Life coaching?

Oh, it’s merely for artisans or for people who fancy spiritual stuff. (You are rolling your eyes, I know)

Plenty of people still think that life coaching is a buzzword or it’s a woo-woo thing.

Just like a bird hovers in mid-air, your brain cells stop functioning for a moment when the rumors play a jig-saw puzzle with you. You include your own assumptions and try to fill in the empty spaces. The result of which comes out in the form of myths that share no relationship with the facts.

Tilt the picture a bit, and you’ll see people giving different names to all coaches. Coaches prefer titling themselves as Personal Coach, Professional Coach, Life Transition Coach, etc. Inevitably, all life coaches have some commonalities, and they do belong to the same landscape of coaching.

Long story short, myths have the power to pollute the air. Today, let’s burst the bubble of professional life coaching myths together. Stay put and read it out.

Myth #1: Professional life coaches are the counselors

Putting life coaches and counselors on the same ground doesn’t make sense. A mythic narrative exists in the mind of individuals. They consider life coaches as counselors which is certainly not true.

Counselors delve into the past of people and try to heal them. While life coaches concentrate on identifying obstacles and your take on the life that stops you from receiving the desired outcome.

Myth #2: Coaching is only for employees with a typhoon of problems

No denials! Many people hire a coach when they feel that they have started rocking the boat of their lives or when they do not see a way out. Well, another side of the picture says that it’s the half-truth. People do hire professional coaches when they want to accelerate their personal and professional growth.

According to research, published in NCBI,

“Coaching and training accelerates the performance and helps in the goal attainment.”

So, next time when somebody says that coaching is only for employees that are in dire need of help, just turn deal ears to it.

Myth #3: Coaching eats a huge chunk of time

But I honestly don’t have enough time….

What a busy world! The hustle bustle of everyday life makes me go crazy. Taking out time for coaching sessions? Nah, it’s a big NO!

Wait a minute! You are in for a shocking awakening. Coaching doesn’t eat a huge chunk of time. Neither you have to attend a huge number of sessions to see the results nor have you to sit in the long sessions. Mostly, people see results right after a session. The length of a session can fall anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour.

Myth #4: Life coaches are your friends

A life coach challenges you, asks you to push your limits, awakens your power of seeing the possibilities; your friends do the same? They don’t. So, yes you can say that life coaches are like your friends but not your actual friends. With a friend, you can share your life goal, but with a life coach, you discover the ways to reach that goal. 

Myth #5: A personal life coach can’t help you in achieving professional goals

Burst the bubble of this myth and give it a second thought. The role of a life coach is to expand your way of thinking and to fine-tune the go-getter attitude. No matter what goals you have; be it personal or professional, a life coach can help you in attaining those goals irrespective of your goal type.

Myth #6: Professional coaching is pretty expensive

It comes without a doubt that many topnotch coaches charge a higher fee for a session. But, putting every coach in the same category doesn’t sound like a fair option. If you are to find a life coach in New York, you’ll find a good number of coaches that charge $500 to $1000 for a session. Spending money on coaching makes sense when the results you reap supersedes your expectations. The ROI you get from spending on coaching is tempting enough.

Myth #7: Professional coaching is somewhat related to mysticism

Wait, what? Do you think that mysticism shares a relationship with coaching?

Agreed! There are a few spiritual coaches that incorporate chanting, meditation and things like that but most of the coaches don’t do that. Usually, life coaches don’t use transformational healing or mysticism. They do it on practical grounds and are more inclined towards the measurable results.

Myth #8: Life coaches give advice only

It never works this way. A life coach doesn’t impose anything on you. A professional coach first discusses your goals, let you explore your opportunities. After hearing it, they guide you about how you can achieve it. Don’t expect a coach to give you A to Z instructions as you are a grown up individual and you are competent enough to walk on the path.

Myth #9: Coaches are angels (They are perfect human beings)

Sounds weird, right?

Well, that’s true. A lot of people consider life coaches as angels. They think that life coaches are born perfect. In reality, life coaches are the individuals just like us. They are good at many things and bad at a few things. But the thing is that life coaches don’t stop and keep improving their areas of life. They possess immense knowledge and skills to improve yours as well.

Myth #10: Executive coaching is solely for upper management

Who said that?

Myths always pollute the air. If executive coaching is solely for upper management, see what Jack Welch, Former CEO of General Electric said

“Does coaching work? Yes. Good coaches provide a truly important service. They tell you the truth when no one else will.”

There is nowhere mentioned that coaching is for upper or lower management. It is justified to say that coaching helps in all walks of life, at all levels.

The bottom line

Your eyes are stuck on the display, and your brain isn’t ready to absorb more. The myths were an eye-opener, right?

You know about the basic myths now. If you come across more myths, don’t turn deaf ears to it. The jiggly jelly of filling in the empty spaces will make you assume more, and you’ll end up with your own senseless theory. There is a word known as “Ask.” Make use of it, ask a life coach directly or search about that very myth on Google, instead of marking it as a truth in the core of your brain.