What is life coaching? It’s both an easy question and one profoundly more difficult. Even if you’ve been life coaching for years, during moments of reflection, you may wonder what life coaching is all about.
Life Coaching is Questioning
What is one of the most important things you do as a life coach? You ask powerful questions. Having the ability to form powerful questions, and then ask them in a way that will elicit the correct responses is one of the keys to having a successful and prosperous life coaching career.
Life Coaching is Philosophical
You don’t often think of life coaching as philosophical in nature. Is this a philosophical question: What is life coaching? Most people would say no. There are some people who call themselves philosophical counselors and they detail the difference between what they do and what life coaches do. Life coaches work on the assumption that a client has goals and ends in sight but needs a plan to reach them. Philosophical counseling is more concerned with examining the goals of the ends.
However, life coaching actually does both. It examines ends and goals while also creating strategic plans to reach those ends or goals. Life coaching is most definitely philosophical in nature and in practice.
So, What is Life Coaching?
Life coaching is questioning the philosophical nature of one’s goals and dreams, and then developing a real-world plan to reach those goals. Life coaches work in the field of personal philosophy with most clients. They are true philosophical explorers and nurturers!
Life Coaches and Socrates
What is life coaching is not the development of powerful questions. What is a life coach if not a modern-day Socrates? The Socratic Method is based on asking and answering powerful questions which stimulate critical thinking.
Coaching is about asking and having the client answer powerful questions which stimulates their thinking, motivation, inspiration, and actions. Here are several deep philosophical questions to consider as a life coach.
15 Questions for Life Coaches
- Is it worse to fail at something or never attempt it in the first place?
- Does nature or nurture shape our personalities and motivations?
- What piece of advice would you offer a newborn infant if you knew that he or she would put that advice into action as they grow and develop?
- If you could go back and do one thing different in your childhood, what would it be?
- If you could make one different decision in your adult life, what would it have been?
- Can you be moral without a belief in a divine being?
- Does luck play a part in success?
- Can a person truly be anything they want, or does genetics or circumstances play a huge role in who we become?
- Is the Law of Attraction real?
- What makes someone intelligent?
- What makes someone successful?
- What makes you happy?
- If you were an entry in the dictionary, how would it read?
- If you were to be remembered in a history book, what would it say?
- If you could be anything, what would it be?
What is life coaching? It is both a philosophical and procedural question, but the philosophy part is often overlooked. Making sure you include philosophical questions (including the ones above) in your practice, will help you find more outcomes for more clients – you will be a more successful coach!
Hope you took some great value out of this post today! I’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts or questions. And also, you can click on the Twitter button below to retweet this article… Thank you!
Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community
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