How To Become A Life Coach In 2024

Coaching can be an excellent source to bring a positive change to the life of a client and make sure he or she reaches his or her full potential. In this article, we will explain to you How To Become A Life Coach. A life coach works with clients to help him or her tackle a different situation and identify personal strengths to accomplish various tasks in specific areas. If you are empathetic, it might prove beneficial to learn more about this job role to make an informed decision. In this article, we are answering “What is a life coach?” while exploring what they do, discovering their average salary, understanding how to become one, and learning about the required skills for a fulfilling career in this field.

What Is A Life Coach?

If you are looking for an answer to, “What is a life coach? “, they are professionals who mentor and consult with people to enhance their life skills, bringing out the best in them. A life coach employs interpersonal skills in trying to understand and know more about the client. The core objective is to explore possible avenues through which one may influence your client’s desire. These professionals provide support and motivate the client.

The scope of the life coaching details varies with the niche chosen. These coaches may work within the same niche but will adapt to different techniques since the skills, knowledge, and client needs may be different. A health coach focuses on the improvement of someone’s health whereas a career coach seeks to enhance the career for his or her client.

What Does A Life Coach Do?

Apart from enabling a client to fulfill his personal goals, other duties of a life coach include the following:

Interviewing new clients: These professionals interview new clients to help them achieve their goals and improve their skill set. The interview is through which a life coach understands the client’s personality, goals, struggles, and background.
Setting objectives: These coaches help clients determine and set actionable plans to achieve their objectives.
Collaboration with customers: A life coach collaborates with the client on building skills, finding problem solutions, preparing, and managing money.
Advocating for customers’ progression: Sometimes, a life coach helps advocate for the progression of a client by maintaining effective communication with the client and facilitating personal objective attainment.
Motivating clients: A life coach motivates and inspires the clients toward achieving personal goals.
Building strategies: A successful coach comes up with effective strategies that enable clients to transform their lives.
Holding clients accountable: Life coaches are professionals who hold clients accountable and make sure that the client is working towards achieving professional goals.
Administering tests: part of the role involves administering tests to different personalities which enable the client to know that they can either become better or improve.
Training the clients: these consultants train the clients on emotional, communication, and interpersonal abilities.
Related: Necessary Skills Of A Life Coach (With Training Tips)

Life Coach Average Salary

The average national salary of a life coach in New Delhi per month would be ₹97,035. The salary that can be obtained differs immensely from person to person depending on several factors such as field, area, marketing skills, and professional behavior. For instance, the average salary earned, on an all-India basis, by a health coach would have been ₹21,141 a month while the career coach ₹24,678 a month and a life skills trainer ₹20,085 a month.

A life coach with a reputation for succeeding and always upskilling himself or herself can also boost their potential earnings. Your salary can also be determined depending on your education level, kind of employment, and other certifications.

Skills Of A Life Coach

A life coach needs to have various kinds of soft skills and in-depth knowledge of the niche to excel in their career. A few common skills to gain are:

Communication

Portraying ideas to clients is not a convenient aspect unless the life coach has great communication skills. Using such communication skills can help persuade a client to explain any changes that they would make. This will make it easy for the life coach to have healthy relationships with clients. They could be more of a motivator towards speaking about emotional and difficult subjects. This makes it easy enough to motivate your clients and find ways on how to accomplish their goals.

Compassion

Appreciate a life coach who empathizes since it will make you understand other people’s problems. It is an important skill set because it will help you get along and identify that which might motivate, inspire, and make your clients happy. When you are empathetic, you are able to give lessons to identify the client’s requirements.

Goal setting

As these professionals set achievable goals for clients, a life coach requires proficiency in goal setting. With these skills, you’ll be able to understand how to go about setting your short- and long-term goals as well as ways of identifying success paths in solving clients’ problems. Moreover, knowledge of SMART goal methods will help you create specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals.

Observation

These practitioners require an eye for observation to study and listen to the clients and offer pragmatic solutions to situations that the clients present. A promising career in coaching requires one to notice minute details of which the clients are ignorant. Additionally, being observant helps one to understand the characteristics of clients and directs coaching according to the requirements of the client.

Flexibility

Another important quality of a life coach is being adaptable as it enables them to change their techniques to suit the client’s needs. The fact that they can adapt to what suits their clients, rather than sticking to their stiff approach, helps the coach guide their clients to success. Being flexible makes it easier for a life coach and gives the best coaching to their clients.

How To Become A Life Coach?

Here are a few steps to becoming a life coach:

1. Choose a niche

Choosing the right niche is important for a fulfilling and rewarding career. There are various types of life coaches, including personal, performance, career, financial, life transition, personal development, health, executive, and parenting coaches. So it is important to choose your preferred niche.
For instance, if you have a passion for helping your clients gain better health and wellness, then you may become a health coach, while if you want to help the clients achieve their financial goals then you can be a financial coach.

2. Make sure you are through with school

Relevant education and certification can make easy entry into a specific niche. Most of the companies prefer recruiting a life coach with at least a degree in bachelor’s level in related fields with the selected niche. You can choose any of the options if you want to be a freelance or independent coach. You can also emerge successfully as a life coach with a diploma or 10+2 degree.

3. Seek certification

While certification is not necessary for a life coach, they do help in validating your skills and knowledge. That would help you to attract newer clients and increase your earnings. You may want to look into completing a certification from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Most organizations would prefer a candidate who has done a pertinent certification. It also proves to be a valuable addition to your resume and helps in getting hired for the job you wish to be hired for.

4. Do a training course

Depending on your niche, you can do a specialized training course. Most life coaches opt to do a short training course rather than doing a master’s or post-graduate degree. These training courses help improve your core competency and communication skills while also getting familiar with coaching ethics.

5. Find clients

Once you have finished the training program and received any relevant certifications, you can now seek clients. One way of achieving this is through a professional website as well as a strong presence online. You can even go around and tell people in your network about your life coaching abilities and the services offered.
The second way to find clients is by volunteering and organizing free coaching sessions in the community.
It helps increase your popularity and the client base.

6. Update Your Skills

Developing skills is a very crucial requirement for a successful career. There are several ways to update your skills. You can learn from an online course. Look for courses that give practical training to get to practice the acquired skill. Updating your skills may benefit you and your client greatly. You can further improve your skills by attending seminars, considering post-graduate study, or reading books.

Being a life coach on a budget.

Starting a life coaching business can involve using online appointment software that automates the scheduling of appointments and cuts down administration work.

These systems offer clients full access to booking services at any time to book an appointment at their convenience and minimize the failure to appear based on automated reminders. They also enhance the general client experience through seamless booking processes and integration with other business tools, which contributes to increased efficiency and scalability when the business grows.

FAQs on how to become a life coach

Can I become a life coach by self-teaching?

Yes, you can teach yourself to be a life coach. You’re not obliged to have formal learning to become a life coach. However, formal training offers you the ability to acquire the essential skills and frameworks as well as ethical considerations that are crucial for effective life coaching.

Can anyone be a life coach?

It is indeed possible to be a life coach, but it is not easy for all to achieve it. It requires natural empathy, the act of actively listening, and a commitment to lifelong learning and professional development.

Do life coaches get paid?

Yes, so people can even earn a living on life coaching (scroll up to see dollar figures). A life coaching income will depend on experience, specialization, and the ability to build up a strong client base.

Is life coaching for you?

Life coaching as a career is well-paid and very satisfying. First, determine a niche and what education and training certifications you will require to achieve the desired outcome. After that, choose your business model, obtain the necessary insurance, and promote your business.

What qualifications do you need to be a lifestyle coach?

Qualifications include a high school diploma holder who should have some little experience in counseling, training, or psychology.

Not always necessary, though some become certified, while many do through organizations such as the International Coaching Federation. A background in psychology, counseling, or a related field may also be beneficial.

How do I begin to become a life coach?

For example, you can first undertake a life coach certification, establish your niche, create your brand, and reach potential clients through marketing or referrals.

Conclusion

A life coach can be likened to that seasoned sailor guiding the novice one to sail through the rough seas and survive the storms of life while directing him or her to the desired port. The journey to this rewarding profession may not always be smooth sailing, but taking up the oar of guiding others toward fulfilling lives can itself be a journey worth embarking upon.

There is much more than just one way of obtaining training in life coaching.

Whether you are ready to practice as a life coach is your judgment, standards, and expectations. Although cheaper and quicker training routes may seem attractive, remember the profession comes with responsibilities and implications for your clients.

When done right, life coaching can be a truly rewarding career and can give people life-changing insights.

You can also read our related article: