Regina Maniam asked:

Are you wondering what is life coaching? It is becoming increasingly popular and something that you may want to consider for yourself.

First, it is important to differentiate this from things like therapy and counseling.

Focus of therapy is primarily in healing by addressing emotions, behavior and disruptive situations by looking into the past to find out how a client behaves in a certain way. According to Wikipedia, therapy is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a diagnosis. Counseling is more treatment of everyday problems.

Life coaching is about looking into building a future. It is about achieving goals that you set for yourself. If could be in different areas like making more money, seeking happiness in life, excellence in sports, professional excellence and many more.

Problem is that although people want to achieve great things in life, sometimes they find it difficult to self assess, develop a plan and take action for themselves. Uncertainty creeps in and confusion seems to reign. This is where life coaching helps.

The life coach works with you to work on your goals and develop the plan required to achieve it. The coach encourages and if required gets a little tough on you to ensure your progress. The coach becomes a sounding board. You will be amazed at how much you already know but just could not organize and look at it in a way that it can deliver good value for you.

If you decide to get life coaching, then you need to evaluate carefully to ensure that you get a life coach that is not only qualified but also best suited for the life coaching area that you are interested in and you can relate to.

Shortlist first by identifying those who work on your specific area of interest. You may want to call those who have attended their life coaching programs for feedback. Find out where the coaching sessions will be held. Distance of the location may be a deciding factor if the sessions are face-to-face. Fees, of course, is the other factor.

Even if a life coach can fit all your other requirements, the chemistry between the two of you is important. Most coaches also provide a free introductory session. Make use of this session to see if there is good fit between the two of you. Is this a person that you feel knows the stuff and someone that you will listen to? As your sessions will be one-to-one, if you cannot seeing yourself working together with this person, it is better not to select this life coach.

Life coach aside, once you decide on life coaching, it is important that you become committed to its success. You need to be open and dig deep into issues. It may get uncomfortable but it is difficult to achieve great things without getting out of your comfort zone. You need to follow through on the actions. Whether the life coaching will succeed or fail will ultimately depend on you.

Now that you know what is life coaching, decide if this can help you. If it can help you but the cost of having a one-to-one life coach is high, then look into alternatives of how you can still get life coaching.

Tristan Loo asked:

Life coaching is a relatively new title to an old trade and many people do not know what a life coach can do for them, so I am going to list the benefits of having a life coach in this article. Let me start this off by saying that one of the secrets of highly successful people is that most of them use, in some form or another, a coach to help them get to where they want to be in life or in business or both. A coach, mentor, advisor or whatever title you want to call them, can help you identify goals and can motivate you to make those goals a reality for your future. Here are the benefits of having a life coach:

Setting Goals. One of the primary focuses of a life coach is that of setting and reaching goals. One of the main reasons people have difficulty manifesting success in their life is simply because they have no idea what their own idea of personal success really is. It’s like a businessman with no business. Without any source of direction, how can a person expect any quantifiable results? A life coach can use questioning to isolate what is most important to their client and once that goal or goals are isolated, then the life coach can help “reverse engineer” that goal to come up with a workable plan that can be put into action.

Clarity. A life coach can help you clarify your present condition and your future directions.

Action. Success rarely manifests itself. Knowledge and ideas are great to have, but they also do not manifest success in and of themselves. Action is what creates success in life. The reason why many intelligent and knowledgeable people do not experience the level of success that they desire is because they are slow to act on or apply the knowledge that they have. A life coach can help their client make decisions much more quickly and reduce costly delays and provide better quality action with less risk.

Motivation. Even the best experts in the world utilize coaches, consultants, and personal advisors because there is a strong psychological factor of accountability when another person has oversight on your progress. Actors, models, even bodybuilders have personal trainers who make sure they are keeping up on their program to reach their intended goals and this acts as a powerful motivating force for them. Such is the same with life coaches. They motivate their clients towards their goals and they make them accountable for maintaining their program and sticking to it.

Support. A life coach will listen to your story without evaluating, criticizing, judging, or offering solutions. They will lend their support for you through the toughest of times as well as the best of times.

Overcoming Challenges. We all face certain roadblocks in our lives that need to be overcome for us to achieve measurable success. A life coach can help their client brainstorm for possible solutions to complex challenges that need to be deal with.

Life Balance. A life coach can improve the ratio of work versus play in your life to achieve an optimal balanced ratio of both which will lead to reduced stress levels and a better quality of life.

Consulting. Most life coaches specialize in some aspect of expertise such as entrepreneurship, health and fitness, or stress management. The knowledge that they possess as a consultant can be invaluable to their client if they require the use of such skills.

Confidentiality. Although life coaching is not therapy or counseling, ethics dictate that the same rules of client confidentiality apply to coaching sessions. Therefore, what is discussed between a client and a life coach is strictly confidential.

Abhishek Agarwal asked:

Becoming a life coach is the right profession for you if you crave to be special.

This is because a life coach is a very special person who truly cares for others and becomes a role model for people through the way he lives his life. A life coach is trained for this intellectually challenging job. Life coaches become the driving force in their clients’ lives by working with them on a one-on-one basis and helping them overcome the obstacles they are facing in their lives. Some of these problems arise from the following:

- Feeling tied and helpless in a relationship that is abusive, or unfulfilling

- Feeling pressurized and stressed at one’s job

- Finding it impossible to handle family relationships

- Finding no way out of the rising debts

As a life coach, you can give people a new lease of life by helping them resolve their problems, rise above their suffering and start life afresh. Nothing is as fulfilling as this.

There market for life coaches is unimaginably huge. This is because with the levels of stress and problems increasing in the world, life coaches who can give you advice are a precious lot. You might think, at this point, that people can just as easily take advice from the people close to them. However then, they are always at a risk, as those involved with them or their problem cannot have an objective view of the situation and can thus, often give misleading, or miscalculated advice.

Why should you become a Coach?

This profession gives different people different things, but certain advantages are common. These are:

- By becoming a life coach, you can accelerate you own personal growth and understand your inner self.

- You can also witness a growth in your knowledge as well as enhance your personal excellence through this work

- You have the rare opportunity to change people’s live by motivating them to bring out the best in themselves and excel in their respective fields.

- It allows you the choice of where you want to work, and with whom.

- As a life coach, you can lead a meaningful life, with a sense of purpose attached to it and the fruits of such a life can be seen in the effort and reward.

There are some interesting features of the profession of life coaching that might encourage you to take it up:

- You can coach your client wherever he/ she is, in any continent, any place on this earth.

- You can save on the time and cost of traveling to your workplace.

- You can even coach through the phone even without much notice, as you need only a little preparation for a coaching session.

- Coaching does not involve any infrastructural costs, as there is no need for any office, employees and the works. The fact that you can work from home is a major advantage of the life coaching profession.

Now that you are getting interested in this profession, it is time for you to check and see whether you are correct for this sort of work or not. All you need to do is, to go through the following questions and treat them as a checklist:

- Do you see yourself as a real person?

- Are you able to communicate well?

- Is your heart compassionate, wishing for the happiness of all people?

- Do you like to have flexible work timings, according to your own choice?

- Are you able to live out your values and ideals and experience success?

- Are you interested in limitless earning capabilities?

If you find yourself replying in the affirmative to most of these questions, you are just the person who would make an excellent life coach.

Get Started

The profession of life coaching is fresh ground to tread on, but becoming one, is not that difficult. You might wonder now, that though the opportunities are endless, but how can you start.

For a start, you can find many websites that help you to find the right break. You can take your pick from amongst these sites and get started on your career of becoming a great life coach.

Kris Koonar asked:

Business coaching refers to a practice that offers business-oriented instructions and directions through proper guidance. It helps encourage employees and improve their efficiency. Business coaching is one of the most important elements of the business world. It boosts employee performance and sharpens business skills. The demand for business coaching has increased manifolds, enhancing leadership qualities. It teaches employees to develop unique business plans and forms the most essential part of the corporate world. Besides, it also monitors the psychological competence of people within an organization. The need for business coaching has marked the rapid increase in the opportunities available in the sphere.

Generally, business coaching is opted basically for two reasons, namely inspiration and in desperation. Inspired people need business coaching to help employees improve, whereas desperate people seek it to boost sales, improve teamwork, improve quality and increase productivity. It is observed that in times of crisis, several organizations seek professional help mainly to overcome severe business complications. For example, a client struggling with complexities bankruptcy and heavy debt may seek professional help to get to know the ways to overcome several issues. Many a times, clients opt for business coaching to change their profession. Business coaching holds immense scope at almost every step of business, as problems can arise at anytime.

Opportunities in small business coaching are many, as it offers the benefit of operating in almost every possible segment of commerce, ranging from regular businesses to small entrepreneurial start-ups and e-business. It can also be incorporated within any kind of business, to get a better level of learning, understanding, knowledge and growth. Some of the opportunities in small business coaching are as follows:

. Business Consultant: Business consultants are considered to be experienced professionals, competent in solving problems, which concentrates on increasing profitability. They offer professional suggests in particular areas of expertise such as IT, marketing, management and finance. The consultant assists clients to find business solutions and incorporate those solutions in the best possible manner. More often than not, they incorporate formal methodologies to assess the main cause of problems and suggest relevant solutions. Business consultants in small businesses enable clients to focus on significant business issues.

. E-business consultant: E-business consultants are popular among small business entrepreneurs. They help entrepreneurs in setting up an attractive web site for the business, explaining recent market trends and the type of competition that an e-business may require to face. These professionals cater to marketing and publicity needs of an e-business entrepreneur. In order to be a successful e-business consultant, besides the basic business coaching skills, you need to be a trained graphic designer and possess expertise in the field of advertising, marketing and e-technology.

. Business coach: Though not very old to the corporate world, business coaches have evolved as efficient problem solvers. They help small business people to maximize potential and help their clients succeed to achieve their desired business objectives. They offer their clients the opportunity to learn and grow with every case.

. Business mentor: A business mentor helps in the development of cordial relationship between a mentor and a less experienced partner. The professional emphasizes on the progress of clients.

Dave J. Davies asked:

If you find yourself giving advice to your friends and family on a variety of topics, you might consider a career as a life coach. Being a life coach is all about helping other people learn how to lead better lives and feel better about themselves. Sometimes people get confused about life, and a life coach can help them learn the secret to being successful.

Becoming a life coach could be a life change for you too. There are thousands of books and DVDs out there for individuals to help improve themselves. You probably see them all the time. If you find yourself reading self-improvement books to learn the secret of living, even as you’ve already improved in your own life, you can probably bet you have a lot of knowledge to offer others.

Is It Worth It?

It can be. Some coaches are making over $3000 a month working part time as a life coach. If you’re in it for the money only, however, don’t bother. Your clients are more than likely going to be executives and professionals themselves. Your clients are smart and they can tell if you’re serious about helping them, or you’re just interesting in taking their money. If they don’t feel they are getting results, they’ll take their business elsewhere.

You’ll need to find your own motivation for becoming a life coach. Teaching is as much about giving as well as receiving. When you decide to become a life coach, you’re sharing yourself and your passion for life with others. Take time to identify if you feel up to the challenge. That’s really what life coaching is. Challenging yourself to challenge others.

Becoming a Life Coach

Officially, there are no requirements to becoming a life coach. Anyone could write up a business plan, print out some business cards, put up a website and claim to be a life coach. Scary thought, right? While there is no official certification for becoming a life coach, just deciding to become one is probably not a good idea. If you don’t know what you are doing, you could build the wrong sort of reputation. You could hurt your clients if you fail to give them the correct advice or you don’t know how to handle a certain situation.

If you’ve watched a DVD or two, read a couple of books, listened to the secret of one guru or another, they all have something in common. They have a belief system of some form in place. Their own mantra, something that worked for them and they are teaching to others. It might not be something new, but it is reworked and exciting to them. They want to share it with others. It seems so easy.

Sometimes all it takes is a little motivation on your part, and knowing how to teach others. How do you get beyond simply wanting to share and knowing how to do so? You can be taught to teach. There are lessons you can take, many of them online, on how to be a life coach. You’ll feel more comfortable being a life coach if you know what other life coaches do that is successful.

This isn’t just about how to market for clients and how to get one to buy into your program. It is about finding a program that works and how to find success with each client, so they continue working with you. A life coach can motivate people to do amazing things, but only if you know what you are doing.

Lessons for a Life Coach

When you feel ready to become a life coach, your next step is to evaluate how you’ll learn to become one. There are many programs to learn from. You’ll need to research a few things before purchasing a program.

Does the creator of the life coach program hold the same beliefs you do?

Does the creator have verifiable experience being a life coach?

Does the life coach seem to be able to express ideas clearly?

A number of other questions could come up when you are looking for someone to teach you. You need someone who is just as much as a mentor as a life coach. It’s important to do as much research about the coach who will teach you.

What’s the next step? Find a strategy that will work for you. Pick out a lesson plan that will motivate you into becoming the kind of life coach you want to be. Whether you prefer reading a book, watching a DVD or going one on one with a life coach to find the right secrets and strategies will work for you, the choice is yours. Picking the right motivator, you could find yourself working with a coach that will walk you through the entire process. It also helps to have a colleague or two that you can ask questions to when you have clients.

No matter what, listen to yourself. This is your challenge to yourself to become a life coach, to lead a better life for yourself by helping other people.

totalcoachlive asked:

Mike Litman shares the successes of the Total Coach coaches and shares an important success principle. … “Passion to Profit” “health coaching” “wellness coach” “how to become a coach”

The Online Dating Coach asked:

National studies show that 25% of all single adults have paid for the use of Online Dating Services – and – that number is expected to increase to 50% over the next five to seven years!

Will you be one of those who come aboard?

Because of the explosive growth of Online Dating – and especially if you yourself are single and looking for a partner online – it may be helpful to learn the best ways to use Online Dating Sites before actually joining one of them! As an Online Dating Coach, I want to help you make the best use of your time and money in your quest to find your Soulmate.

First and foremost, as in any relationship, honesty will be the most important factor in your finding a partner who shares your values and personal interests.

What type of relationship are you looking for? If you’d like to find someone who’s fun to be with so you can have some play time on the weekends, by stating your goal honestly right at the beginning, there will be a much greater likelihood of meeting someone who has the same vision.

One of the obvious side-benefits of this is your avoiding a series of uncomfortable conversations later about why you won’t commit to the relationship, or why you’re not willing to spend more time together, etc.

Another useful tip when entering the world of Online Dating is to match your choice of dating sites with the type of relationship you’re seeking. If you’re looking for a weekend companion “without any strings attached,” there are dating sites you can join whose members feel the same way. On the other hand, if your goal is to meet someone for marriage, you’d be better off starting with an online dating site whose members have the same intentions. As a Dating Coach, one of the first steps in working with new clients is my assessing their innermost values. By starting with this step, I can better recommend the dating sites that will deliver appropriate matches.

If you’re tired of random dating and not finding someone compatible, then my advice is to join the better known online dating sites which charge for their matchmaking services. Most of these companies use sophisticated compatibility software which match the subtleties of your unique personality. They will also match the basics like your marital status, religion, and education. By asking in-depth questions, and having you rate their importance, many online dating sites produce high success rates for meetings between the same clients. In other words, the match made through the dating service was pleasant enough so both parties wanted to see each other again after their first date.

Finally, to be safe in your quest to find your Soulmate, consider using an anonymous email address (through Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or something similar) without assigning your true name (and certainly not your last name) to your account, nor should you include your home telephone number. It’s best to get to know someone through the dating site first, before providing this information.

After your initial online email exchange and perhaps one or two IM chat sessions, you should be ready (assuming all goes well) to make plans for a telephone conversation. The proper online dating etiquette would be for the woman to call the man first, blocking her telephone number from Caller ID. Only after one or two successful telephone calls should a face-to-face meeting at a coffee shop be scheduled.

In the interest of safety, always plan your first couple dates in a public place, and even better if it’s during the day. Do not pick up or ask to be picked up for the date. Meet each other at a mutually agreed upon location, and also agree ahead of time to leave each other from a public place so you can drive home in your own cars. If your potential date balks at the suggestion to not be in a vehicle together, look elsewhere for sure. It’s not worth your safety to try to figure out if the person you met online may just be over-sensitive or unaware of the “rules.”

By following these simple guidelines, you can make online dating a success. By the second date, if all goes well, trust should be established and you’ll be on your way to building your next relationship!

Koz Huseyin asked:

The life coaching industry seems to be growing at a fast rate. It was only a few years ago, that finding a life coach was a difficult task. Today, it is much easier. If you have been wondering about finding a life coach, you may also have thought about being your own life coach, you may even be your own coach right now. So, which option is best?

What is a life coach? The simplest definition I can give you is a walking encyclopedia! They literally have answers. But, whereas a book worm is someone who simply has the theoretical the life coach who is actively practicing is someone who has the practical, and not just the theory, and here is where they can benefit you.

There are a number of choices when looking to find solutions to your problems. For example, if you need to increase income – a book may help, life coaching may help, a seminar can also help.

But, how many people like trying to find something in a book? You likely have to go to the index, and then flick through to find the page, then the section with the information. Trying to learn something, so you can apply it, can take time.

Wouldn’t it be great to get an immediate answer? This is where life coaching can help. Because your life coach, likely knows the answer. You don’t need to read a book; you don’t need to invest years applying to know the solutions, because the life coach already has the answer.

From the last few points, you should have an idea of whether you really need a life coach or not. For some people, learning and applying is the fun part. So, being your own life coach can be a great idea. And it is personal development, and personal growth that can last a lifetime.

It can be beneficial to go with both options, and we see it all the time. Life coaches have their own life coaches. Business people and high achievers are their own life coaches, yet still have a life coach who also helps.

Most people will usually find that they will go with both options. Some may use more of a life coaches help, while some will choose to go through mostly their own personal development, through books, etc.

There is a big factor which comes into what choice you make, and that is your own ability to get up and go. If you are a self starter, then this can be great, as you can literally start on projects and act on them.

For people who can’t get up and go, and need motivation, a life coach can be a great way to have that accountability, where we feel compelled to act. In either case, both options are a great way to find the solutions to your problems, and reach your goals.

Hugh Russell asked:

Now that people are learning more about life coaching, it seems that more and more niche areas are emerging out of the coaching centers. Spiritual life coaching is one such specialty that has been gaining a lot of attention in the past few years. And while the proposition might sound a little iffy, spiritual life coaching offers much growth in an area that’s often neglected.

Spiritual Life Coaching: Is It for You?

Do you often feel discontented with your life, as if there’s always something missing? Or are you facing a radical change of religious and spiritual beliefs? Spiritual life coaching website might be a good idea for you.

A good number of the spiritual coaches you’ll find focus only on a particular spirituality such as Christian tradition or spiritualist beliefs. There are some spiritual life coaches, though, that still stick to the general and more universal definition of the field. Such coaches will be your best bet, especially if you’re unsure about the direction where your spirituality is going.

People who are hesitating to enter a new spiritual commitment or are having trouble sticking to an existing one will benefit the most from spiritual coaching. A spiritual life coach won’t make the decision for you, but will instead help you make the spiritual decisions that you’ve so far been apprehensive about making.

Finding the Right Spiritual Coach

Spiritual life coaching is much more personal and intimate than your regular life coaching sessions. Your spirituality is probably something that you don’t discuss with other people, so finding the right kind of coach is important for you to feel comfortable about your sessions. If you end up with a coach that you don’t fully trust or connect with, your sessions won’t be as productive as they should be.

A good spiritual life coach is someone who holds no biases for any single belief structure; you should immediately think twice of anyone who tries to sell you into some new religion. It’s also important that your coach have a lot of exposure to many different beliefs. That way, he or she would be used to people like you who are in a spiritual flux or limbo. He or she’d also be able to tell you the subtle differences between beliefs.

What to Expect

The ’spiritual’ term alone already suggests an air of mystery and secrecy, but real spiritual life coaching isn’t as flamboyant as that. In fact, spiritual coaching sessions are very similar to regular ones for life coaching in terms of content and structure. Many life coaching techniques are even used for spiritual coaching sessions, albeit in a slightly modified form.

Your spiritual life coach won’t be pushing you toward any decision, but he or she will be helping you find a decision for yourself. Typical activities include things like journal keeping and personal reflections, which are designed to bring out your personal insights on different things.

Unless you have a very strong spiritual foundation, you probably need spiritual coaching or will do so at some point in the future. With the right coach to help guide you on your path, you might just find it to be a very enlightening experience.

TedMcGrath1 asked:

www.ted-mcgrath.com Ted McGrath is a Life Coach. Talking about Beliefs, Personal development, Professional transformation, Inspiration, business coaching, coaching and mentoring to youth of SDSU