Me and life coaching

I’m the kind of person that people say things to, like “you should be a life coach”.  While I was taking Lumia’s life coaching courses and meeting other life coaches, I learned that this is something that a lot of us have in common.  Why would someone tell me something like that?  Mainly because I am a good listener and give good advice.  Although one of the first things you learn in life coaching school is that good coaches are not supposed to give advice.

It wasn’t until I had gotten the life coaching bug (after my sister had said to me “You should be a life coach”) that I learned what life coaching actually is. Fortunately, even with the knowledge that I would have to avoid giving advice, I still felt a calling to it,  I just finished 10 months of training and I leaned a lot this year so I thought I would write my first blog post about what I’ve learned about life coaching.

Good life coaches aren’t supposed to give advice.  You see, the first premise of life coaching is that people are whole, capable and experts in their own lives. By giving advice it’s like the coach doesn’t believe in the clients’ ability to figure things out for themselves.  The first time someone said to me with complete sincerity “I believe in you” was eye opening for me and I really started thinking about what it meant to believe in yourself..

Being coached can be transformational even if you don’t think you need transformation. I’ve learned that there seems to be no end to self discovery.  I’ll admit that I was bit arrogant when I started Lumia, I thought I was “done”, I could coach others but I myself didn’t need coaching.  And yet, I discovered that if I was truly willing to look at myself and my life through other lenses, I could reach a greater level of integration and affirmation of my self and my life’s work.

One of the things I love about coaching is that it is one of those skill based human endeavors, like gardening and art making, that keep us in touch with process and the constantly changing nature of reality. What is real? What is imaginary? How do we engage with the world?  Learning to be a life coach has already taught me a lot about  myself and what it means to be human and I am curious about what will be revealed next.