Do I have to live a perfect life to be a life coach? I will not leave you in suspense – of course, the answer is “no.”
It sounds like a silly question when you ask it out loud, but it’s a question that has lurked in conversations I’ve had with potential new coaches over the last 10 years. People want to become life coaches but feel that since their lives aren’t perfect, they probably shouldn’t consider it. Or they feel like maybe someday they’ll become a coach, after they do a lot of work to get their lives in perfect order. Some new and even established coaches are held back due to lack of self-confidence or self-esteem because they are overtaken by their own perceived imperfections.
Early in my coaching career, I thought, “Wow. I want my clients to have balance, success, abundant life, and more, and I want to have integrity myself in these areas.” It was intimidating. I was tempted to feel that striving for perfection was necessary as a coach. However, at that time I called myself a recovering perfectionist, and I was so aware of the active gift of grace in my life. Making “perfection” the goal did not line up with my faith and what I saw in scripture. But I wanted to walk my talk as a coach.
For me, I had to make peace terms with my coaching terms. I had to think through what integrity, balance, abundant life and success truly meant to me and reconcile that through prayer and scripture, and with my faith and understanding of grace. This helped me to develop my own personal understanding and practice of what it means to me to walk my talk as a coach.
I’ve developed an ecourse out of this experience, to help anyone else who wants to work through this process. It’s free and I invite you to sign up for it here.