When most of us get stuck and find ourselves needing help, we generally turn to friends and family to seek out their advice. But some would argue that their feedback could be a bit tainted since they are biased and generally have their own issues or agenda that their advice is filtered through.

While some smaller decisions can be dealt with through the advice of your peers, there are other challenges where it might be time to find a life coach who can help guide you. For those of you who may not be familiar, Wikipedia says that “Coaching is a form of development in which a person called a coach supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance.”

While life coaching originally started as someone who helps you get from point A to point B (i.e. achieving a goal), over the years it has evolved into something much greater than this. Many coaches now see themselves as a blend of a mentor, teacher, consultant, and friend because it is their job to not only assist you to get what you want from life, but they also have your best interests in mind.

Unlike a counselor or therapist who is only there to listen and let you vent, a coach will give you advice and tell you what they think. But unlike a friend who may be biased, their advice will come from the perspective of having a deeper understanding of who you want to become. From the coaches perspective, their goal is to help you raise your standard of living and take the necessary actions to become that person.

In the last decade, personal development information has become much easier to access. In the past, most self help devotees were limited to books and expensive workshops. But now with sites like YouTube, Udemy, and Audible, it is much easier to educate yourself with this type of information at a fraction of the cost.

Many life coaches see themselves as students of life who ensconce themselves with all of the information they can gain access to. Because of this, it allows them provide their clients with a more well-rounded perspective on how they can address a problem and move forward with their life. It is quite common for coaches to study health, fitness, psychology, neuroscience, human behavior, business, philosophy, and more.

Some would say that a life coach is the modern day philosopher who has a more pragmatic approach by being able to ground the information they learn and make it more accessible to the common man. During the Greek mythology era, wisdom was mainly kept to a small handful. But in today’s connected world, all it takes is a few clicks and the passion to learn to be able to access the type of knowledge that one can use to help others become their best self.