Are Life Coaches The Psychiatrists Of The 21st Century?

There are millions of students world-wide enrolled in psychology degree programs at this very moment. Spending years of their lives learning basic structures and principles of how the human mind processes feelings and events. Do all people actually fit into the framework of a set standard?

A fairly new phenomenon is starting to sweep across the globe, Life coaching. This reasonably new form of coaching ties its roots to executive coaching. The basic aim is to help realize, time-line, and achieve your personal goals. Sounds simple enough to do on our own, doesn’t it?

When you take into consideration the normal work load of an up and coming professional and then add to it the daily stress of everyday life, some aspect of his/her life will suffer.

This is where our life coach can become useful. Unlike psychologists, sociologists, and other degree holders, life coaches try to find the answers from within the person.

There are four self-accreditation bodies that are internationally recognized: the International Coaching Council (ICC), the International Coach Federation (ICF), the International Association of Coaching (IAC), and the European Coaching Institute (ECI). Each of these is privately-owned and is not monitored by an independent supervisory board.

They do, however, all follow the same industry standard. Mentoring, behavior modification, and goal-setting, are the core values of their teachings.

Many successful persons in the business world are believers in the positive affect that life coaching offers. We employ coaching strategies into most aspects of our daily lives. It can be as simple as a plan for the supermarket, progressing into something as intricate as a 10-year plan for our future.

In most psycho analytic professions, the past and why we are who we are is the main focus. Life coaching, on the other hand, looks into the clients’ future and tries to help them become the person they want to be.

The main plan of most life coaches is to ask their clients questions and teach them how to find the answer from within themselves. The majority of coaches believe that the persons they mentor have the tools to achieve their individual goals, but are focusing too much energy in the wrong places.

To simplify all of this into easier terms: imagine yourself as a car and your life coach as your steering wheel, you are the one in control of how fast or slow you go. Does that make sense to you?

Now, think of your career, your family, your goals, your successes, and your failures, as the road that lies ahead. Every road that we drive on always has hills and some bumps, but the majority of us always make it to our final destination just fine.

This is where a good life coach comes in handy again. It’s a good idea to have someone in the passenger seat when the road in our life comes to a fork. Do you turn right or do you turn left? Your mentor is there to help you understand what lies down each of those roads, but to let you make the decision for yourself which one to take.