Life coaching is an extremely satisfying job. Helping people to fulfil their potential and find lasting happiness has got to be one of the most useful occupations in the world - and you can do it, if you want to, from the comfort of your own home. If this sounds attractive to you, you should look into becoming a life coach.

Setting up as a life coach is not difficult. As it stands, the law does not require you to have any qualifications. Anybody can put up a plaque and start practising as a life coach, if they can find the clients.

However, this is clearly not the best way, for you or for your clients. Coaching people to overcome their fears and achieve their ambitions may appear to be a relatively simple task but actually it takes great expertise to do it successfully. You have to learn to look beneath the surface of what the client presents to you, in order to find their hidden insecurities and hang-ups. A life coach is not just a sounding-board or a cheer-leader; he/she is a skilled professional. You may know a lot about life but it doesn't automatically follow that you will be able to coach somebody else to excel at it.

There is a wide range of courses available to teach you how to be an effective life coach and, if you shop around, you should be able to find one that fits in with your timetable and budget. It doesn't have to be a full-blown qualification but some training is definitely worth the investment.

Alongside the training, something else that will benefit you enormously is to have some life coaching yourself. If you really want to be a life coach, you coach will keep you focused and help you to maintain your enthusiasm through the first few months. Also, watching an experienced coach in action will give you a clearer idea of how the process works.

It is true that most successful life coaches charge substantial fees. The overheads are low and, yes, life coaching can be very profitable. However, if you are mainly interested in making money, look elsewhere for a job because life coaching is founded on genuine concern for the clients.

You should also bear in mind that you are, of course, paid only when you are specifically working and it may take a while to build up enough clients that you can live on your coaching earnings. If you are thinking of giving up a job in order to become a life coach, see if you can just cut down to part-time until you get the life coaching business off the ground.

Life coaching, as a recognised job, has been around for a good twenty years but it is still very much a growth industry. More and more people are realising what life coaching can do for them and there is plenty of work out there for coaches. On the other hand, there are also more and more life coaches. If you want to become a coach, don't delay!

Being a life coach can be very hard work but it can also be immensely rewarding. If you think life coaching might be the job for you, go out and make it happen!