How Can A Life Coach Help You To Live With Intention?

Feeling unclear about your next moves in life? Let's take a look at how coaching can help revive your dreams, clarify your goals, and move from stuck to action.

Have you ever felt like life is happening at lightning speed, but you’re watching it from the sidelines? Like the world all around you is moving while you seem to be frozen in place?

We all have periods in our lives when things feel stuck. And these are the precise moments where a good life coach can help bring clarity and focus, allowing you to reconnect with your dreams and desires so you can start moving forward again.

Life coaches are not in the business of giving advice or telling you what to do. Rather, your coach is a strategic thinking partner who helps you examine and shift your present circumstances. This includes an exploration of your hopes and desires - even (and especially!) if you aren't sure what those are anymore.

Through a process of Appreciative Inquiry, coaching helps you clear away the fog and make an achievable action plan to get unstuck. It's designed to stimulate motivation and accountability so you can get off the sidelines and take intentional steps toward the future you want.

So what does this look like in practical terms? Let's explore!

1. Life coaching knocks out the distractions

To infuse your life with greater purpose and intention, it’s helpful to first inventory what's been getting in the way. The reason many people struggle to take action toward their goals is because we live in a time of endless incoming fire. Distractions abound!

There are so many things, people, events, and responsibilities competing for your attention. With a life coach, you can slowly untangle that ball of yarn and figure out where you really want to focus.

A coach will help you examine your life carefully. You'll uncover the things that matter most to you, the values you hold, and what you truly want to experience more of. From there, you'll narrow in on the best tools and techniques to pare down the distractions so you can focus on your highest priorities.

2. Coaching helps you stay present

A coach can help you develop daily practices that will keep you grounded in the here and now.

When you are present, we're less likely to ruminate on the past or worry about the future. To achieve your deepest desires in life, it's necessary to pay significant attention to where you are right now. After all, the future is built on the small, incremental choices that you make each day.

It's easy to get stuck in a state of thinking but not doing because there's "not enough time“ for action today. You might put off taking a first step toward your goals until tomorrow... or next week... or some vague place in the future when things are going to line up and you'll finally be "ready."

Coaching centers your focus squarely on TODAY. It's about taking aligned actions, no matter how small or seemingly insignifcant. Because in coaching, we know that doing a little something now is far better than envisioning a perfect plan for tomorrow that never gets executed.

3. A life coach helps you clarify what you REALLY want 

So, what do you really want in life? What are your biggest goals? How do you want to FEEL inside your life? What would you like your relationships to look like? Are there hobbies and passions you wish you had more time to explore?

Maybe you've been thinking that you, too, would like to be a life coach! Do you daydream about build your own business, or having a job that allows for greater flexibility or more travel?

We all have a long list of things we want, but not all of those aspirations are equally important. You really cannot keep your eye on the prize if you don't know what the prize is!

One of the benefits of intentional living is that you get very precise about what you really want, and the tactical steps necessary to achieve your goals. When you hire a life coach, you can expect them to help you clarify what matters most for you, and where your time and energy would be directed most productively.

4. The coaching container provides genuine support

Another advantage of having a life coach is that it offers you a trustworthy and reliable support system.

Sure, we all have friends, family, and co-workers that help to meet this need. What's different about life coaching is that your coach is professionally trained to create a safe and non-judgemental container in which to explore your reality.

A coach doesn't just cheer when you win. They also help you navigate challenges and roadblocks. They listen, reflect, encourage, and support you on your journey.

In coaching, the fulness of who you are is embraced and welcomed. This includes your flaws, mistakes, confusions, and uncertainty.

As adults, there are few places and spaces in life that are completely dedicated to YOU, where you can feel truly seen and heard by another person. The impact of having this type of professional witnessing is profound, and is often what clients value most about the coaching relationship.

5. A life coach helps you mitigate stress and overwhelm

There’s no way to erase stress in life, but there are productive ways to address with it. A coach can help you deploy strategies to name and neutralize stress as it arises.

Your coach does this by getting to know your world - the pinch points, patterns, and habits  that may be contributing to stresss and overwhelm. Together, you'll discover your particular triggers and responses, and WHY those things result in the experience of stress or overwhelm.

Combating stress burnout is not a solo endeavor. In fact, the way many of us arrive in a state of chronic stress is by trying to handle life's challenges all on our own. A coach can help you implement stress reduction strategies and identify possibilities you may not yet be able to see.

6. Coaching empowers you to say no

Saying no can be a challenge. In the dominant culture, 'no' is often perceived as something negative. When we set personal boundaries, others may interpret them as rejection or rigidity. And yet, without a healthy capacity to say no, we run the risk of having our lives ruled by other people's requests and priorities rather than our own.

No doesn't just apply to things we don't want to do. Sometimes the hardest part of goal attainment is when we have to edit our desires, saying no to things that appeal to us in order to make enough room for what's most important. This might look like saying no to an enticing opportunity that simply doesn't align with your goals at this time.

Life coaches are skilled at helping you navigate the difficult decisions, set boundaries, communicate clearly, and hold fast to your priorities. A coach will also support you in really understand what you want to say YES to, and why. They'll help you determine where some no's may need to be applied in order to make your dreams a reality.

7. A life coach helps you find your flow

Flow is a state where you're aligned with your intentions. You've charted the path and have hit your stride. It's the feeling that comes from doing what you were born to do, and living life on your terms.

According to the 2017 International Coaching Federation’s Global Consumer Awareness Study, clients who have partnered with a life coach report a variety of positive impacts across the board. They include:

  • Improved communication
  • Increased self-esteem/self-confidence
  • Increased productivity
  • Optimized performance
  • Improved work/life balance

Many people hire a coach to work with them on a specific outcome, such as finding a new job. But what they get from the process is usually so much more! That's because in coaching we coach the person, not the problem. Regardless of why you choose to hire a coach, for most people the coaching process will by default improve your whole life.

Considering A Career in Coaching?

Launch your coaching practice right! Check out Lumia Life Coach Training - a program that's every bit as unique as you are. Grounded in science, our ICF accredited program features authentic instructors, a robust curriculum, and fellow students dedicated to becoming a force for good in the world of coaching.

Lumia Coaching: Vibrant community. Evidence-based life coach training. Lifetime support.

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