Put the term, “personal life coach” into Google and you will get 220 million results; with this many results it sure seems like there is plenty of talk about personal life coaches. Personal life coaching, or life coaching, or personal coaching first came to prominence in the 1980s as an extension of business and sports coaching. There is no known creator or inventor or founding guru, or actual start date – the industry just evolved, and will continue to evolve and grow for many years as more coaches enter the field and more individuals find value in the service.

There’s plenty of buzz, fuss, hype, talk on the street about life coaching. It’s not a fad, or a craze; it merely reflects a healthy trend for individuals to look for self-improvement in a highly competitive and fast-paced world

What Personal Life Coaches Don’t Do

Coaches don’t tell you what to do – they don’t tell you how to live your life and they do not claim to be an omniscient expert in everything about life, especially yours. If that describes your current life coach, get out, and get out fast because that just isn’t good coaching!

Were you on an athletic team in high school or college? Did you experience coaches who always wanted things done their way their way or the highway? Or did you have coaches who attempted to maximize your own unique talents and strengths within the framework of the team? Did you have both types? Which one did you like better? Guess which one would make a better life coach?

What Personal Life Coaches Do

A life coach will help show you ways to achieve results, but will not tell you how to achieve those results. A coach draws the treasure map but doesn’t tell you what route to take to get to the pot of gold. A coach creates the board game, but doesn’t tell you how to get past GO.

Personal life coaches are more like the parents of an eighteen-year old than the parents of a three-year old. Three year-olds need to be told; eighteen-year olds hate to be told and won’t listen anyway. Parents of teenagers learn how to suggest, advocate, propose, recommend, theorize, and give tips. In fact, whether they realize it or not, they are creating a road map to help their teenagers get from high school to career. Coaches are helping their clients get from where they are to where they want to be.

The Future of Life Coaching

Where is life coaching headed? What will personal life coaches need to know and understand in the near future? Here are some potential trends that may reshape and redefine the industry in the coming years:

• With unemployment high and wages stagnant, more individuals will enter the coaching field.
• Coach training will begin to show up at more colleges and universities.
• Even more independent schools will open to try to capitalize and profit on the increasing numbers of people entering the business.
• Technology will create even more opportunities for long-distance coaching.
• Science, psychology, and psychotherapy will encroach on and merge with the field of coaching.
• More coaching organizations will appear, offering more certifications.
• As the business expands and the number of schools and organizations increases, the amount of scams and negative stories will most likely increase.
• There will be a push for more regulation in the industry.

The need for personal life coaches is growing. If you are at a crossroads in your career, or just contemplating your future, you could do much worse than becoming a coach. It’s a great field where you can earn great money and do great things. What more could you ask than that?

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “30-Days to Become a Coach” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your 30-day coaching blueprint videos.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
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