I’m very excited to share this article with you. This article was written by a good friend of mine, Mike Bundrant at the iNLP Center. In his article, Mike answers the question, “Is life coaching worth it?” and he does an excellent job of helping you determine whether it’s a good fit for your life and the problems you want to overcome. Enjoy the article and be sure to let me know what you think!
Is life coaching worth it?
You understand what life coaching is, and you are undergoing the problems that a life coach can assist you with at the moment. But is life coaching worth it? Is it worth investing your time and money?
Studies conducted by the International Coach Federation in 1998 and 2009 points out several ways customers have discovered coaching to be useful to their lives.
– Enhancing self-esteem and self-confidence
– Enhancing interpersonal skills, communication, and relationships
– Boosting business management and work performance
– Improving career opportunities
– Enhancing personal order and time management
– Improving life/work balance
– Promoting wellness, fitness, and health – reduced stress levels and increased energy
– Stopping bad behaviour
– Improving the quality of life
– Increasing income
In both these studies, coaching customers reported that life coaching was worth the investment. According to the 1998 survey, 98.5% of the clients said that life coaching was valuable. In the 2009 survey, 99% of customers were satisfied with life coaching.
Another third study that was conducted in 2004 also had some various aspects that coaching clients found valuable. They include:
– Being accountable
– Being encouraged
– Generating ideas with the coach
– Being listened to
– Having independent viewpoints
What Do You Get From Coaching
So, what are you likely to obtain if you decide to hire a life coach?
- Goals and Priorities
A coach can assist you in setting goals and priorities, and direct you on how to put your most essential preferences first. Your goals could be anything from the things in your mind that hold you back to the world forces that fight against you. When you organize your list of goals and priorities, you and your life coach can come up with strategies through which you can accomplish your goals sensibly and feasibly.
- Motivation
Motivation is like a divine concoction when it comes to achieving what you aspire. If you have been struggling to get something done, there is a likelihood that you just lack motivation. A coach will assist you in finding out why that happens, and deal with any restraining patterns or beliefs that are not working. Then they will go along with you to motivate you to achieve your goals.
- Accountability
Another significant aspect that coaching can assist you with is accountability. Coaching provides someone to report to, which enhances the likelihood of following up and achieving your objectives.
- Going Beyond Ineffective Strategies and Confining Beliefs
Every person is prone to think that things are not working for them. Life coaches can help you free yourself from these habits by presenting new viewpoints, recognizing your weak points, and inducing big excellent moments.
You also have some unproductive approaches you have been utilizing to make things work in various situations in life. Your coach can help you in forgetting these and developing new ways that will work for you.
After getting rid of what is not working, you will be able to concentrate on what you want and come up with new strategies to achieve it.
Is Life Coaching Worth Investing Your Money and Time?
Some questions clients have before hiring a life coach are: Is life coaching worth it? Can I actually afford the cost? Is it worth the time commitment?
Let us take it as a mathematical problem. There is a certain amount of time and money that you spend to meet your goals each week without a life coach. Let’s name that value X.
You will spend some money and time on life coaching. Let’s name that value Y.
To determine whether hiring a life coach is worth the money and time, we will subtract the value of Y from the value of X. If the value of X exceeds the value of Y, you will have a real saving. Even if you save $1 or 1 hour, you will have obtained value for your investment.
For instance, if you spend $2000 to meet your goals now and the money you will spend on coaching is $1500, you will save $500 by hiring a life coach.
You might be telling yourself that you don’t spend money or time at all – you are just doing what you do.
That is a simple but misleading trick to take on. We usually come up with various strategies to do things. For example, we have a strategy for organizing our time or for finding a new job. We always don’t think much about these strategies, but we have specially adopted them. That is where we spend our money and time.
If you are using an approach that takes longer than it could – and most likely you are – you are losing a lot of time. And as we all know, time is money. That means when you lose an hour in a day, you will end up purchasing more convenience foodstuffs, which will eventually end up costing you more. Another example could be that you want to reduce weight; if it takes longer than you wanted, you may be tempted to purchase “slim down fast” programs, books, and pills, which will cost you money.
So, every time you follow a strategy, you invest money and time. If we would spend less time and money by hiring a life coach to work with us than we spend on the strategies we are currently using, then engaging a life coach is worth the investment. Even saving a dollar or an hour is enough. But you will likely save much more than that, as indicated in the above examples.
Coaching on aspects that assist in achieving your career and business goals can also be subject to tax deductions. Speak to your tax advisor or accountant for more information.
What Is the Cost of Hiring a Life Coach?
The charges of a life coach are relatively comparable to those of other adept professionals. The costs vary depending on the coach and the services provided. More experience and better training will mostly correspond to higher prices.
Private life coaching that involves face-to-face interactions or one-on-one coaching sessions will usually cost more than group coaching or online coaching. The cost of private coaching ranges between $50 to $500 per hour, depending on the coach and the services provided.
Author Bio:
Mike Bundrant is the author of Your Achilles Eel: Discover and Overcome the Hidden Cause of Negative Emotions, Bad Decisions and Self-Sabotage and co-founder at The iNLP Center which offers online certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and life coaching.
