Five myths about Professional Life Coaches

Whether you are a professional life coach or a prospective client, you must have heard a lot about what a life coach does or is “supposed to do”. Many of these could be mere assumptions a person make without even having personal experience.

You may have heard:

“A life coach is for duds who can’t decide what they want in their life.”

“Life coaches are way too expensive.”

“A life coach? Pfft, who even goes to one?!”

Fact: They all have the wrong perception of what a Life Coach really is.

Anyone can hire a professional life coach at any point of their life regardless of who they are. Here’s proof from a life coaching site’s introductory page:

The Life Coach Who Gets People Unstuck Let's Get Started - What Can Life Coaching Help You With?

Being Happy. Figure out your values and align your life to them. Fulfilling Potential Fulfilling Potential. Overcome roadblocks and accomplish goals. Making Changes. Get over fears and change your job or habits. Finding Balance. Breathe, relax, and become content with your world.

There are many people who approach life coaches when they are in that transitional phase of their professional life. The expenses also vary greatly. While some life coaches charge $1000 per month, another may charge a mere $150 per month. Just like that of a doctor, a life coach’s fee depends on several factors.

Regardless, here are some commonly held myths about life coaches that are absolutely incorrect:

1) “Under-Performing Employees Require Life-Coaching”:

While that may be true too, nowadays life coaching is more than just that. Previously, companies would hire coaches to train the not-so-good employee before they decided to kick him out. However, that’s not the “life coach” image anymore, and shouldn’t be. Anyone who wants to move a few steps ahead in their professional life may require a life coach, and an organization is not the only one who is going to hire them. People hire their own personal coaches before they even get employed. A coach is there to help someone know where he is and where he wants to be heading. Not someone who is supposed to fix a problematic worker.

2) “Coaching Sessions Take Up Too Much Time”:

Actually, they don’t. Professional coaches generally hold 2 to 4 meetings per month. Each meeting can be about 20 to 60 minutes long. This isn’t an enormous amount of your precious time taken up, is it? Most coaches let you customize your coaching plan. So you can fit a 3 month plan into a 1 month plan if you like.

3) “I Will Have To Go To Boring Office And Sit On Chair”:

In case you didn’t know, life coaching is generally done over the phone. This is so that you can chat with your coach anywhere and at any time – even at home! According to a survey from the International Coach Federation (1998), 94.3% of coaching is conducted over the phone. Online coaching is also increasing. Today’s coaches could have a client that is on the other side of the world, for all we know.

4) “A Professional Coach Will Instruct You Towards A Better Path”:

Coaches don’t actually tell you what to do. They are NOT instructors. Let’s put it this way-- they show you the path you selected yourself. Confusing?

The path you select isn’t necessarily the one you are on already, or the one you thought of before you started your coaching sessions. Your coach will guide you to first realize yourself what the best path is, explore your possibilities, discover your best options, and then, guide you on how you could follow that path. They change the negative outlook you may have had on your life previously, and cause you to think more positively about it. In effect, they allow you to decide yourself what you want. They don’t TELL you what you want.

5) Coaching Involves Spiritual Practices:

Life coaches aren’t spiritual leaders! They are there to help you attain your goal in your professional /personal life, that’s it! A genuine and experienced professional life coach does not involve any mysticism in his sessions.

Unfortunately, since life coaching is a profession that is currently on the rise, few know the real truths about it. The problem is many people form assumptions about what they don’t really know, and give rise to rumors. So, the next time you hear someone passing on wrong information about a life coach’s profession, prevent them from doing so, or simply do what you did in a boring class – let it enter one ear and exit the other.

Author Bio: - Offering consultancy at Assignment Consultant, Jenifer helps students who feel difficulty in choosing the right field in university to get a good career start. At her leisure time, she shares her expertise with learners when they come asking her, “help me write my assignment”. Find her on Facebook to get consultancy.