Life coaching is not about telling you what to do. It's about showing you the wide range of options you've got, encouraging you to make changes and supporting you in your journey towards fulfilling your dreams.

Life coaching generally takes the form of regular, one-to-one sessions of an hour or so, either face to face or over the telephone. The coach will help you to focus your goals and to devise small steps towards meeting them. The coach will also hold you accountable for your progress.

Many people think a life coach is a form of psychotherapist or counsellor. While there is some cross-over, counselling and psychotherapy are more about emotional healing, whereas life coaching is more about achieving results through thinking and behaving differently. Your life coach will not often discuss with you how you feel; the focus is on what you do. However, an important part of your coach's job is to challenge beliefs you may have held since childhood that are stopping you as an adult from enjoying life to the full.

Have you always dreamed of having your own yacht/travelling the globe/being a business tycoon? Do you want to get in shape/learn Spanish/make new friends? If so, why haven't you done it yet? With the help of a life coach, you can break through your fears, raise your self-esteem and go for it!

Life coaching is not the answer for everybody. If you have experienced trauma and/or had a very unhappy or frightening childhood, life coaching will probably not be of use to you until you have worked through your issues with a psychotherapist. However, if your problems are more in the realms of not being able to get yourself organised, being too busy to think about what you really want out of life or always giving "should" priority over "want to", life coaching can be of limitless value to you.

You can have life coaching to give your life a general overhaul or to concentrate on a particular area. You can have coaching to help with your work, to help you to get the job you've always wanted, coaching to support you through a big change such as relocating, coaching to inspire and motivate you to make the most of your life - any, all or a combination of these.

It's easy to find yourself a life coach on the internet. Don't worry if there doesn't seem to be one in your area, because you can always be coached by telephone. Most coaches will offer you a free initial consultation, during which you can gauge whether life coaching is for you and whether this coach's style is going to suit you. This means that, by getting in touch with a life coach, you have nothing to lose and a whole new life to gain. What are you waiting for?