5 Reasons Why So Many People Are Using Life Coaches
Getting Our Ish Together: Why So Many of Us Are Using Life Coaches
If you’ve been hanging out in the social media sphere lately, then you’ve probably noticed an uptick in people using life coaches and advertising their life coaching services.
It suddenly seems like they’re everywhere, right? But it turns out, a life coach can be an incredibly powerful tool in your quest for self-improvement.
Think about top-tier athletes. Serena Williams has a coach. Usain Bolt has a coach. World-class boxers, golfers, and every single championship team all have coaches.
And it’s not just athletes working with coaches, either: Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, and the band Metallica have all worked with coaches to solve professional and personal challenges.
That’s because, no matter how good you are at what you do, you’re going to have blind spots about yourself (think of the difference between taking a selfie vs. having someone else take your picture). Having an objective third party with the experience, skills, knowledge, and training to help you get to where you need to go is priceless.
No matter how good you are at what you do, you’re going to have blind spots about yourself. A coach helps you spot and fix those blind spots, so you can keep growing and improving.
Here are five more reasons why it seems like everybody is working with a life coach these days:
We’re overwhelmed.
The modern world is full of distractions (who among us hasn’t fallen down an Instagram rabbit hole at 1 am?). Between our busy work lives, family demands, and trying to take care of ourselves, we’re all struggling with finding the time to focus on self-improvement and learning new things. A life coach can help with regular check-ins and reminders, so you won’t be permanently distracted. Those check-ins can help you build strong habits that will allow you to move forward on your own in the future.
We’re not born knowing how to do everything.
Look, we’re not migrating birds who are born with a magical sense of how to get from Point A to Point B. Sometimes, the way to fix a problem is something we don’t instinctually know. In those situations, it makes sense to work with a professional who can teach you the skills you need to get it done.
We need community and support.
So many of us have lives that are already jam-packed, which makes it hard to go out and find a support group specifically for the thing we’re trying to change about ourselves. A life coach can fill that role easily! Nothing says support like a morning text from your coach reminding you about your day’s goals or a phone call at the end of the day to check in and evaluate how things went. Community is key to building good habits and accountability.
We want to keep getting better.
There’s a lot you can do on your own! Through journaling, apps, sheer grit and determination, you can make tons of headway. When you hit a wall, though, you’re gonna need somebody who’ll throw a rope down and pull you up. That’s your life coach.
We don’t know where to start.
Ever have one of those days where your head is just a swirl of thoughts that you can’t get organized? Sometimes, there are so many things we need to change that we don’t even know which one to tackle first or how to go about it. A life coach can help you sort out priorities, create a plan of action, teach you tools for implementing that plan, and give you support along the way.
Life coaches aren’t all the same, so it’s important to find one whose perspective, experience, and skills match your needs. If you have personal characteristics or circumstances that might affect your journey, it’s crucial to find a life coach who understands and can work with those.
Interviews and consultations are a great way to get a sense for who your potential life coach is and whether they might be a good fit, but if you start working with somebody and you turn out to be a mismatch, it’s okay to end that relationship and try working with somebody else.
Have you ever worked with a life coach? We’d love to hear more about your experiences. Please drop a comment below!