A Life Coach Disguised as a ........

One of the problems with what I do for a living is my ability (or rather inability) to accurately describe what I do (sound familiar job seekers?). Usually I say "I'm a Job Search and Career Coach", at which point the person across from me smiles wryly, nods their head and says "oh, great".  Yawn.

I'm obviously still working on MY introduction statement, but it recently occurred to me that maybe I AM a Life Coach.  I have worked really hard at avoiding that label / title / job description.  I dislike it greatly: 'Oh, you have a life (or are looking for a life), great, I'm a Life Coach'! Aarrgh!

But maybe, as the saying goes: 'What You Resist, Persists'.

When I'm working with a client, it's difficult to separate out the 'person' from the 'career'.  Yes, I know: what we do, is not who we are.  Yet there are so many intertwining threads between our lives and our work.

Our identity, our self-worth, our financial security, our sense of self, if we're lucky: our sense of purpose, our vision, passion and meaning are all wrapped up in what we do, i.e. our work.  

So am I really coaching the client's life or their career?  It's so much bigger than 'a job'.  Am I really a Life Coach disguised as a Job Search and Career Coach?  I'm not sure 'Life Coach' will make it into my new introduction statement, but you'll know it's there in the background.

Brenda Cody