Life Coaching: What is it?

by Paul Goodchild on March 13, 2009

I first happened upon the term about a year ago when a friend mentioned someone she had met who was a life coach.   Before that, I had no idea such a thing existed!  I had of course heard of executive and professional coaches, fitness coaching and things like that, so I could imagine to a degree what a life coach might be.  My thinking was that they would assist you in your life in a general sense, whether it was personal growth, career development, goal fulfillment etc.  The only way to find out for sure is to do it and experience it first hand…

Why bother?

Recently I’ve become much more curious about the whole thing, and even began considering the idea of becoming a professional life coach myself.  I’ve started reading around on the prospect and that alone is clearing up many of the questions I have about it.  It’s an attractive career choice for me, namely in regards to the professional independence it would afford me… I wouldn’t be working my all-day job any longer and I could dictate the schedule of my life.  I would be contributing to people’s lives in a structured manner offering them the opportunity to grow, and lend any experience and skills I have in that area.

However, I figure the only way I’m really going to know the experience of life coaching is to be coached myself.  Based off of that premise I went to meet a life coach here in Tokyo for an introduction this week – I wanted to hear from them a little bit about life coaching in general terms and how they got into it.  Before I arrived I had already resolved to consider undertaking a life coaching course from them, but I first had to learn more about the whole thing and of course get a feel for the life coach themselves.

Real life coaching

So, today I’m going to commit to a course and perhaps by the end of April, the first phase will be finished.  As I go through the course, following each session I will document as much of it as I can, at least for my own records and also to give you an idea of what you can expect if decide to embark upon the process.  With any luck this will help you, the reader, gain some insight about  what it is, what is undertaken in the sessions, and if it is something you think you can benefit from.

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