How To Be Your Own Life Coach

Alexandra Molotkow talks us through it at The Hairpin:

Life coaching is about results, and one of those results is great writing about life coaching. Last year, Genevieve Smith reported on a $2-billion industry requiring “no particular course or legal licensing” to practice.

Courses are available, ranging from a $50 webinar-plus-printable-certificate to $12,000 university programs. Smith took a course through the legit-sounding Coaches Training Institute, and observed some kind of inner-self-actualization exercise in which a student named Aaron was declared a “WILD MAN”:

An assistant handed Aaron a name tag and a marker. He dutifully wrote WILD MAN on the tag and stuck it to his shirt.

The class moved on to the next student. In a short span, they deemed one person genuine and perceptive but in need of confidence (henceforth WARRIOR), another student earnest and sweet yet lacking in explosions (SUPERHERO). The class’s only black man was found to be soulful and deep and was encouraged to share his inner wisdom. The group decided he should be a movement leader. The black women in the group all ended up being labeled divas of some sort.

By the end, Smith writes, “it turned out I was a pretty good life coach. I was told by one friend that he would have gladly paid for my services and by another that it was better than therapy.” She was a natural: as she’d noticed at the very beginning, many of the skills taught “were no different from those necessary for being a good friend.”

Go ahead and read the whole thing!

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