Life coaching? huh? Grab some coffee and sit down with us – we need to have a chat…
You may not fully understand what a life coaching is yet, you are feeling as though you may need one this year more than ever. 2020 and 2021 we all experienced seismic shifts in how we work, where we work and when we work. We have watched entire industries go out of business while many others have thrived. The remote worker and online services have thrived along with home services.
While many are suffering, they are also trying to figure out how to pivot, adapt and grow to what has become our new normal. We would like to think many jobs and industries will come back but we believe that the pandemic of 2020/2021 has merely accelerated what was to come. How can you get an edge and survive and thrive even in this global economic downturn and significant shift in the workplace and personal life? Let’s see if a great life coach can help.
Michael Jordan was one of the greatest basketball players of all time and Tiger Woods is still one of the greatest golfers of all time. Serena Williams continues to dominate the tennis world. They are all masters of their craft and all have or had incredible coaches to help them become champions in their own right.
What’s not talked about much are the coaches that help everyday professionals, entrepreneurs, CEO’s, business owners and executives who dominate and are very successful in their lives and live a life they both love and thrive in. Who are these coaches? Life Coaches! Let’s take a look at who these folks are, what and how they work and most importantly, how you will surely benefit from partnering with an experienced life coach.
What Is a Life Coach?
A life coach can be any experienced and tested professional, entrepreneur, executive or person who has a measurable and proven track record of success in their life. These coaches become trusted advisors, mentors and a support system for your life goals. They encourage, guide and challenge you through your journey of pursuing life’s success.
Despite what many think, a life coach does not need to be trained or certified by any organization to be a life coach. There are hundreds of so called organizations that will certify a coach simply if you pay them. These individuals have a keen ability to help you identify clearly what your goals are and the most effective pathway of pursuing them – or so they should.
What Does a Life Coach Do?
A life coach will help you identify opportunities and challenges in every aspect of your life supporting you and counseling you on how to achieve success in specific areas of improvement. There are various projects, life events, business needs and career development that you might hire a coach to help you with.
A great coach will help you analyze your entire life and establish clear and concise goals with you to help you meet your desired outcomes. Everyone is different and your plan will likely be customized to help you achieve your own wants and needs as well as remove obstacles such as preconceived notions and beliefs of oneself.
Here is a summary, though not inclusive of all that a coach can help you achieve:
- Help you establish your life’s vision as the driving force behind your goals
- Harness their own real experience to improve your plan
- Breakdown the beliefs that you have about yourself that is holding you back
- Establish a co-authored, specific and customized plan of action for your success
- Drive mindset shift and hold you accountable for executing your plan
- Support, encourage and challenge you when necessary
- Lead you to your own discoveries about yourself
- Help you get real results
Life Coaching vs Therapy?
There are considerable and contrasting differences between therapy and life or business coaching. A therapist will look to your past to help identify psychological patterns affecting behavioral or psychological issues you currently face. A coach looks to your current situation and is more tactical in pursuing tangible outcomes. Think of coach as action (coaching) over insight analysis (therapy).
When you meet with a life coach you will have structure, home work, directives and follow up to help drive results. Again, coaching is very much action oriented and direct, whilst therapy is based on how you may be feeling at the current time of the session – you guide the discussion in contrast to coaching where the coach directs the topics. However coaches will, and should support you psychologically in the scope of motivating and inspiring you by recognizing progress and moments when you need some inspiration. They should however never attempt to diagnose a psychological disorder or condition unless they are trained and legitimate licensed therapists.
Here is an important note. Life coaches cannot and must not diagnose any mental disorders. Therapists are licensed clinical psychologists who have been trained, have clinical hours supervised by other professionals and are vetted by a board.
How Life Coaching Works and Preparing For Your First Session?
In your first session with a life coach you will be getting to know your coach, establishing rapport and identifying your desires. You can expect homework assignments from the very beginning. Life coaching is direct and expect some questions like these in your session:
- What inspires you to act?
- What drives your goals?
- What negative self talk have you repeated daily that limit your potential?
- How has this self talk hampered your execution?
- What are your core values?
These are just some examples of what a session may look like, however removing barriers and identifying and addressing issues with self concept are the aim for progression. You will likely set goals that will challenge your preconceived notions and set forth to achieve them with milestones.
The value of assessing your current lifestyle and behaviors will help your coach to establish short term and long term goals that remove barriers that stifle progress and results. After your vision and mission are set with clear goals you and your coach will begin to take action with your available resources. Progress will be charted in your journey with your coach and support and direction will be provided to help you stay engaged and focused on your goals.
How Will You Benefit From Life Coaching?
Life coaching can be powerfully impactful on your life depending on your desires, and many aspects of your well being. The more truthful you are with yourself-and your coach- the more progress you might make in these areas:
- Shattering negative self concepts
- Becoming clear on your life vision for success
- Establishing a personal growth mindset and defined path
- Taking massive steps towards financial independence
- Balancing when you work and when you live
- Becoming a more effective leader
- Improve your relationship with your family and friends
- Earning promotions at work
- Live more healthy, hit fitness goals, and maybe lose weight
- Improve and grow your business or start a business
- Managing major life events – such as getting ready to retire
- Retiring and starting your own business
- Getting clear on your own principles and core values
You choose an area of your life or every area of your life and life coaching can help to fully optimize those areas for maximum output. When you are coached consistently you have a partner vested in your success. This partnership is far more powerful and effective than just training. Productivity and performance is quadrupled, hence the reason results are better with effective coaching.
What Are The Downsides of Getting Life Coaching?
Ok, so wow! Things sound great. Get a life coach and my life is going to be phenomenal. That is true for many of our Best Life Teams Clients. They foster incredible relationships with us and get outstanding results.
However, you may not be a fit. Let’s look at why coaching may not be for you:
- You May Need Psychiatric Support – Very few life coaches are licensed mental health professionals who are certified by a board. They cannot nor should they attempt to treat any mental health conditions. If you have thoughts of hurting yourself or others it’s a clear sign that you should seek professional medical support. Coaches do not treat chronic anxiety, depression, mania, schizophrenia or any other known mental illnesses.
- Your Coach Is Inexperienced – There are endless “certification programs” for life coaching. Most are not credible and many put people through a “program” and then they are certified to help you achieve your goals. Be sure that your coaches have real experience leading people and organizations, delivering results, building successful businesses, managing teams and a proven track record of delivering powerful results.
- You Want to Get Rich Quick – Unless you win the lottery, this rainbow doesn’t have a pot of gold at the end – there are no shortcuts. You are going to have to work hard, work long hours and years and fight for what you want. All great athletes, professionals, business owners and successful people didn’t do it overnight – but you are free to try.
- You Want a Coach to Solve Your Problems – You Must Solve Them Yourself – Many folks have made the mistake of thinking that a coach will swoop in and solve their problems. Absolutely no coach has ever done this and if they say that they have, it’s a bold face lie. Keep your expectations leveled and measured. Coaches may have the right experience and guidance, but you’ve got to have the grit to push out the work for yourself.
Misunderstandings Around Life Coaching?
Life coaching can be “left to interpretation” and foster misunderstandings about the profession. Let’s take a second and clear up some of these misconceptions.
Every life Coach is Qualified
This is furthest from the truth. Many of these so-called certified coaches are from organizations with questionable credentials. Hours in a classroom cannot replace real world results. Coaches must be experienced with a proven track record in building business, excelling in their careers, attaining financial know-how and have demonstrated effective leadership over and over again. So not everyone that gets “certified” as a life coach is actually qualified, experienced or competent to help you.
Coaching is Therapeutic
No life coaching is not therapeutic, it is rewarding when you achieve your goals and improve your life. When you are happier, healthier, and live and move with purpose you have a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Don’t make the mistake of hiring a coach to feel better mentally. Hire a coach to focus on what your life currently is and where you dream of it going. It’s about improving your overall life while therapy is focused on your mental well being.
Coaches need to be able to analyze your performance and draw from a high level of experience and depth of knowledge to help you achieve your goals. They will customize your coaching plan based on your own individual needs, helping you establish better decision making skills and help you remove blockades in your personal life to achieve your best results possible. Advice can be good but the right action, at the right time, on the right project for you as an individual is far more powerful.
Coaching Is For People Who Are Not Successful
Bogus! Many of our clients are successful but they have a yearning to better themselves, their lives and their family’s life. From athletic performance to career development to business growth, many people want to go to the next level that they are capable of. They understand the importance of a network, a team, and expanding their web of knowledge and level of execution to live their best life.
And “success” is subjective. You might think success is just having millions of dollars, whilst someone else may have “made it” by just being their own boss, controlling their own time. Or, Success may mean you become debt free or lose 100lbs. Being healthy and happy may be someone else’s version of success. So success is not finite and there is no consensus of who a successful person is because we all have our own versions of success.
Who Is Life Coaching For and Do You Need One?
Coaching is for anyone wanting, yearning and thirsting to do better everyday. To live a better life. To live a healthier life. To live a more purposeful life. Life coaching is for anyone wanting to pursue the best life they possibly can. This can be performance in leadership, business, career, personal growth, health and fitness, athletic performance or every area of your life. It is also for anyone feeling stuck or unsure of their next move. It’s for folks that want to change or adapt to their career. Coaching gives you an edge in your life and moves you closer to your dream life everyday.
People of all walks of life use life coaching. These are people who are leaders in business, actors, executives, homemakers, managers, professionals, doctors, attorneys, small business entrepreneurs and athletes. Many of them understand that there is something missing, they put aside ego and get help filling in the results gap in their lives. So there is not one single individual per se, but rather a mindset of a collective of individuals that see coaching as a tool to harness their ultimate potential.
Here are some signs you may need a coach:
- You have a low or negative self concept and perhaps feel a little lost
- Your career has not grown in a while
- You have a consequential mindset, the “what if” mindset that fuels fear
- Your business along with you “feels off”
- Your business doesn’t meet its sales goals or targets
- You know you are not living your best most productive life
- You have too much debt and can’t find a way thru
- Your Leadership needs work
- You want to accelerate your career
- You are planning your exit strategy of corporate life to starting your own business
- You really don’t like your job
There is a lot going on here and if you are reading this and recognize any part of this as you then you are a great candidate for partnering with a coach.
How Does Best Life Teams Stand Apart With Our Life Coaching?
Our Founder personally led over 7000 employees and $3.0 billion in career sales by age 31, started his first company at 26 and retired from corporate life at 34. Since then he has started multiple successful businesses as a serial entrepreneur. He is also a dedicated athlete ranging from cycling, powerlifting, kickboxing, running and he plans to add swimming to that list. The Best Life Teams coaches have a collective 200 years of experience with over $7 billion dollars in career sales (still growing) and have led over 20,000 employees (very successfully).
Our system is not “proprietary” there isn’t some “secret formula to success” that someone isn’t telling you. Everyone of us is different and while there are commonalities to success – We each are unique and excel in different ways. You cannot lead and coach Michael Jordan as you would Tiger Woods. You can use similar principals however at some point the “proprietary formula for success” takes a back seat to a fully bespoke plan of success for each client.
What is important here is your coach’s experience, not “secret formulas” – we eat secret formulas of success for breakfast. Again, our team didn’t take a life coach certification program and call ourselves coaches. We did it the old fashioned way, old school way. With hard ass work, and good decision making day after day, year after year. We cried, failed, lost and rebuilt, I can’t tell you how many times.
We partner with you, customize your success plan and use our broad and extensive experience, network, and systems to help you win. Don’t believe the jargon. Our coaching is built on mental fortitude, hard, hard work and consistently focusing on what’s important For. Your. Success. Only then can you break through on performance barriers and “10X” your life – and we are by your side EVERY. SINGLE. STEP.
We Have A Powerful Position Ready To Help You Win
- Real World Proven Experience – Our Coaches are some of the most respected and successful business professionals and executives in their respective field. We have struggled, gone through hardship and delivered top performance time and time again. You cannot buy this kind of expertise, knowledge, and track record in classroom training or with certifications.
- Entrepreneurial Growth – We are experienced in building successful businesses and it wasn’t easy. We failed but we have won more than lost through all the challenges, ups and downs and heartaches that come with fighting for your business. We get it because we have been there – but we don’t have a “we have arrived attitude”. This helps us to help you with practical real world coaching that absolutely works.
- Live Healthy and Be Fit – Our team understands that optimal health is key to optimal performance. Nutrition, sleep and weight loss are key to having the energy reserves you need to build your dream life. One of us has lost over 100lbs and kept it off for 14 years by making permanent lifestyle changes.
- Lead Like a Lion – Hone your leadership skills to influence and relate to others to do what you need them to do.
- Embrace a New world – The world has changed forever in 2020 and 2021. How we work, lead and live are different and we don’t believe we are going back.
- 100% of Clients Have Made Significant Progress – Our coaching system is a collective of all of our experience thrown behind you and customized for you to win. For you to get results. For you to be happier.
- Be Driven With Purpose – When you are clear on your purpose you are happier, more productive and find more joy in your life.
- Any Coach, Any System, Anytime, Anywhere – Achieving what our coaches have achieved personally and professionally has helped us to see things for what they are. We’ll stack our coaching system up against anyone else’s – that’s right, anyones. Because after 200 collective years we know how to help others succeed and live their best lives.
Success (life) coaching works. It’s on a massive growth path worldwide because it really does work. It really empowers you knowing our team is behind your success. If you are not living your absolute best life possible now, then when will you? Better yet, what are you going to do about it? We have some ideas!
Here’s a Cheesy Bit For You
You are the most powerful, intelligent, competent, loving and down right badass that you know. What you want is out there, you feel it calling to you, whispering to you, tugging at you. So come and take it, or someone else will.
We hope this article answered many questions for you, but will also inspire you to take action and make massive change.
Here is to your success friend – cheers!
