In the field of life coaching, you have as many different specialties as you do medical specialist. Check out this short list of coaching specialties:

1. Life Coach
2. Certified Life Coach
3. Christian Life Coach
4. Business Coach
5. Leadership Coach
6. Executive Coach
7. Career Coach
8. Youth Coach
9. Spiritual Coach
10. Relationship Coach
11. Marriage Coach
12. Dating Coach
13. Fitness Coach
14. Health Coach
15. Wellness Coach
16. Writing Coach
17. Mindset Coach
18. Finance Coach
19. Vision Coach
20. Entrepreneurs Coach

The list goes on and on. Selecting the right coach can be a little tricky with so many options. This blog is designed to help shed some light on the variety of coaches available to help you grow, elevate, and thrive.

The Goal of Life Coaching

The discipline of life coaching is a specific cognitive modality different from therapy, counseling, and mentoring. A life coach is a growth and change agent that honors the uniqueness of each individual client. Coaching is present and future focused, not dwelling on the past but learning from it to propel you forward. The field of coaching is designed to help you in very specific ways.

• Gain crystal clear clarity on goals
• Craft a plan of action for goal achievement
• Identify barriers that hinder successful action
• Equip you with custom tools to crush hindering barriers
• Reveal blind spots that create destructive cycles of self-sabotage
• Facilitate paradigm shifts to cultivate mindsets that will change the trajectory of your future
• Accountability to take the action necessary to craft the life, career, and relationships you desire

A results oriented coach will help you achieve goals and become the person you always dreamed of becoming. The key is we help you do it faster than you would on your own. Since we are unable to replenish time like we can money, shoes, food, and clothes it makes sense to use your time wisely. The truth is you are going to be 50 years old at some point in your life. You can either be 50 living your dreams or NOT! The choice is yours.

Myth: Time is money.

Truth: Time is more valuable than money! Money can be replaced, TIME CANNOT!

How to Vet a Coach

The word in front of "coach" will determine the area of specialty they focus on with their clients. Most coaches have a heart for a specific people group or societal result.

I believe that coaches are called to the field of coaching. I know I was!

Granted some get it into it for the money (just like any profession) but most get into this field for the people. You will need to distinguish between the two and only hire coaches that have a heart for getting people transformational results.

How do I figure out which coach is best for me? Check them out like you would if you were hiring a medical doctor, real estate agent, attorney, or child care provider. Are they a licensed business, are they certified, and what do their clients say about them? Do they have client references for you to call?

Comb through their social media content and see if it is all about selling you a product/service or do they actually give you tips, tools, and gems NOW that add value to your life? Can you tell that they care about people, serving, and living for the benefit of others. If not, then you have your answer.

Life Coaching Variety

Fundamental life coaching modalities are the foundation for all specialty coaching. Take for instance the field of medicine. There is a general practitioner, surgeon, dermatologist, pediatrician, psychiatrist, OBGYN and much more. They all work in the field of medicine and went to medical school; however, some specialized in a particular field of medicine. Regardless of their specialty, they had to take biology and anatomy in order to get their medical degree. Fundamental life coaching modalities are the biology and anatomy of the coaching field.

Working with a life coach is like working with a general practitioner. A life coach will take a comprehensive approach to your coaching needs and desired results. They will cover a variety of different areas of your life: self-awareness, career, finance, relationship, health, confidence, and parenting. Their approach is holistic, but their modality is the same as a specialty coach.

Certified or Not?

Unlike doctors, not all life coaches have undergone training to become a life coach. Coaching is not a regulated field and that has its pluses and minuses.  You always want to ask if a life coach is certified or not and where they received their certification.

I have a friend that always says, "Certified don't mean qualified." But how many of us would go to a doctor that never went to medical school?

There are professionals in every field that miss the mark. However, their training gives you some indication that they have been trained in the field for which they work. We get training so we can have a higher level of predictability for successful results.

Knowing if your coach is certified or not helps you understand if they have training in the field of cognitive transformation. If not, then they are just going to give you their life experiences to try and help you. Not against life experiences, however what works for one marriage will not work for ALL marriages.  A coach needs skills to be added to their life experience in order to help people that don't look, act, and think like the coach.

Specialists

Specialty coaches will have a laser focus in one area of your life. If you are seeking to write a book and have never written a book before, you may want to seek out a writing coach. Typically (exceptions to every rule), a writing coach will not dive deep into marital problems or parenting issues. Their focus is to help you get your book written and published. The key is to understand there isn't an "either or" as much as it is, what do you want to accomplish right now?

You may start out with a life coach to identify your blind spots, break through hindering barriers, discover your purpose and define the future you. Then you may select a relationship coach to help you find a mate, a marriage coach to help bring harmony to your marriage and a writing coach to help publish your book. The beauty is there is a life coach out there to help you get results in every area of life and you do not have to navigate this journey alone.

I have always said, "Life coaching is a luxury until you experience it and then it becomes a necessity for long lasting success."

By the time most of us get past 30 we have a variety of doctors for a list of needs. A general practitioner the we see annually for our physical. Then we have a gynecologist to make sure all our lady parts are functioning as they should. A gastrologist is necessary for gut health. If we have children, then we have a pediatrician for our kids. Just like the medical field, a variety of coaches may be necessary to help you craft your winning life or maybe just one dual certified coach. However, now you can make an informed decision on what's best for you!

Getting Results is ALL that Matters!

By the end of a coaching journey, my hope is for you to be ecstatic about the results achieved in a short period of time. Watch the excitement Joy Sutton expressed after her coaching journey with Breakthrough for Life LLC.

Share this blog with your friends and family. Spread the word and help others craft their winning life.