My life coach training tools: books, my personalized life coach training notebook from Muji, a cup of tea and a beautiful sunset postcard from my client Marilen
I started training to be a life coach at the end of January. Why be a life coach? Why life coaching? And OMG! It sounds a bit lame. Can we find a better name for life coach? (Yes, these are all actual comments.)
My reasons are simple:
- I felt that it was something I could potentially be good at. I cared about people and was always curious about their stories. There was also a recurring inner voice that kept reminding me that I wanted to help women live their best lives.
- There is practically no life coaching industry in the Philippines. I felt as the economy gets better, Filipinos will need tools to navigate their changing needs, as they shift their focus to living a more purposeful life.
- I know about the power of coaching. When I was promoted to head the biggest division of my former company, I requested for a mentor who taught me about leadership. When I went through an extremely difficult period in my life, I also went to a counselor who helped me deal with my grief by holding space for me and giving me tools to cope everyday. While they weren’t technically coaches, having someone support me as I went through life changes really helped me move forward.
So I searched for the right program. I was seriously considering the Martha Beck coaching program as I devour her column religiously in O magazine but after reading through countless emails, combing Google for reviews and sitting through sample classes, I still wasn’t convinced. I looked for Asia-based programs but nothing really spoke to me as you could be trained to be a coach after just four sessions which I felt was both inadequate and a disservice to the industry. One day, I found a blog and clicked through a comment and clicked and clicked and clicked…until I found the Courageous Coaching Training Program.
And that clicked. The focus on courage really made sense to me. It’s a 10-month long program that mixes both distance and face-to-face learning as you are required to kick off the training with a weekend meeting your fellow classmates. The tenet “start before you’re ready” really holds true as you immediately start coaching practically on the first day.
It’s terrifying, overwhelming, nerve-wracking and every other adjective for fear and resistance. But as we are taught and as we will coach, we need to keep going despite the fear, despite the resistance, despite everything that tells you to continue with the status quo instead of leaning into change and a better life.
