Life coaching is a self-actualization program used by a number of psychologists to assist clients with transitions in their personal life. The technique used in assisting clients involves mentoring, value assessment, behavior modeling, and goal setting.

Since life coaching draws from a number of disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, and career counseling, some people mistake life coaching for therapy. However, emotional healing is not the focus. Life coaching does not focus on things that have happened to you in your past. The idea behind life coaching is to encourage you to learn from your past, take responsibility for your present, and create your own future.

Life coaching involves assisting people to transition from where they are now to where they would want to be. In most cases, sessions are conducted over the phone, but can also occur via email, face-to-face and even in groups. People who experience life coaching often set bigger targets, achieve them swiftly and conclude what they have started.

The first positive steps towards life coaching are to make the decision, prepare yourself for action, be ready to make changes, challenge yourself, and make room for new things. Life coaches charge about $200 a month, which includes three long phone calls or meetings, and additional emails or phone calls as required. Some coaches charge per meeting or phone call, which varies from $25 to $75 an hour. A life coach with a steady client base of 20 clients can expect to earn $4,000 a month.

Another advantage of being a life coach is that you are self-employed, which gives you the freedom to dictate hours and workload. For example, a weekly phone call of about an hour to each client every week can be comfortably arranged into a four-day week, giving you ample time to complete other commitments.