Making the decision to hire a life coach is one that many consider, but since it’s become one of the fastest growing industries, how do you know who to work with? Here are 5 questions you should ask any life coach you’re considering working with:
What experience do you have working with people who are trying to achieve my outcome?
Coaching of any type is very personal and should be tailored to meet your objectives and goals. Knowing your life coach has had experience helping people achieve goals and outcomes similar to the ones you desire is important. This doesn’t mean that he or she can’t help you if your outcome is different, but just like visiting New York is very different than reading about it, coaching people in various situations in a real-life environment is different than watching a YouTube video about it.
Have they done what you’re trying to achieve?
Now, some of the best coaches in the world of sports haven’t been as great as the people they coach, but knowing the road ahead can help you avoid roadblocks and costly mistakes. If you’re looking for help in your business, then has your coach run their own business other than life coaching? If you’re looking to repair a marriage, then it’s worth knowing the status and history of your coach’s relationships. They don’t have to be perfect, in fact, most learning experiences come from mistakes, but transparency and real world experience trump theory any day.
Where did they get their education and experience?
Yes, it’s true that to be a great coach you don’t need a fancy degree, but having some base level of education in the area you’re practicing certainly does help. This can come from a variety of sources and doesn’t have to be formalized, but if your potential life coach’s only education was watching the Secret, you may want to consider looking elsewhere.
Do they have testimonials or reviews you can see?
Life coaching can be extremely private and higher-end life coaches that work with celebrities and people in the public eye often sign an NDA, but any good life coach should be able to point you to at least 1 reference that you can check in with. In my experience working with high-profile clients, they are happy to sing your praises if you’ve helped them change their lives. You don’t need a lot of references: 1-3 should serve you well.
Why did they get into coaching?
Inevitably your coaching should ask you your “why”, so you should ask theirs. Look for a reason that comes with a sense of purpose or calling. All the great coaches I know have been coaching people in one way or another the majority of their lives. It may not have looked like life coaching at the time, but it was coaching. This is one reason so many fitness professionals find themselves becoming life coaches – it’s a calling.
Having just got back from vacation I have something to tell you.
Travel. Get away, have fun and relax. If for whatever reason you can’t travel far then don’t. Do a short trip. If you can’t do that the find someplace locally where you can just escape to. Find a spot that helps you clear your head relaxed.
If you can take a long fancy trip awesome. If you only have the means for a short or day trip no worries, but you need to make time for yourself.
I hear this from client’s a lot when they return from vacation: “I really indulged, ate and drank a lot but didn’t put on weight.” My response is the same: “You were relaxed, not stressed out about work or other things, and getting a good amount of sleep. That’s why.”
By the way, if you’ve never been to Barcelona, I highly recommend it.
Contrary to popular opinion, positive thinking is an important skill that can be acquired, rather than being an innate attribute in some people. Positive thinking can benefit the mind in many ways. It can increase creativity, initiate the pursuit of new skills, and of course, increase happiness. Here are three great ways to train your brain in the art of positive thinking:
Meditate
Research has shown that people who regularly meditate experience more positive emotions than those who do not. Meditation creates a sense of mindfulness in your daily life so you can get more pleasure out of the small things.
Write
Record a positive experience in a journal at the end of each day. This task will train your mind to look for the positives throughout your day which will elevate your mood.
Play
Schedule time to have fun in your daily life. Explore. Experiment. Do something that you thoroughly enjoy. Allow yourself to smile and have a great experience.
To learn more about positive thinking, check out James Clear’s article here.
Did your grandmother or some other elder in your family ever say something like: “Drink your milk, it will help you grow up big and strong”? In our culture, milk seems to be this elixir of health that provides many benefits with no downside costs to our health. This could not be more false. Milk, along with many other high-caloric drinks, can be harmful to our health. The reason? Think about the time it takes you to drink a glass of milk and the time it takes to eat an orange. Drinking high-caloric drinks like milk quickly floods our bodies with sugars and fats with no fiber to regulate the absorption of these calories.
The result is a spike in blood sugar, which can cause problems like diabetes, daytime exhaustion, and other endocrine-related issues. There have also been multiple studies completed attempting to link drinking milk with a reduction of broken bones and increased growth. All studies have shown no such relationship exists. Animal milk has evolved for thousands of years to be beneficial to a specific species at a specific development stage. Children and adult milk-drinkers are not only a different species, but are also in the incorrect development stage to be drinking dairy milk.
For a more detailed explanation about why diary milk is not as healthy as you might think, check out this video.
Extraordinarily smart people have more in common than you might think. Smart people are persistent, they set goals, they are avid readers, they are self-disciplined, and they think about thinking (metacognition). People tend to know most of these good habits of smart people but overlook the bad habits that they share.
Smart people tend to drink, use drugs, are night owls, and are anxious. Having high intelligence is not always a walk in the park; these people tend to live the most difficult yet rewarding lives. Purposefully exhibiting many of these traits will not make you smarter, they are simply uncontrollable tendencies of intelligent people.
Did you know that college graduates earn about 66% more money over their lifetimes than someone who only graduated from High School? It’s college application season and whether you’re a high school senior or a young adult who wants to get more out of their life, going to college may be for you.
Learn more about the application process here, and take control over your life.
When working in the business field, working with others is a common occurrence. In order to be a better business partner, it is important to gain certain skills and to train specific traits.
To be a successful business partner:
- You have to be able to voice your opinion, even if it’s against your higher‐ups.
- You have to be able to work with others and communicate.
- Be able to tackle new projects and try new things.
- Contribute to discussions and share your knowledge.
- Be able to translate between numbers on a page and insights in real life.
Learn more about what it takes to be a successful business partner
In an age of technology, people try to use it as a means to meet their soulmate through apps like Tinder. However, studies have shown that the best way to meet your significant other is through other means, like at an event or at the bar.
Check out these other places where you can meet your potential match!
Photo Cred: Calvin Ha
Mindfulness is a skill that many people have no desire to improve or have no idea exists. A lack of mindfulness can cause problems such as overthinking, worry, stress, and poor perception. Mindfulness is defined as a mental state achieved by focusing awareness on the present moment. A person in a truly mindful state recognizes and accepts thoughts and feelings and lets them pass, like a leaf floating down a river. There are many free mindfulness resources available on the Internet. Take the initiative and begin to improve your present awareness with this simple mindfulness exercise.
Exercise without progress tracking can lead to loss of motivation and a slower rate of improvement. It is important to know where you stand on a fitness level so you know how far you have come and can take steps to keep improving. Many assessments people give themselves are subjective and simply based on how much they can lift or how far they can run. While these may be somewhat useful indicators, a more specific set of tests is needed.
Check out this Men’s Health article on how to assess your current physical state.
What experience do you have working with people who are trying to achieve my outcome?
If you can take a long fancy trip awesome. If you only have the means for a short or day trip no worries, but you need to make time for yourself.
