Thinking about becoming a health coach but need some help making the right decision?

Awesome! You’re in the right place.

Whether you’ve been pondering it for weeks or months, or you’re ready to enroll right away and get started (like, yesterday!), here’s a helpful exercise to help you determine if it’s for you. This is a mindfulness reflection that may help you get more clarity on this as a next step for you.

Grab a pen and paper, or open up a blank document on your computer. Or just close your eyes and ponder your answers to these questions. You could also call a friend or loved one to discuss.

Writing things down and talking out loud can help to process things when you’re not sure of what you’re thinking or feeling yet. Writing down your thoughts can also help because journaling uses both sides of the brain. So decide which one you’ll do, take a deeeeep breath, and let’s begin!

1. What do you want out of life?

What do you want your life to look like? What do you expect out of your career or job? 

• Do you want to create health programs on your computer that many people can do at once, or work with individual clients in person or over the phone?
• Would you rather be up and about, maybe hosting health events or talks?
• Or is your goal to create a healthy new product that can help people live their best life?
• What about the schedule you want? A flexible one where you get to set your own hours (running your own practice), or a set schedule that you have to adhere to (working for another doctor’s/chiropractor’s office)?

Think about what you want in your everyday life. Once you get clear on what you want and how you want to spend your time, you can more easily figure out how to get there!

Get your health coach starter kit here!

2. What’s your end goal?

What are you hoping to learn from the training? Where do you want to be at the end of all this?

• Are you hoping the program may help you sort out some health conditions that you’ve been struggling with?
• Or perhaps you have a goal to help people struggling with a certain condition or ailment?
• Or maybe you have a favorite chiropractor or other health professional in the area and want to join their practice as a health coach?
• Or do you want to lead corporate wellness talks at companies in your area?

Keep pondering what your end goal is here and where you ultimately want the training to take you.

There are not limits to what you can do with your health coach certification (for a list of 50 things you could do with your certification, check out this post). But first, it’s important to get clarity on what you want out of all of this.

3. How much time can you commit to the training?

Think about when you’ll set aside time to keep up with the training. You don’t need a huge chunk of time each week, but if you want to stay on track, it’s best to make sure you have at least some time to keep up with it each week.

I set aside about 2–4 hours a week for the program that I did. Some weeks I took off or had too much going on and just caught up when I could. I like to think if there’s a will, there’s a way. When I started the program that I did, I was working a full-time job as a freelancer.

Not to say that you should pack your schedule with that many things (guilty!), but I was already working full-time when the opportunity came along, and I felt like it was too good of a chance to pass up. I found a way to fit it all in because I was motivated enough to make it work.

I’ve often found that I’ve had to give up something in order to get what I really want. When I became a health coach, I gave up weekday happy hours and some weekend socializing so I could stay home and study. When I started my own online business, I didn’t buy a new purse for two years even though the one I carried every day was practically falling apart. If you can give up other things in the short term, you will be rewarded for your hard work and accomplishments.

You know what’s best for you and your schedule! I want to give you some encouragement that you could probably find a way to make it work if your heart is really in it.

4. Are you open-minded?

One necessary aspect of becoming an effective health coach is having an  o p e n   m i n d.

Let’s say you have a client come to you who eats totally opposite of the diet you thrive on. What if her intuition is leading her toward a lower-fat/higher-carb vegan eating style, but you’re hard-core Paleo and thrive on meat and bone broth? Can you be open-minded about what’s “right” and empower her to follow her inner voice, or would you try to convince her to do it your way?

Or what if you give advice to a client but they come back saying they feel worse—even after sticking with it for a while? Can you be open enough to consider a different approach, even one that you initially hadn’t considered or agreed with?

An open mind is also necessary to do the program itself—if you want to take full advantage of all the amazing lectures and information that you’ll have access to. If you’re not willing to learn about many different kinds of diets, healing foods, ways to live and more (even some that you disagree with), then health coaching may not be the right fit for you.

Plus, If you’re not open-minded, you’ll waste the opportunity to expand your mind and perspective and get that well-rounded macro view of wellness that’s really necessary to help a larger number of people achieve their best health!

5. Are you willing to accept that there’s more than one ‘right’ diet?

One of the things you’ll learn in health coaching school is that there is no one right diet for everyone. Keto may work for Mark, while vegan may be perfect for Ashley, and not having a specific diet helps Maya feel her best, but each of these diets is widely different from one another.

It might seem confusing—and even maddening!—at first, how different people can feel their best on such different eating styles. You might think, “There must be one right way to eat!” Hate to break it to ya, but that’s just not the case.

Bio-individuality means that each of us has our own set of unique dietary needs. Every person responds differently to various foods and diets, because we’re all—you guessed it—different! With our own set of genetics, stress and activity levels, health conditions and goals, we all thrive on different foods and ways of living.

If you can accept that and actually see it as a beautiful and wonderful thing (and a fun challenge!), then you’ll likely be successful as a health coach.

Ok, keep writing! Get all of your thoughts onto paper and let this exercise help you determine what’s best for you.

Do you still have questions? Share with us in the comments below!

Now, it’s your turn:

If you’re feeling more and more like this is a good fit for you, then take the next step and download your Health Coach Starter Kit if you haven’t already by clicking the button below.

Wishing you all the success your heart desires,