(#) Benefits of Becoming a Life Coach
Becoming a life coach can open many doors for burgeoning entrepreneurs. Click here to learn how this career can net you a high salary and personal satisfaction.
Do you have a desire to help people succeed and get the most out of life? Do you find yourself drawn to giving career advice or finding ways for the people around you to reach their goals?
If so, life coaching might be the ideal field for you.
If you’ve ever wondered about becoming a life coach, now is an excellent time to learn more about the job, the benefits it has to offer, and what you can expect to make.
Industry research reveals that life coaching is a $1 billion industry, with an annual growth rate of 4.7% from 2012 to 2017. As such, there’s never been a better time to join this thriving market.
Today, we’re taking a deeper look at life coaching, breaking down how it can change your life — and the lives of others — for the better.
Interested in learning more? Let’s get started!
What is Life Coaching? A Quick Overview
When you hear the word “coaching,” you might think immediately of an athletic coach. This is the person that leads players to victory through motivation, strategy, and teamwork.
A life coach isn’t necessarily training clients to dominate the sports field. Yet, he or she does take on many of the same roles that a traditional coach does.
Like a sports coach, a life coach will work one-on-one with a client. The coach will offer the support and encouragement required to propel him or her toward meeting important goals.
Along the way, a life coach will strategize important steps and lifestyle changes that the client can make to increase his or her chances of achieving those goals. This adds an all-important level of accountability. It also helps break down potentially overwhelming pathways into more manageable building blocks.
Just as a conventional coach maps out the best course of action to take to ensure a favorable outcome, a life coach will work with each client to route the best possible path toward success.
For instance, a client might need extra guidance on his or her career, relationships, health and wellness, or other initiatives. Or, an entire organization could hire a life coach to help with branding, goal setting, audience analysis, and more.
To this end, becoming a life coach might not require you to carry a clipboard and wield a headset. It will, however, require you to make an equal investment in the clients that trust you to determine which play to perform next.
Forming those close client relationships is only one of the benefits that life coaching has to offer. Read on to find out what other advantages the career can provide!
Benefits of Becoming a Life Coach
A Rewarding Sense of Purpose
One of the top benefits of becoming a life coach is the ability to make a difference in someone else’s life.
As you coach someone to achieve personal goals, you’ll go through the entire process together. This means you’ll be able to monitor the full transformation — and see the valuable results!
As a client’s coach, you’ll provide the reassurance and moral support they require to work through struggles, anxieties, doubts, and other obstacles. Then, you’ll be there as they come out on the other side with a renewed sense of purpose and determination.
Few other fields offer that same sense of personal gratification. This makes life coaching one of the most rewarding and worthwhile careers available.
A Flexible Work Schedule
For the most part, life coaching is one of the more flexible job opportunities around. It usually allows you to work for yourself and craft the kind of schedule that works best for you and your family.
You’ll typically be working in a one-on-one environment with each client. As such, you can communicate with each one to set appointments around the time frames that work for both of you.
This adaptability allows you to more easily fit downtime, vacations, and work-from-home opportunities into your agenda. It may also enable you to work part-time as a life coach or pursue it as a sideline venture. This can be an appealing feature, especially in the early years as you build your client base.
As technology continues to grow, electronic coaching or e-coaching will boom in popularity. In this field, you can conduct your sessions either on the telephone or over the Internet. This can allow you to work from anywhere, at any time.
As such, it isn’t uncommon for life coaches to have a global client base, helping people all over the world achieve their goals!
An Expressive Creative Outlet
Do you enjoy creatively arranging images, words, or other content? If so, you might be surprised to learn that becoming a life coach can offer you the opportunity to express yourself artistically as well.
Rarely do life coaches prepare documentation that is strictly text-based. Rather, many incorporate visual elements into their plans. This helps their clients physically see the course of action laid before them.
Data reveals that 40% of people respond better to visuals than to text. This might be because 90% of the information our brain receives is visual and those images are processed 600,000 times faster than text.
The takeaway? To get through to a client, a life coach often has to find ways to think outside the box. Often, this means incorporating visuals, such as charts and diagrams, to offer a different perspective on a concept.
If your brain is equally wired to favor images over text, this is one part of the job you may particularly enjoy. In addition, your client may also appreciate — and reap the benefits of — your unique approach to learning.
Opportunity for Professional Growth and Networking
There are no professional certifications or licenses required when it comes to becoming a life coach.
That’s great news! It means you can start developing your practice sooner rather than later. You can use your experiences and knowledge gained to build your career.
As you do so, you’ll have myriad opportunities to grow your expertise and network with others who share your vision.
For example, you can achieve an online certification to demonstrate that you understand the industry, know what’s expected of you, and are dedicated to learning the specialized skill sets required to perform successfully.
Though this isn’t required to run a life coaching business, it can set you apart and demonstrate your commitment to your craft.
You can also seek out a local coaching networking group. Here, you can make connections with other like-minded individuals and attend training sessions or seminars together. You may even find a mentor coach in one of these groups, willing to work with you and offer additional training.
In addition, it’s important to remember that becoming a life coach is essentially committing to becoming a small business owner. As you navigate the ins and outs of owning your own business, you might find it helpful to take courses and absorb knowledge on how to successfully run a company.
Logistics such as bookkeeping, accounting, marketing and more cannot be overlooked. Thus, classes that offer insight on how to manage these concerns can be helpful educational pursuits.
Another Benefit: Impressive Income Potential
While the above benefits center on the personal and social aspects of becoming a life coach, another significant advantage is the earning potential that the field offers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn’t collect individual data on life coaching. Rather, it considers the field to be a subset of rehabilitation counseling; school and career counseling; and personal care/service work.
Considering this, the median pay for a rehabilitation counselor is $34,670 per year, according to the BLS. For school and career counseling, it comes to around $54,560 annually and $36,700 annually for personal care/service work.
While these are all similar fields to that of life coaching, none is an exact match and as such, projected income levels might not be as accurate. In this case, it’s helpful to go straight to the source.
According to the recently released 2016 International Coach Federation (ICF) Global Coaching Study, coach practitioners (a field designated for all coaching that isn’t athletic or sports-based in nature), reported making around $61,600 per year.
This data shows that though life coaching is often categorized into more general counseling sectors, the true income potential is revealed by professionals actually working in the field.
The BLS reveals that the average median wage is around $49,630. Compared to this data, becoming a life coach is a potentially lucrative and promising move that’s worth learning about, investigating, and pursuing.
The Skills You Need: Online Certification and Testing
Are you interested in becoming a life coach? Are you ready to test your knowledge in the field and find any weak spots that could use strengthening?
If so, we’d love to help.
We offer a database of online tests and courses covering a wide range of verticals. Categorized by industry type for your convenience, our ExpertRating certifications offer an analysis of competence and skill.
Whether you’re an individual looking to build credibility and professional standing, or a corporation seeking to test your employees’ knowledge, we’ll get you the answers you seek.
Feel free to contact us today for more information, and put our solutions to the test!