Building a life coaching practice is extremely exciting and daunting at the same time. It doesn’t help that we all have that Big Bad Inner Critic who creeps in with negative self-talk like: “You’re not good enough yet to start a life coaching practice!” or “You don’t have enough experience yet!”
Our Inner Critics often trick us into thinking that we need to have a huge, successful, and thriving coaching practice right now. Well, if you’re a new coach in the first stages of your business, that is just not possible.
How can we be further along than where we currently are?
Our Inner Critic gets us down because it tries to put pressure on us that we should somehow already be close to the vision of where we want to go without truly embracing where we are currently are. Our Big Bad Inner Critic sets an unreasonably high standard that we should be amazingly perfect coaches with efficient and streamlined systems from the get-go, which is an impossible task, which can lead to procrastination and perfection paralysis. Learning to tame your inner critic is one of the most important skills you can develop as a new coach.
Practical Steps for Silencing Self-Doubt as You Build Your Practice
Start with the here and now! Give yourself permission that you’re a newbie and don’t have much experience. Embrace the process of trial and error. Learn by doing.
Research in positive psychology has shown that one of the biggest predictors of successful people is that they just continue to create, create, and create. They just start with where they are now. They’re not afraid to make mistakes or do average work because they know that’s what leads to great work. Even some of the world’s greats like Shakespeare or Spielberg have had their share of flops, but they just keep creating and doing what they love.
So for new coaches building a practice, one of the best ways to overcome your Inner Critic is to just coach, coach, coach, and coach some more.
Coach as much as you can as it what will give you much needed insight like business systems to try, what niche may be your true calling, how much to charge, where to get clients, etc. If you’re looking for a starting point, these five tips for starting your life coaching practice offer a clear, practical framework.
Remember, your Inner Critic has a mission to thwart you from moving forward. So, the best way to battle that naysayer is to first focus on the process of what a coach does… coach.
As Zig Ziglar said,
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
Confronting imposter syndrome is closely related to managing the inner critic. If these feelings persist as you grow, recognizing imposter syndrome in your life can help you move through it with greater clarity.
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