Life coaches are consultants who work with people and help them achieve and make the desired changes in their lives. If you want to take on the job as a life coach, here are a few steps that you should take first.
Firstly, you need to be caring and emphatic. The work of a life coach involves listening and understanding other people’s problems. Then you need to help these people and encourage them to achieve their goals. This requires you to be extremely caring and emphatic. If you are an impatient and unfriendly person, you would lose patience with your clients fast and would not be able to communicate well with your clients.
Secondly, you need to decide on what area of life coaching you want to specialize in. Some life coaches specialize in helping people with their interpersonal relationships, businesses, careers or even on a personal development level.
Thirdly, you need to be trained. You have to enter training at private institutes which offers this course. This will help you to receive accreditation from a recognized organization such as International Coach Federation or the International Association of Coaching. Although this is not a requirement but getting yourself accredited makes you part of the organization’s life coaching network and this can direct clients to you.
Fourthly, it is recommended that you get yourself mentored by an established life coach too. A life coach has to have personal and professional development too. Whilst you are receiving your mentoring from an established life coach, you too can also start to give out coaching of your own. By doing so you are actually putting what you learn in to practice and it accelerates your learning process too.
Lastly, you need to continue to improve your life coaching skills. Life is about constantly learning so keep on taking the continuing education classes to develop yourself not only from a professional point of point of view but also for your own personal development.
