Lifestyle Coaching is An Important Component of Personal Development Coaching
Lifestyle coaching is all the rage in the United States because people are simply running out of time. Most people have busy lifestyles, and they really don’t have the time to lounge around the house, read a lot of books, watch TV channels on self-development, and put it all together. Few people have that luxury. Most would rather go through a targeted process that has specific objectives at the end of the program. This is where lifestyle coaching comes in as an important component of personal development coaching.
When you sign up for a program, you increase the likelihood of looking at your situation with a fresh set of eyes so you can solve problems that may be holding you back. You may be able to get up from under current practices that may be keeping you from living a more productive and efficient life. It doesn’t really matter what kind of specific problems you’re trying to address. When you hire a person who provides professional lifestyle coaching services, you get plugged into a system of solutions that enable you to achieve some measure of predictable results.
As awesome as the benefits of lifestyle coaching may be, it’s too easy to get burned by the wrong coaches or systems. In many cases, these coaching programs are perfectly legitimate. There’s nothing wrong with them. If used properly, they can work. The problem is students end up choosing the wrong program. If you want to make sure that you get the benefits of these programs, pay attention to the following ten hallmarks. They describe truly effective lifestyle coaching systems.
Hallmark #1: High level of customization
Steer clear of programs that use a one-size-fits-all formula. You are a unique person; you have your own set of circumstances. Make sure that you are working with a coach who uses a program that is customized enough to address your particular set of circumstances and needs. Otherwise, you run the risk of settling for a tiny fraction of the great benefits you can possibly be enjoying.
Hallmark #2: Clear actionable steps
Any coach can talk in a way that is big on platitudes and generalizations and short on specifics. Unfortunately, specifics are required for success. You don’t need a pep talk. What you need are actionable steps which you can actually perform that would produce tangible benefits in your life. If not, then you’re just spinning around in circles. Sure, you may feel good about yourself because of those pep talks, but they’re not going to make your problems go away anytime soon.
Hallmark #3: Less emphasis on theory
There are many coaches out there who focus primarily on psychological theory and personal efficiency theory. While these may be great in a classroom setting, these talks are probably not the kind you’re looking for. Instead, you’re looking for something more practical. You want a series of actionable steps that are easy to figure out and implement. You’re looking for direction that would produce tangible and immediate benefits in your life. Steer clear of coaches who focus on theory, but are short on practical specifics.
Hallmark #4: Practical results
Make no mistake about it; lifestyle coaching and personal development coaching can produce a tremendous amount of results. There are all sorts of results possible. At the very least, you feel good about yourself. You can start looking at your situation with a fresh set of eyes. You can feel that things are possible. This may be great, but the bottom line is, you don’t really have the time to mess around with just feeling good. You also want real results.
For example, if you’re having a tough time with time management, the last thing that you want is somebody that will just give you a pep talk and make you feel good about yourself. Feeling good is important, but this doesn’t make the fact that you can’t meet deadlines go away. Make sure you are dealing with a coach who produces practical results for the specific narrow range of problems you are trying to overcome.
Hallmark #5: Easy to define and track success
This flows naturally from hallmark #4. You want specific results. You’re looking for specific benefits to your life. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your money on coaching. This is why when you sign up for a program, you should be able to achieve tightly defined milestones that bring real benefits. These milestones should enable you to see clearly how far you’ve gone, and how much you have left to go to achieve ultimate success.
Hallmark #6: Closely tracks student’s learning speed
Real effective coaches track their student’s ability to learn. Then, they rephrase or change the tempo of the instruction to make sure that their students are absorbing the right information at the right speed. The right speed here is being defined as the student’s learning speed. If a coach has a fairly slow learner, they have to slow down. On the other hand, if the coach is dealing with a very quick learner, they have to speed up.
Steer clear of coaches who are very inflexible and rigid when it comes to delivering instructional materials. You want somebody who’s going to work with you; someone who would be able to communicate information in such a way that you would be able to pick it up in an optimal way. You should end up with results; that’s the bottom line.
Hallmark #7: Modular information
Since time is a luxury, in many cases, students of life coaches need to do stuff out of order. In other words, the lessons are arranged in such a way that you can take stuff out of order, and still produce results. If you’re dealing with a coach who uses a fixed track for instructional materials, they might not be the right fit for you. The materials may be presented in such a rigid way that you may not benefit all that much from the instructional materials.
Hallmark #8: Scalable
Not only should you be able to do stuff out of order and produce real results in your life; these results should be scalable. They can’t just be small hacks that enable you to save a few seconds here and there. They have to add up to something big. They have to apply to other areas in your life.
Hallmark #9: Proven track record of producing results
Any effective lifestyle coach should have at least a few happy customers. These are former students who truly benefited and are so happy that they are willing to share the word. If a lifestyle coaching program or service provider is unable to show that they have a track record, you might want to keep looking.
Hallmark #10: Sustainable over a long period of time
This is very important. Not only should you be able to benefit immediately from a lifestyle coaching; these benefits should be sustainable over a long period of time. Avoid programs, which give you quick fixes that stop producing results after some time. You need something that would continue to benefit you over the long haul.