How a regular guy became his own life coach (and how you can too)

I’m a regular guy.

I’ve never been one to try and find meaning in religious texts or spiritual nonsense. When I feel rudderless, I turn to those who I respect.

I look to guidance from eastern philosophy and success stories.

And yes, I sometimes look to celebrities. Not necessarily entitled actors or beautiful pop stars, but people in the public eye who are the very best at what they do.

And it seems that over the last few years the famous people I follow are all raving about one thing.

Life coaches.

Bill Gates, Anthony Robbins, Andre Agassi, Oprah and countless other big names have been going on and on about how much life coaches have helped them.

I figured — why not? What have I got to lose? I’m all about finding practical ways to improve my lot in life.

I wanted to see what life coaches were all about.

My search was short lived

The first thing I did was google “what is a life coach?”. I kid you not.

First result: a life coach is a person who helps a client develop by identifying strengths and weaknesses, and helping you overcome adversity.

Sounds great.

Next thing I googled: “how much does a life coach cost?”

Answer: yikes! A bit too much!

Look: I hate feeling rudderless. But I hate feeling penniless even more. I got a mouth to feed (mine!). I got bills to pay.

I needed a way to orient my life AND not break the bank in the process.

And that’s when I stumbled upon the perfect solution.

You can actually be your own life coach

I needed to reorient myself. I needed to give my life direction. I figured out those things.

If I got myself into this mess, and I was the one who realized it — then I knew that it would be me who got myself out of my own funk.

So I set about becoming my own life coach.

My optimism was definitely in the right place, but I needed the right tools for the job. Remember, I was the guy who googled “what is a life coach;” I’m not exactly an expert in the field.

So I searched for “become your own life coach” and came upon an amazing guide to this exact methodology.

It’s called Be Your Own Life Coach: 10 Steps to a Successful Life by Jeanette Devine.

These 10 steps outlined by Jeanette really helped me identify what was causing my life to feel directionless.

It helped me figure out my own strengths.

It helped me reorient my mindset to figure out “where I am right now,” and “where I want to be.”

How?

Through a series of simple, yet powerful, soul searching exercises.

I can’t give away all of these great techniques, but I will let you in on a few of the steps and the impact it had on my journey.

The first step is reorienting your life

The first way to reorienting my life was journaling. That’s right — simply writing my life down.

Jeanette Devine asks you to do simple tasks like: “define your values,” or “jot down up to three goals, but no more.”

I really connected with this. I appreciated having to focus my attention. So many times, we’re told “everything is a priority,” meaning that “nothing is a priority.”

But by only topping off at “three goals,” I had to consciously get rid of things that weren’t a priority, paving the way for me to figure out what was really important for me to achieve.

Try it: have three goals. No more. You’ll be surprised at what you find.

Clarifying my core values

This was another critical component for me — and something that I recommend to everyone.

Figure out what your core values are!

You need to figure out what you have, deep down inside, that is immovable. That is innate.

Once you know what you can’t remove, you know who you are — deep down.

You have your foundation.

From there, you can build yourself up as a person.

Another great tool to help articulate the essence of your personality is the Enneagram test. It’s a personality test — a bit like Myers-Briggs — that helps show your strengths and weaknesses.

I’d consider it essential to help learn who you are and where you want to go.

Where do you want to go?

This was the last big thing: where I wanted to go. I had to “create a compelling vision of my future.”

A future that I had no idea about.

I had my values — I had my goals — but what was my future?

Luckily, Jeanette’s book shows you how to coach yourself through this!

She gives you two great techniques — one of which I’ll tell you now.

She asks you to write your own eulogy.

Eulogy?

It scared me at first. I don’t want to think about death.

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. My life is finite. If I’m going to live a life of purpose, I need to embrace this.

I need to choose to live my life to the fullest.

So I started writing.

I wrote the fullest, most jam-packed eulogy I could muster. Everything I’d want someone to say about me, I threw it in.

And at the end: I was left with it: my vision for the future.

Become Your Own Life Coach

Reaching out to Jeanette Devine

After reading Jeanette Devine’s eBook, I reached out to her to say thanks.

After a few emails back and forth it was obvious she and I were aligned in a lot of ways. Both in our passion for self-improvement and also our interest in sharing practical advice with a wider audience.

So we agreed that we would offer her eBook, Be Your Own Life Coach: 10 Steps to a Successful Life, on the Hack Spirit website.

I already offer eBooks on Buddhism, mindfulness, mental toughness and taking responsibility on Hack Spirit and I was thrilled to be able to add one on being your own life coach.

About the eBook

Jeanette’s eBook provides exactly the guidance you need to immediately start improving your life.

By drawing on her experience as a life-coach, she shows us how to turn our lives around by making deep-lasting changes which can not only be implemented today, but will last you a lifetime.

With encouragement, warm humor and an emphasis on keeping things clear and practical, Jeanette sets out the 10 steps for you to take (or reclaim) control of your life.

She supports these steps with essential background information, practical activities and techniques to keep things both interesting and interactive.

Jeanette will coach you in the same way she coaches her personal clients.

An incredibly helpful resource for both your personal and professional life, Be Your Own Life Coach: 10 Steps to a Successful Life is the perfect guide to help you become the best person you can be.

Who is this eBook for

Feel like you’re ‘stuck’ in one or more areas of life? Whether you’re:

• Struggling with a lack of confidence or clarity for what you want to achieve in life
• Frustrated by a failure to hit your goals
• ​Suffering through an unrewarding job – one which pays less than you’d like to be earning, or doesn’t allow you to utilize your true skills and strengths
• ​Dreaming of a happier balance between work and the rest of your life
• ​Frightened by an upcoming change – or new phase – in your life
• ​Fighting a seemingly uphill battle as you try to maintain your health, youth and vitality.

The great news is you have far more control of your present and future than you might realize.

And with Jeanette Devine’s new book, you now have the coaching principles—taught by someone with two decades worth of coaching experience—to knockout any roadblocks and discover just how powerful you really are.

With Be Your Own Life Coach: 10 Steps to a Successful Life at your side, you’ll have a wonderful guide to help you tap into your purpose in life, set goals, and develop an action plan to achieve every one of them.

Click here to learn more about Jeanette Devine’s eBook.

Become Your Own Life Coach