You may have just gone through a difficult phase in your life or you want to move on from a complicated situation, yet you do not know where to start. Perhaps you have a vision for yourself that you wish to achieve or you want to change one aspect of your life, but you’re unsure of the steps that you have to take. A life coach can help you with all of these.
Here are things that you should consider when looking for a life coach:
1. Your life coach should be passionate about his job.
Passion is what drives and motivates a person to continue to do better – be it in his job, relationships, and some other aspects in life. Life coaches have their own reasons, too, for becoming life coaches, and these reasons are what they should bear in mind always even when the work days can get tough. Life coaches aren’t perfect; they, too, get worn out. However, if your life coach has the passion for fueling his energy, then they can be in his best professional self for you.
You would know that a life coach is passionate about their job if:
- He demonstrates dedication and commitment, like being on time and setting schedules regularly.
- He has a positive and happy attitude when at work.
- He enjoys doing meaningful hobbies outside of work – this you can ask your life coach about.
2. Your life coach has to show you his real self.
No professional relationship will ever work positively without trust. If your coach is there to help you with your life’s matters, he has to be as real and honest as he can get.
Knowing if someone is real to you or not is pretty hard to decipher, but your gut instincts will tell you if a person is authentic or not. Here are the signs that a life coach is showing his real self:
- He is down to earth.
- He maintains eye contact.
- He is honest with you and he speaks his mind.
3. Your life coach must practice balanced communication.
Balanced communication is the genuine conversational engagement between the two of you. You should be able to have an open and honest communication line with each other by not having a fear of voicing out each other’s concerns and opinions about your growth and process.
Your life should be able to communicate with you effectively, to correct you when necessary but never to judge, through recognizing your flaws and not using them against you, but telling you with all honesty where it is in your life you may be going wrong or what it is you have to improve on.
4. Your life coach should have a voice.
It’s better if your coach knows where he stands on specific issues in life, by recognizing that an issue is either black or white, and never gray, so that he can help you do the same as well. It does not always work well in life to stay neutral all the time: your life coach has to help you state opinions respectfully and to make a stand in life. Your coach’s perspective in life will enable you to create your own views as well.
5. Your coach should be able to think strategically.
Each person’s life experience is unique from each other; no two persons go through the same thing in life. Therefore, your life coach should be able to come up with novel strategies for your own experience. He should help you out on a very personalized level, such that each advice caters to your own life’s circumstances. There is no universal one-size-fits-all approach to life coaching.
6. Your coach should be confident.
There is no right or wrong approach to life’s problems. Each solution really differs based on your own experience. A confident coach will have a domino effect on you: he will make you confident in approaching life’s adversities by learning to look in the positive always, even in unfortunate situations.
You’ll know that a life coach is confident when:
- He is not afraid to take chances, even in tasks that may seem difficult to accomplish.
- He does not try to copy the coaching style of his colleagues.
- He is always composed, even when, for example, he’s running late to see you or he’s stuck in traffic.
When your coach is confident, he is humble enough also to refer you to another coach if he sees that he cannot help you with your concerns.
7. Your coach should be goal-oriented.
The reason why you chose to seek the help of a life coach is that you have a goal that you want to achieve, and you see your life coach as the person who can help you achieve this goal. Your coach, therefore, should be on the same page as you with what it is you want to achieve; he should be goal-oriented himself by showing you every session that success is also on his mind so that you will see actual and lasting results. Your life coach should drag you upwards towards the results that you want to reach.
Conclusion
Choosing, and eventually finding, a great life coach is not a very easy task to do. Most, if not all, life coaches have very similar credentials, so the difference lies in their personality. The final deciding factor should be how you connect and how comfortable you feel with your life coach. If you find a life coach who satisfies these seven considerations, then don’t ever let him go.
