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.
