Anybody with the passion, the heart and the desire to help people can become a life coach. The problem though is that those qualities alone are not enough to qualify you as an effective life coach. You will also need training and mentoring. But life coach training resulting in a certification costs $3000 to $6000 on the average.
Let's assume you simply don't have that kind of money lying around. Does this mean your dream of becoming a life coach is over? Well, not quite. There are several ways you can make life coach training more affordable.
Scholarships
As in traditional colleges and universities, there are scholarships available to help you pursue your dreams of becoming a life coach. There are a number of companies willing to help you as long as you meet their qualifications and display the necessary level of desire and determination.
One approach you can take is with your current employer. You can inquire whether or not they have scholarships or other programs available that would meet your needs. Many companies offer incentives for their employees to further their education, especially if it's in an area that would benefit the company, such as life coaching.
If no such program currently exists in your company, you could suggest it to the appropriate department head or your supervisor. There are many companies that fund 100% of continuing education.
Another approach is to apply for a scholarship with the top coaching academies. One of these institutions is the International Coach Academy.
International Coach Academy is one of the top schools in the world for coach training. They provide top notch, affordable and accessible training. Their Certified Professional Coach Program is fully certified by the International Coach Federation. What may be of special interest to you is they offer a number of 50% scholarships for their program.
Find a Mentor
Another method of obtaining affordable life coach training is by finding a mentor. If you have the necessary desire and motivation, you can look for someone already working as a life coach who is willing to take you on as an apprentice. This may not be formal training but that doesn't necessarily mean that it will be less effective. Someone currently working in the life coaching field may well be a better teacher or trainer who has been in the classroom and isn't an actively practicing coach.
Of course it's going to require some work to find someone willing to become your mentor. You will need to gain their trust as well as demonstrate a high level of desire and determination to become a life coach. While you should attend some sort of formal training later to attain life coach certification, the lessons you will learn from studying under a personal mentor will likely prove to be far more valuable than anything you will learn in a classroom.
Self-Training
If you are unable to find a mentor or are unable to afford formal life coach training, then your last resort is going to be self training. One source of self training that is widely available is books. There are many books on the subject of life coaching, but you don't necessarily need to buy them yourself. Find the ones available through your local library and start with those.
Another good source of information is the internet. The information superhighway has an incredible amount of information on life coaching. Just make sure you exercise some caution on where you get your information. Choose sites that are credible sources of information regarding life coach training.
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Task Management for Individual efficiency
Have you ever undertaken a large project, only to become overwhelmed at the sheer scope of time and effort required? If so, you're not alone - managing long-term, large-scale projects is a challenging prospect, even for those experienced at it. And then consider juggling three or four or even five or more at a time - for many people the mere thought of it is staggering.
And yet, as you look around your workplace, you can probably spot someone who seems to thrive on doing it and actually does it exceptionally well. And while that person may not seem to be any more intelligent or hardworking than you are, for some reason they embrace the challenge while you shy away from it.
The underlying difference between yourself and that person is simply this - they understand and practice a very simply concept - Task Management.
Regardless of the actual scope of work involved or the timeframe to completion, every project can be broken down into smaller, easily managed tasks that are readily completed over the short-term. As each task is completed, it contributes towards the completion of the project itself, in due time.
More often than not, each task itself can then be broken down into a fixed schedule, allowing you to steadily and consistently work at it over a number of days or weeks. Depending upon the type of task, it may even be possible to work on several tasks concurrently, by spending a relatively small amount of time on each, every day.
The watchwords of Task Management are diligence and consistency, but tempered with flexibility. A given task may need to be paused if it is dependent upon the completion of another task or an unexpected issue presents itself. With flexible scheduling and a willingness to adapt to these unforeseen barriers, the project itself will continue while you explore options to resolve them.
Those whom excel at project management do so because they are able work in such a way that each and every day they make some degree progress on one or more of the tasks involved. This may mean spending as little as 10 or 15 minutes per day or up to an hour on each task. At different milestones within the project, the amount of time spent each day will inevitably vary.
It is for this very reason that project managers are often able to take on multiple projects simultaneously and not become stressed over their workload. Managing several projects at once actually breaks up the monotony of working on one single thing at any given time. It provides a way for you to step back from each project for a short time and then resume it the next day with a fresh perspective.
While we can never lose sight of the overall project itself, by focusing on Task Management, careful scheduling and consistency in how we approach our work, we can easily increase our Personal Productivity without unduly frustrating ourselves or becoming stressed about our workload.
And yet, as you look around your workplace, you can probably spot someone who seems to thrive on doing it and actually does it exceptionally well. And while that person may not seem to be any more intelligent or hardworking than you are, for some reason they embrace the challenge while you shy away from it.
The underlying difference between yourself and that person is simply this - they understand and practice a very simply concept - Task Management.
Regardless of the actual scope of work involved or the timeframe to completion, every project can be broken down into smaller, easily managed tasks that are readily completed over the short-term. As each task is completed, it contributes towards the completion of the project itself, in due time.
More often than not, each task itself can then be broken down into a fixed schedule, allowing you to steadily and consistently work at it over a number of days or weeks. Depending upon the type of task, it may even be possible to work on several tasks concurrently, by spending a relatively small amount of time on each, every day.
The watchwords of Task Management are diligence and consistency, but tempered with flexibility. A given task may need to be paused if it is dependent upon the completion of another task or an unexpected issue presents itself. With flexible scheduling and a willingness to adapt to these unforeseen barriers, the project itself will continue while you explore options to resolve them.
Those whom excel at project management do so because they are able work in such a way that each and every day they make some degree progress on one or more of the tasks involved. This may mean spending as little as 10 or 15 minutes per day or up to an hour on each task. At different milestones within the project, the amount of time spent each day will inevitably vary.
It is for this very reason that project managers are often able to take on multiple projects simultaneously and not become stressed over their workload. Managing several projects at once actually breaks up the monotony of working on one single thing at any given time. It provides a way for you to step back from each project for a short time and then resume it the next day with a fresh perspective.
While we can never lose sight of the overall project itself, by focusing on Task Management, careful scheduling and consistency in how we approach our work, we can easily increase our Personal Productivity without unduly frustrating ourselves or becoming stressed about our workload.
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