Coach or Cheerleader?

Life Coach.  What is that exactly?

No disrespect AT ALL to Life Coaches (as Buddha Balboa too is of the same ilk) but I’ve always found the phrase a little odd.  Coaches of life.  One designated to coach one through one’s life.

Aren’t we all our OWN life coaches?  Or better yet, shouldn’t we be?

Yes, having a mentor, a guide, a friend, a confidante, is essential in our personal journey.  We need each other – to help us through the tough times, the moments of instability and fear, the persistent path of procrastination.  We need someone to hold our hand, rub our back, give us advice and just plain old love us through the ups and downs.  We need help.

I guess I see the whole Life Coach umbrella as a little bit of a crutch (again, no disrespect, just honest chatter.)  A crutch that we lean on even though we can indeed walk on our own.  Something to reach for when we are feeling unsteady…instead of just handling the wobble and knowing that we already have what it takes inside us to take that step forward.

Maybe what we need is more of a Life Cheerleader – someone who yells our praises through a megaphone, someone who jumps high in the air and claps when we are heading for the goal.  We want and need someone to cheer us through – to remind us to keep going, to never give up, to have faith when we are 4th and inches.

Maybe what we really just need is someone who will shake their positive pom-pom’s at us and remind us that our true life coach is called our heart.