Is Life Coaching a Good Career?

Have you ever wondered about why there's so much sorrow in the world? Have you ever felt guilty about being a little more privileged than the others? Have you ever listened to a confused teenager and helped him out with a decision that could mold his future?

Have you found peace in making someone else's life a little bit easier just by being there? You may not have realized it yet, but you have the makings of a life coach in you. You may have been told that before, but do you want to know if it is a good career option? Well, let's find out with some help from this, shall we?

Life coaching is a quite a broad term if you look at it. On many occasions, life coaching can be interchanged with personal coaching. Which makes sense because you are helping them deal with their life, which is their own personal life. This 'life' could be almost any aspect. It could be the person's career, the social life, education, etc.

Anything at all. Being a life coach involves a lot of qualities that are more inherent than acquired. Some of them have been mentioned here. If you think you possess these skills, and are willing to take it up as a career, there's nothing stopping you.

The most important quality that a good life coach has, is his ability to successfully communicate with the person in front of him. This communication is possible only if the person is a good listener. Being a life coach involves a lot of active listening skills, which though mostly inherent, can be honed with proper training.

Apart from listening, the coach must have the skill to comprehend and respond with suitable solutions, suggestions, etc. For this to be possible, the coach needs to have the ability to build and maintain a good rapport with the person. Build trust and confidence and your work is half done.

Life coaching is all about putting the needs of the person before what is suitable for him. For instance, if you're coaching someone about his career and you know that he's not happy with his current job, even though he is very good at it, the 'right thing' to do would be to convince him to keep the job so that he can sustain himself.

But that's not your job. You have to make sure that he is happy with what he is doing and guide him towards it. It is not about imposing decisions, it is about helping to find the person within the person, rather than alienating him.

It is about enabling a positive change in a person, by making him reflect upon his being. Motivation towards inner happiness, through favorable changes in the external environment is what you have to aim at. 

Being a life coach puts you at a high pedestal in the person's life. Through personal coaching, you're bound to be told many things in confidence. Taking everything objectively and not using it against the person, but to the contrary, is what makes a good life coach. Being a non judgmental person, who will listen and help, is what people expect one to be.

If you think you have it in you to be selfless and help people around you to come up with solutions to their problems, and if you feel joy when you see that something you suggested or implied has made a change for the better in someone else's life, then you have your answer.

However, everyone needs to earn their living. So, is it a good career right now? Not many would say so. Life coaching as a full-fledged career is still in its infant stages. Not many people are open to the idea of taking it up as a full-time career, for the simple reason that there is no current 'market' for it.

People are more interested in the so-called allied fields like management and career counseling and hence, life coaching is yet to get a firm hold on the ground. That being said, there are many people who have left their high flying careers to become life coaches and they will all say that it is the best decision they have made. 

The level of inner peace and satisfaction this career can give is for those who find happiness in others' happiness. So, the decision of becoming a life coach is entirely up to you. While it may not be the 'in' career right now, think about the future prospects that it holds. Think about the peace that it will bring you and make your decision accordingly.

Becoming a life coach is not really as easy and glamorous as this information makes it look. There is much more involved, that is up to the personality of the person. If you think you have what it takes to be one, and make a career out of it, then there's nothing more to be said.