures played a significant role in determining what the best course of action would be. Nowadays, even our friends and family are super busy, leaving us even more open to making rash decisions without thinking through the best outcome for you and your desired future.
In addition, the advice our friends and family provide can leave us wanting. Those closest to us can have a vested interest in what we choose, but this interest can come with blinkers on. Life Coaching adds to your existing networking, by being a non-judgemental, neutral figure who has your best interest at heart. Life Coaches help to remove the blinkers so you can see the full array of options before you, not just the ones that seem obvious or that leave the apple cart most undisturbed.
So, What then is life coaching?
Life coaching in its purest form is when the coach gets alongside a person to help them realise their own hopes and dreams, moving them from the places that have been keeping them stuck to the future that awaits. It helps you to move forward, achieve goals, overcome obstacles and ensure you get the most out of life. It’s about empowering you to be the best you.
Life Coaching will help bring clarity to your life, and provide real solutions in moving you forward, pursuing your dreams, defining goals, formulating a plan and becoming the best person you can be.
Coaching is a mutual relationship of trust, respect and freedom of expression. This means coaching isn’t the imparting of knowledge from a perceived expert, rather its a walking together, overcoming obstacles, setting goals and pursuing dreams.
I love what the Life Coaching Institute of Australia says about coaching:
A Coach is a client’s ultimate ally. They are singularly focused on working with their client to establish better goals, inspire them to achieve more, empower them with the practical and philosophical tools to do so, motivate them to sustain focus and steer them towards success.
Life coaching has at it’s core a relationship of mutual trust between the coach and client which enables the client to succeed at life and gain the positive outcomes they’ve been searching for.
When a life coaching relationship begins, a bond is being formed that allows the client to see with more clarity the potential they possess. A life coach draws out of the individual answers to their own concerns, brainstorms the ideal future and life a person would like, then assists them in creating a roadmap forward to unleash the potential.
For too long we have been expected to come up with all the answers ourselves or at least pretend we know what we’re doing. Life coaching isn’t about telling you what to do and does not encourage you to live a certain way. It has a holistic approach that takes into account the whole of your life, looks for areas of growth then exploits them.
For us at Wide Open, life coaching is about igniting hope, conquering fear and pursuing purpose. Each of those areas is designed to tap into your deepest needs, wants, visions and desires and turn them into action.
We’re here to help!