I’ve been on so many life coaching courses and NLP training, met a lot of life coaches and even more NLP practitioners. But very few of them could tell me exactly what they do. And they fail to explain, when I ask them. I’m not saying they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s that maybe; and I’m just speculating here, they can’t articulate it because of all the confusion. And that unfortunately is causing even more confusion.

So what is life coaching?

Try asking 10 coaches. My guess is you’ll get 10 different answers. Here’s number 11:

The way I see it, life coaching:

1-      Assesses your current situation.

2- Helps you define a clear goal to achieve.

3- Helps you determine what steps needs to be taken to achieve this goal.

4-      Guides, motivates and leads you to taking the necessary steps to get tangible results and achieve your goals.

5- And this is done holisticly to keep your life in blanace.

Think about it this way. If your current location is London and your destination is Cambridge, what do you input in your sat nav? Your location in London and your location in Cambridge. Then you’ll be guided to your destination by the sat nav. If any of these variables is missing, you’ll either end up going around the world a few times; to all the places you don’t want to go to, before you arrive to Cambridge by accident. Or, it’s likely you’ll not make it. In life, you’re your own sat nav and a life coach is there to make sure you’re inputting the right information. But surely you don’t need a life coach for your satnav! Right? When you’re done reading, remember to answer this question. A friend of mine actually told me the sat nav analogy.

Albert Einstein said: “You can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it”

Life coaches and NLP practitioners refer to this as the scotoma i.e. blind spot. It’s when you’ve been occupied by a problem and you just can’t find a solution. It is why dreams get abandoned. Then a friend comes along to ask a question that opens your mind. An efficient life coach is like that friend coming in and asking just the right questions that will challenge you and get you thinking with your problem solving mind instead of your problem creating mind. When opportunities are clear, you’re then acting to find solutions and move forward. This is a process that could last a life time or end after a few sessions.

 

 

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