Monday, September 21, 2009

Is It Just Me Or Are There An Awful Lot Of Life Coaches Out There These Days?


I have been seeing a lot of people that want to tell us how to run things in our lives lately. They are Twittering like crazy, blogging like crazy, and releasing e-books every month and I'm confused. We all need coaches for every life decision?
It used to be all about shrinks. On Sex and The City, they said "everyone has a shrink, even the shrinks have shrinks" and having a qualified psychologist meant that you could tell things to someone in a healthy setting instead of on the phone to your friends at 3AM. I don't have a shrink so I'm still calling people occasionally at 3AM. Sorry guys.
Now, it's a life coach, a career coach, self esteem coaches, and financial coaches. Some are qualified, some maybe not. Some seem legitimate, and some want me to sign up for their $99 Webinar and learn how to get rich by staying home. Turns out, a lot of people are getting into the coaching business. Is life becoming so difficult that we need a team of handlers a la Britney Spears to get through our every turn? I'm not saying it's a bad idea just that it seems like we should be able to make some of these things happen ourselves.
Also, a lot of these coaches are using the internet to friend and follow us and give us our bite sized Twitter anecdote every day which still doesn't make them qualified to tell me how to run my career. It's funny because I have a huge online network but still call my best friend from high school when I have a problem I can't figure out.
Here's the interesting thing: I call her when I have a boy problem, a career problem, a medical problem, a family problem, or any other kind of problem because she knows me. I would have a hard time with any of these coaches because their solutions seem like a one sized fits all "life solution".
That's not to say I would never try a life coach of some kind. I think there are probably some very good career coaches out there just that the sheer numbers of them right now is a little ridiculous.
Have any of you tried a life / career / self esteem coach with any success?
My dream coaches:
writing: Bob Dylan or Diablo Cody (Juno)
working out: Jackie from SkyLab (remember that Bravo show?)
life: a lot of my favorite bloggers are unknowingly my life coaches. See blog roll.

4 Comments:

Blogger Royce said...

I wouldn't do a life coach of any sort other than people who know me. I have friends and family I'm close with, that's good enough for me. Everyone's getting advice from strangers, I often why we should care? Isn't it a bit like going to ask Ja Rule to make sense of your problems, or advise us after 9/11, like Chappelle joked about?

And God help you if you try to learn any life lessons from our FIWK blog... you're better off asking Ja

Speaking of Diablo Cody did you see Jennifer's Body? I thought Juno was incredible but I'm nervous to see Jennifer's in case it's not so good...

September 21, 2009 at 9:47 AM  
Blogger Caitlin said...

Good points.

I haven't seen Jennifer's Body but I probably will since I have girl crushes on both Diablo Cody and Megan Fox (despite the really stupid stuff she continuously says).

September 21, 2009 at 9:54 AM  
Anonymous DoubleAmericano said...

3 AM phonecall keep life interesting...

Never giving them up although I have made above and beyond my quota of them in the last year...

In fact I stretched them out from 9am-midnight for while....

Yikes!

September 21, 2009 at 10:51 AM  
Blogger Elisa said...

I am going thru some big changes over the next year, and a lot of them became very overwhelming and caused me some severe anxiety that even an extra dirty martini could not squelce.

So I started seeing a life coach. And I adore her. The best thing is that unlike any of those friends that you ask for opinions but can never REALLY be objective, she can. Moreso than just someone to talk at while I lay on a couch, she challenges me and holds me accountable.

I would, however, agree that there are waaaay too many "coaches" out there that aren't very good. I mean really, in the grand scheme of things they are friends with structure. Hrmmm...I guess that would be what separates the good ones from the bad. It's really their ability to help you grow and change, not their ability to "chat" and "listen."

September 21, 2009 at 4:46 PM  

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