Key takeaways
- The right coach makes space for the question most of us never pause on: what do you want the most? Then helps you past the surface answer to what’s actually true.
- Good coaching is a partnership, not advice. A trained coach helps you reach your own insights and solutions, which fit you better than anyone else’s could.
- Accountability without guilt. Your coach won’t police you, but knowing someone is in your corner is often what gets the important things done.
- The biggest obstacles are inner, not outer. Fear, procrastination and self-doubt are what InnerLifeSkills coaching is built to transform, with more than fifty processes for exactly that.
- Choose a coach trained in the ICF core competencies through an accredited programme. Every benefit here assumes a genuinely skilled coach, not just a good listener.
There are real benefits to being coached, as long as you choose a good coach. If your coach has been trained in the ICF core competencies through an accredited programme, like our own Master Coach course, then coaching can offer you all of the following.
1. Clarity on your most important goals
How many of us have time to pause and ask “What do I really want the most?” A coach gives you that space, and asks the questions that take you past surface answers to what is actually true for you.
2. Clear milestones and measures
Stephen Covey said that if you’re not keeping score, you’re not playing for real. There’s a difference between kicking a ball around the garden and playing with a scoreboard. A coach helps you set milestones you can work towards, and they’re never forced on you. Coaching is a partnership, so you lead, and you stay free to change the measures as you grow.
3. Inspiration to keep going
The early stages of a goal are the easy part. The rubber hits the road when it’s time to actually do the work, and you meet procrastination and “I’ll do it tomorrow.” That is exactly when a coach matters most. I tell my clients that guilt is not allowed in our sessions, because guilt is what makes people stop coming right when coaching would help them most. Make yourself the same promise: when you hit the wall, that’s the session to keep.
4. Clarity on what matters most
Have you ever opened a drawer so full you couldn’t find the thing you were looking for? Full lives are like that too. An hour spent being coached to declutter, to see your priority goals and actions clearly, is a practice worth keeping. The coaching space often makes for deeper, more productive thinking than we manage alone.
5. Space to think creatively and intuitively
My mother-in-law once asked me to explain what I do so she could tell her friends. She’s a sports fan, so I said this. Every top athlete has a coach who helps them achieve more. A life coach does the same in life, guiding thinking exercises rather than physical ones, so people reach solutions they didn’t have before. She was satisfied with that, and it’s true. A trained coach can guide you through dozens of processes that open creative and intuitive thought.
6. A sounding board free of judgement and agenda
Everyone seems to have an agenda. It is a rare gift to sit with someone whose only agenda is a safe, non-judgemental space for you to think. A good coach won’t tell you what to do or comment with platitudes. They’re simply there for you, wherever you find yourself.
7. Focus, so you get things done
A lack of focus holds us back. A coach asks the questions that bring clarity and move you into action. Never underestimate the quiet power of knowing someone is out there, waiting to hear how you got on, not to police you, just to be in your corner while you do the most important things.
8. Positive pressure and accountability
We could all use a little positive pressure. How many promises have we broken to ourselves? You still carry the responsibility, your coach won’t push or police you, but knowing you’ll see them helps you follow through on what you committed to.
9. Your own best insights and solutions
Instead of giving advice, which may be wrong or a poor fit, a good coach helps you help yourself. That is true empowerment. At InnerLifeSkills we use the image of a well. Deep below the surface is clear water: your wisdom, strength and untapped solutions. Even when the surface mind says “I don’t know,” the answers are usually there, just deeper. Our coaching is built to help you reach them.
10. Transforming inner obstacles
If reaching our goals were easy, we’d all have everything we wanted. Outer obstacles like time and money are real, but the bigger ones are inner: fear, procrastination, self-doubt. This is what InnerLifeSkills coaching specialises in, with more than fifty processes designed to help you move past the obstacles that sabotage you. It can be genuinely life-changing to be free of them.
To get the full benefit, it helps to understand the difference between coaching, mentoring and therapy first. We’ve written a clear guide on coaching versus therapy, and if you’d like to feel the approach yourself, our free course is the best place to start.