The easiest way to make money has got to be asking people what they want to do with their lives, and then asking them how they think they can achieve it. This is the job of a ‘life coach’. I think that I want to be one when I grow up because, well, I have a life don’t I?
If you don’t think that any of us can enter this profession, take a look at some of the things that a life coach does. Then tell me if you don’t think that you (and several people you know), have what it takes.
Since a life coach is a person who supports you, motivates you and “holds you accountable to achieving your vision for yourself”, that could very well be your mother, your sister and your husband all rolled into one.
The life coach is the person who will help you get what you want out of life. Sounds like your boss at work, since it’s her business that’s enabling you to get the money to buy your groceries and pay your rent.
However, a life coach is not a therapist. Thank God for that! Because some of us Caribbean people have a fear of sitting on a couch and telling somebody we don’t know, all our business.
But since life coaches are considered experts at the process of changing behaviour, my grade school teacher from back in the day or my mother accompanied by her trusty belt, are the people who come immediately to mind.
Some even say that a life coach can get you from Point A to Point B, but I doubt that she will lend out her car to anyone who asks.
And while life coaches are supposed to ask a lot of questions, they wouldn’t have anything on the kids who wake up asking ‘why’ and go to sleep wanting to know ‘how come’?
So shouldn’t the person whose life is so screwed up make him an expert in this field? Apparently not, since one life coach admits that her “validity as a life coach isn’t based” on her personal life, but cites things like a resume and years of experience.
What about the person who’s always giving free advice because she isn’t using it? Encourage her to hang out her shingle, because she might as well get paid for something that other people seem to need.
These days you can find a life coach for just about anything in your life that can use some improvement – love, career, image, relationships, job. Most say that they don’t just give you advice and tell you what to do. So although they’re not therapists, similar to those professionals, you actually end up doing most of the work.
Singer Millie Jackson, can be considered one of the first life coaches, when she advises the couple who has fallen out of love to call Mrs. Johnson to babysit the kids for a few days so that they can take a trip and do all the things they used to do.
And she gave them homework. Like dancing till dawn and making love all night long. And if they weren’t “back in love by Monday” – unlike today’s life coaches, she told them what to do.
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