8 Reasons You Should Hire a Life Coach
Life is messy. This isn’t some big revelation that’ll shock the world. Everyone knows it and does their best to cope with that fact. Trying to juggle work, relationships, self-care, money, and health – it can all be so difficult to manage, especially when in the center of it. This isn’t to say it’s an impossible endeavor by any means, just that sometimes we need a little push. That’s where a life coach would come in.
How do I know if I need a life coach?
Structure can often be the remedy to feelings of hopelessness, a lost sense of direction, or thoughts of having “no purpose”. A study by Oxford University even confirms that fact, saying
“A regular routine can help you maintain your circadian rhythm, which is good for your physical wellbeing and particularly your sleep. Getting up, eating, and taking breaks at similar times each day, can also provide you with a psychological sense of progress through the day and give your activities shape and structure. This can also reduce the sense you can sometimes get of being ‘lost’ with what you are doing”
So, then comes the implementation of a life coach. The positive impact of a trained professional pushing you to new heights and acting as a safety net could not be understated. Not only that, but they offer that structure to keep you in check and feeling motivated.
However, before getting too far into all the benefits of having a life coach, it’s best to be aware of what you should not expect from a person in this position.
Things to Consider Before you hire a life coach
Right off the bat, you absolutely should not expect your life coach to be your therapist. Life coaches aren’t trained to diagnose deep-rooted issues or address them, they’re more there to help you achieve your goals. Therapy and life coaching can go hand in hand, but they are not interchangeable.
So, if you’re struggling with issues that may need some mending – whether it be depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues – your life coach will not be able to address them fully. This isn’t to say that it’s impossible but having the assistance of a therapist or having done so in the past would make the process a lot easier. With that disclaimer aside, there are still plenty of reasons to get a life coach.
Objective Perspective of a life coach
The whiplash of addressing every one of life’s issues can understandably leave someone a bit dazed. Maybe they’ll address an issue that isn’t necessarily vital to address, maybe they’ll get lost in the results of an event recently passed, or heck, they might not be doing anything at all.
This is not only completely understandable but relatable to just about any person out there. With a life coach coming to your aid, they can offer something that you maybe didn’t know you needed – an outsider’s perspective.
While, yes, this level of this video game may feel imperative now, maybe there are some dishes in the sink that need washing. You may be downtrodden over a failed interview, but that life coach could pull you out of that rut and push you towards the next interview for a job you may love even more. Having someone away from the burden of that initial emotional turmoil to then guide your decision-making can be lifesaving.
An Anchor When Drifting Away
Related to that point, having an anchor to reality is also an underrated benefit of having a life coach. By ‘anchor’, I mean so in a figurative sense. (Please don’t go out of your way looking for a literal anchor to guide your life’s decisions.) An unwavering and consistent symbol of positive progression in strife can be useful, especially to those who may undermine their accomplishments.
Hearing the voice of someone who knows what you’ve been doing and has experience in many fields is an incredible resource. It can provide comfort and hard facts to confront negative stigma rather than perhaps less-steady self-positive reaffirmation. They wouldn’t necessarily have to have only positive things to say, either. That figurative anchor wouldn’t sway to negativity or excessive positivity. Overestimating your ability, settling beneath your potential, and refusing to address issues, are all “positive” habits that may feel comforting in the short term but are detrimental in the long run. A life coach can swat away these thoughts and keep your mind deadest in the reality of a situation.
Pressure
Nobody wants to let others down, and an unintentional consequence of having a life coach is the implied pressure of their success riding on your success. If you don’t complete your goal for that day, week, or month, you’re not only letting yourself down, but you’re letting them down.
Your actions correlate directly to both your success and their success, and to those who may be a bit more on the people-pleasing side, this could be a nightmare to imagine, but brilliant motivation.
Expertise
This point was addressed a little bit earlier, but expertise can play a big role in succeeding with a life coach. You may not know how to address an issue, but chances are that they do and can guide you through your hardships. Forbes put it best by saying
“A trained coach will work with you to get clear about what fulfillment would be for you.”
You’re not your life coach’s first and only client, and they’ve probably seen others struggle in the same ways that you are. Having that guidance can be essential!
Presence in The Present
Maybe you know your goals already. The issue may be that you’re too goal-oriented. Mindfulness is essential, allowing clients to feel less overwhelmed or bombarded by the sensation of “it’s moving too fast” or “the obstacle is too big”.
Being able to ground yourself in the moment and enjoy the simpler things in life, as well as assess how you feel then and there is an overlooked skill in a society that rewards goal-centric lifestyles. Life coaches can be the catalyst to unlocking that skill.
Honesty and Accountability
Somewhat related to the other points, having a life coach can also force one to confront uncomfortable truths within their lives. While yes, they may have reasons for acting the way that they are, they may not outright excuse their decisions.
Having someone who knows exactly about your day-to-day life ask you directly why you didn’t do something can be a conversation that’s necessary for anyone. While yes, having a life coach can be invigorating and exciting, the main goal is betterment.
Where do I begin?
Often the first step is the hardest one. Having that big goal loom over you can be downright intimidating and trying to navigate around it is difficult. Well, then comes that life coach to save the day! While this point may share some similarities with expertise, it doesn’t take an expert to help someone find the right first step.
In fact, it would be an odd yet helpful conglomeration of expertise and objective perspective to truly help someone get that firm footing. The knowledge of how to address similar situations and how to best transfer that knowledge onto one’s clients for them to utilize it is a phenomenal start.
Support When You Need It Most
The biggest reason to get a life coach – in my opinion – is for an individual to offer unrelenting support you may not have from other people. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age where certain lifestyles are “disagreeable”. This has led to figurative or literal abandonment of vulnerable individuals who may just need a single person to hold their hand and guide them forward.
Loss of support from those you may have been taught to expect it most from can lead you to rock bottom and can have devastating consequences on their mental health and ambition to move forward. This is where a life coach and perhaps some therapy can play such a vital role in one’s life. Not only getting them out of that rut but letting them soar in the future. Helping them find that first step, allowing them to confront those uncomfortable truths, ground themselves in reality, and offer a legitimate view into their issues – all that and more culminating in growth that can’t be ignored.
