…and with that you decide you have the passion it takes to help others succeed. Awesome! Next you need to determine if you have the skills necessary to coach someone to personal success. Consider this an evaluation or tutorial covering the steps you are about to embark on while preparing the launch of YOUR successful life coaching practice. This adventure might take a little money (but not necessarily a lot), but its positively going to take a little of your time. Luckily, time management is a skill in your arsenal, right!

First a quick note: you notice I said — “might take a little money.” I need to tell you, while certifications, tools, programs, endorsements and skills can go a long way in this industry, so do personality, passion, commitment, networking and honesty. With that said, there are many life coaches who spend a fortune and build a thriving practice, but there also those who spend vary little and are extremely successful. Rule of thumb — don’t spend what you don’t have! Life coaching is very engaging and lucrative career, but not at the cost of your financial stability. You know what’s best for you!

The first readiness measure in becoming a life coach is preparation of your own mental alignment with your goals.

Coaching the Coach – Preparing

A life coach’s primary purpose is to help his or her clients to define and achieve their goals. If you feel ambivalent about the way your own life choices, then this might be your largest challenge. This is why I am addressing this first, as it is needs to be thought about at during the initial development of your life coach career. In fact, it is something that may reprise itself all the way through your career, as you continuously refine and amplify your self-image and ideals. Many life coaches, have their own life coaches in the beginning for this very reason — training the trainer so to way, but necessary if you need mentoring to achieve your career dreams.

There are benefits to doing this — first, life coaches are excellent sources at making you feel good. You MUST feel good about your goals and choices to make progress. Second, working with someone already in the industry is like performing research, and accelerates motivations for goal achievement. In turn, this helps shape and transform your life coaching career. This also allows you to perform a proper assessment of the industry before jumping head first without understanding the nuances. In life coaching, there isn’t just a single category that covers it all. In fact, there are a hundreds of different focal areas including:

• healing coaching;
• management coaching;
• wellness coaching;
• motivational coaching;
• goal-setting, time management and career coaching;
• focus and concentration or ADHD coaching;
• relationship coaching;
• personal coaching;
• conflict-resolution management;
• transformational or spiritual coaching;
• …just to name a few.

Working with your own life coach in your focal area helps you understand the trade, and gives you key insight into what to expect when you have clients of your own. For instance, never underestimate the intimidation factor that arises the first few times you meet with a new a client. It’s almost like the first date jitters, with the possibility of awkward silences and the session ending with both thinking, “I hope she liked me.” Having someone to bounce the intimidating feelings off of is exactly what life coaches need. I know it seems weird, but it is a well known fact most psychologists even have their own therapists for the same reason — they serve as a sounding board, self-development expert and emotional support. Your personal life coach will do the same for you during the start of your career.

Of course, you may be ready to bust out the gates and go it alone. There is nothing wrong with that. Just stay positive, and realize success is waiting for you in the end!

Education, Certification or Self-Endorsed

Now that you pinpointed what type of coaching you will specialize in its important to know the tools available to boost your credibility. When it comes to education and certification, life coaching is not regulated by any regulatory or licensing bodies in the United States. So do you even need certification or education, if you have the experience and passion? The answer: Yes and No.

There are three paths you can take to becoming a life coach:

1. Obviously a Master’s Degree In Counseling helps, but if you have this what prevents you from just charging more and calling yourself a psychologist? This option arms you with practical and theoretical experience. The thing to remember when taking this path is therapy and life coaching are similar, but not synonymous. Therapy focuses more on healing from the past; whereas, life coaching works toward enhancing and clarifying the goals amidst the muck. As such, a counseling degree doesn’t teach this, usually, and you’ll still find yourself partaking in a life coach certification program. A Masters Degree in Counseling is upwards of $50,000, which is a lot given you’ll still not be equipped with all the tools necessary to be a life coach.
2. Becoming certified as a life coach is your second option, and most feasible for the average person beginning a career as a life coach. In fact, you most likely already have a variety of life experiences supporting your decision to become a life coach, and those experiences go toward supporting your certification program.
3. The third path is often the most affordable opportunity, and find it more affordable to apprentice with another life coach in the industry. Many life coaches offer mentoring programs, and even if they don’t this is where hiring your own comes in to play. Even if you don’t take this route, there is abundant information online (such as this article) designed to give you the basic information to get you on your way — even without spending a time towards certification. Let’s face it, you might have the skill and passion necessary to do it, you’ve helped numerous friends and acquaintances overcome and develop life skills, and that is all you need — the skill, the passion, the drive…after that its all about marketing yourself.

If you chose to pursue certification certification, ensure its from an accredited organization for professional life coaches. You can verify this by contacting the International Coach Federation, The International Association of Coaching, and the Association of Coach Training Organizations. Unfortunately, there are many scam-based training programs eagerly waiting to steal your money in exchange for motivational babble. This is one of the downfalls of the industry lacking licensing requirements. Do your research and go with your intuition.

Your next step in becoming a life coach, no matter the path you chose, is marketing yourself as the best choice and match who is able to assist your clients in setting their goals and enhancing their life.

Read LifeCoachHQ’s article, Marketing for Life Coaches 101, to further understand the road ahead of you as you venture out into building your brand as THE Life Coach that produces RESULTS!