What is Life Coaching? Life Coaching Activities & Powerful Questions

Phyllis Reardon M.Ed
Life Coach

“To be able to look back on one’s life in satisfaction is to live twice.”

Kahil Gibran

Many times when I am asked what I do and I answer that I am a Life Coach…I will get the question…what is a Life Coach?


For much of my life I was a school teacher, an occupation that needed no further explanation. A teacher taught. Everybody knows that. But as a teacher the work I did was that of personal development……helping individuals come to understand the degree of their human potential and assisting them achieve their goals.

My business card now reads Life Coach but the work I did as a teacher is very similar to what I do now.

I am passionate about helping people discover the depth of their potential…(sadly in today’s world much goes undiscovered) and I work with my clients to assist them in reaching the goals they define.


Life Coaching is all about getting people to achieve to their very best. It is personal and professional development all at the same time.

I can't help but ask, can one separate personal and professional development? Doesn’t it make sense that the greater the degree of personal development one has the more successful they will be in their chosen profession?

For me,

Life is Learning. Life is Change. Life is Challenge. Life is Amazing.

 
In the  following excerpt from my book Life Coaching Activities and Powerful Questions: A Life Coaching Activities Workbook   I answer the question, What is Life Coaching?



What is Life Coaching?

Life Coaching is a possibilities building relationship, between a life coach and a client, for the purpose of improving the client’s life and work.

Life Coaching helps individuals create the changes they want in all aspects of their life. It is a process that helps clients get unstuck and move plans forward to successful completion.


So we can say that:

Life Coaching is moving people toward success.

Life Coaching is a focus on the future.

Life Coaching is all about change.

Life Coaching moves people from idea to action.

Life Coaching is an ongoing relationship, between coach and client, which focuses the client on taking action toward the realization of their goals or desired self.

Life Coaching is a platform or vehicle for learning.

How Life Coaching Works

People hunger for positive change, but in their busy lives they find it difficult to take the necessary steps to make that change. Research has shown that the more clearly defined an individual’s future the more likely they are to achieve their goals. Clearly defined goals in work and life lead to more successful individuals and business. However, clearly defined goals of their own do not guarantee success, we have just to reflect on New Year resolutions. For the most part they fail not because goals were not clearly defined or individuals not successful people, they fail because the process or strategies they employed were unsound or unsuitable.

With a focus on the future, individuals are supported through the Life Coaching process in the development of successful strategies to implement and maintain desired life and work changes. The coaching process allows clients to stop everything they are doing and take a close look at their life; evaluate what they want and check to see the direction in which they headed.

Through a series of individual sessions, the life coaching process challenges, inspires and supports the client in achieving their goals, while at the same time holding them accountable.

Just by the very nature of human beings, we are more likely to complete tasks that are being monitored by another person. This is accountability, and it is built into the coaching process.

Clients are assisted in expanding the view they have of themselves by recognizing their own potential and clearly defining action or actions that will transform their potential into success.

Life Coaching is not counseling nor is it therapy.



“Most people know what they want but they don’t know how to achieve it.”

Coach Phyllis  

Life Coaching Activities

If you have an questions about Life Coaching or would like a complimentary session, please email me
phyllis@coachphyllis.com