How can you become a life coach…or a better coach? One thing you will have to do is to get out of your own comfort zone.

Think contrast.

If you listen to rock, go to watch an opera. If you love steak and potatoes, go to eat at a restaurant that serves raw vegan food. Does that sound too wild and crazy? Why not study a foreign language, then travel to a country that speaks that language and get to know the locals.

Get out there and do something you’ve never done before, without judgment.

Because let me tell you, if you are comfortable…you are not growing. How are you going to become a life coach…a good one…unless you learn to start flying by the seat of your pants for awhile?

Don’t laugh.

If you are old enough to remember what a record is, then get out of that little groove you have been stuck in and start listening to something else. Sure you will scratch the record, but otherwise you will just hear the same music. It’s easy to stay in the same pattern, year after year. It takes effort to change and grow. And even success can be dangerous, because if you hang on to what worked in the past…failure is in the future.  Don’t become a life coach if you expect to be able to just sit on your haunches.  

Leaders are leaders because they are AHEAD of the pack.  They got there by MOVING, and moving faster and move agilely than the rest.

The real intention is to stir up passions, dreams and creativity that is stuck down in the depths of a mediocre lifestyle, so you can start living your dreams. How many remarkable people do you know? Hang out with some kids, watch them play. They are remarkable. They pick up a discarded paper towel roll and find a use for it. An empty dental floss container becomes a treasured pager. They can sing off key and dance to their own beat, but they are not limiting themselves. They are not afraid to try.

Get some silliness back inside of you and stop trying to be perfect.

And as coaches, how are we going to support, encourage, people to live the lives of their dreams, if we do not lead? To lead, we must go first. It’s often said that if we live our lives to our potential, we will give others permission to do the same. And isn’t that what we really set out to do when we decided to become a life coach?

Colette Seymann

Accountability Coach, JTS Advisors