If you are younger than 25 years and you have come across life coaching, you might remember thinking – ‘I’m too young to do that’
Maybe you have started on your coaching journey since then, maybe you even qualified… or maybe this thought still pops up when you think about starting as a life coach.
Limiting beliefs are part of your subconscious mind. If you think about the last time you wanted to try something new and a fearful thought popped up in your mind and warned you away from it, that is recognising a limiting belief.
We all have limiting beliefs but the trick is to tap into our inner voices, hear our negative chatter so that we can work on banishing those thoughts that limit our abilities.
That’s exactly what Charlotte Bullock did. Despite having her fears about being too young to coach, she chose to follow her passion and she started her coaching journey in late 2018.
“I originally got interested in coaching when I was around 21, so that's a very young age. I had this fear of ‘I am too young to do this’, ‘people aren't going to take me seriously’ and ‘I am not good enough’.
Charlotte is 23 years old and as she remembers it, she’s always had a passion for goal setting but after college, she didn’t find a job that she was truly passionate about.
“Within the job that I am in at the moment, someone asked me about my passion for goal setting, I always had a passion for it, it’s something that I really enjoy. And they said, Have you ever considered life coaching?
And when they asked me that, I thought ‘what is life coaching? I've never heard of it'. Even though I've done a lot of reading in psychology, personal development, self-improvement and goal setting, I didn't realise what coaching was and how you could actually have a career in coaching."
Watch the short video below to get to know Charlotte and find out how she got started with her coaching studies.
“I had my fears when I signed up to the foundation course but I thought, I'm just going to go with it anyway. So I went to the foundation course and I realised that yes, I was much younger than a lot of the people there, but what I did come to notice was I was just as passionate as everyone there.”
1. Feel the fear but do it anyway
Most people who are embarking on a new journey are familiar with the fear of the unknown. The key is to be aware but do it anyway. You never know where the journey might take you.
2. Remember your why
Charlotte says that the passion she felt in the beginning for coaching is what kept her focused on her goals. “I think the passion is really what got me through.
3. Get clear on what the job is
The first thing we teach at The Coaching Academy is what exactly life coaching is and what it isn’t.
“I’ve come to learn that it’s not my age that’s the problem. When it comes to coaching, it’s about your experience as a coach and not your life experience. It’s how you build your skills to be able to help others work through their personal development.”
4. Shift the perspective
Ask yourself - how can you use your age to your advantage? What are the benefits of being a young coach? And how is your age preventing you from taking action?
Today, Charlotte feels like she found her purpose and she’s working towards finishing her Life Coaching Course as well the Corporate & Executive Diploma she’s currently enrolled in.
She wants to coach full time in the future working directly one on one with clients as well as coaching teams in the corporate world.
For those who are struggling with the ‘am I too young’ question and are fearful to take action towards their passion, Charlotte has a simple message.
“My biggest wish is that you overcome that fear and you start to use that to your advantage. You use it to your advantage to get in a position in your life where you're happy and you start living the life that you deserve to live. Think about it – how can you use your fear to your advantage?
Start taking action and start moving towards the life you want.”
Watch the video below to hear directly from Charlotte how she faced her fears about being too young to become a life coach.
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If you're interested in finding out more about coaching, just like Charlotte did, start by joining us in our interactive live online training - Introduction to Life Coaching. Choose from available dates here.
The Coaching Academy was established in 1999, and is now the world's largest coaching school.
In that time we have trained over 14,000 people to become life coaches.
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