There are two kinds of people who typically explore a coaching career.
Some of them wonder if coaching is something they “could do.” As in: “I wonder if that might be a way to earn some extra money. Maybe I could do it.”
Others (a small percentage of people) feel drawn to coaching on a whole other level. To them, it feels like the profession they were almost destined for.
This group is in a fortunate position. Their inner knowing gives them the confidence to start their careers and become highly successful.
While others fret about Facebook ads, email lists, social media, and marketing strategies to attract coaching clients, you somehow just know all of that will fall into place for you.
When you know you’re meant to be a coach, it’s also easier to overcome fear of being seen, because your desire to make a difference is stronger than that.
If you’ve ever wondered “am I meant to be a coach”, there are several reliable signs.
As you read on, make a note of which (and how many) apply to you, because these signs hold the keys to taking your coaching career to its full potential!
The 7 Signs You’re Called To Coach:
#1: You’re already the person everyone comes to for support
You never asked for it. You certainly don’t charge for it. It may even surprise you as it keeps happening year after year.
When someone is stuck (with their career, health, relationships, confidence, anything) you’re the one they always seem to tag in for support.
Maybe it’s because you’re a patient, non-judgmental listener who people feel safe telling their deepest truths to. Or you have unique perspectives that others tend not to offer.
Whatever the case may be, when people walk away from these conversations with you, they feel lighter, stronger, more capable, and clear.
This natural gift for guiding others through pivotal moments and decisions is a definite sign that you can thrive as a coach.
You’re basically already doing it, and the realization of that, alone, helps with building coaching confidence. Now you just need to get paid!
#2: You feel more alive when someone has a breakthrough because of a conversation with you
Let’s be candid: some people have the brainpower to guide others to a personal breakthrough, but they don’t actually care. It doesn’t light them up inside.
For you, it’s different. When someone you’re talking to has one of those lightbulb moments (where their posture changes, or their voice steadies, and it just “clicks”), you feel a rush of satisfaction.
When this happens, you may notice thoughts like: “THIS is what it’s all about!” Because instead of sending someone off with a tip or a trick, they’ve experienced a true shift.
Others chase income, status, or applause. For you, the holy grail is when someone sees what they couldn’t see before, and their life changes.
This is one of the absolute biggest signs you’re meant to be a life coach. And successful coaching, in large part, comes down to being clear about which ideal coaching clients you can help create these breakthroughs for.
If you are willing to be misunderstood or even disliked by the clients you can’t serve, the right-fit clients will flock to you like you wouldn’t believe.
Mat Boggs, one of our co-founders and an 8-figure coach himself, shares the way to approach this in the video above.
#3: You’ve walked through something that changed you, and now you see the path forward for others more clearly than they do
It’s easy to read about transformation and growth while keeping it all at arm’s length.
Someone can say the words they saw in a blog post, or hit the spiritual “notes” in conversation…but they haven’t lived it yet. And it shows.
When you have personally gone through something life-changing (a divorce, a career pivot, a health scare, a spiritual awakening) it changes you in ways others can feel.
This is another one of the big spiritual entrepreneur success traits. Why? Because your life coaching clients will be able to feel the lack of judgement or oversimplification.
The fact that you’ve been where they are (or somewhere comparable) will simply land.
They will respect the way you don’t tell them to “just do this” to overcome a genuinely complex challenge. They will notice a steady groundedness to the way you think and speak about what they’re going through.
This, in turn, builds trust in the client that you can see a path for them, even if they can’t yet see it themselves.
And that trust, more than almost anything, is the key to transformation in coaching.
#4: You instinctively see potential in people they don’t yet see in themselves
How often do you talk to someone and find yourself thinking things like this?
- “If they could shift this one belief, everything would change in their life.”
- “This person is amazing at [relationships / cooking / fitness / etc.] They could take this so far, and they don’t even see it!”
- “Do they realize that they’re only operating at 15% of their full potential?”
While others focus on limitations, you notice untapped capacity, and feel an almost primal urge to activate it.
Believe it or not, most people do not think this way about their interactions with others.
To them, conversations are just “info exchanges”, not a curious examination of the other person’s life.
Also, as you likely know if you’re this kind of person, not everyone responds well to hearing about the gap between where they are and their true potential. (These can be very delicate conversations to have!)
Still, that ability to see and speak to someone’s highest possibility is at the heart of a powerful coaching career.
#5: You get restless in roles that don’t involve growth or transformation
You do many things well. Manage projects, hit goals, execute plans. And that’s great.
But if your work does not center around intense, bleeding-edge growth…if what you’ve learned in the last 3 months doesn’t make you feel sheepish about where you were 3 months prior…if you’re just checking boxes and completing tasks…
Something deep and sacred starts to wither. Like a slow, steady extinguishment of your inner fire.
You don’t simply want to keep the trains running on time. Anyone can do that. What you crave is breakthrough transformation. Because you know it’s possible! And since it is, how fulfilling can anything else feel?
In a sense, the specific choice of whether to be a business coach or a health coach or a life coach matters less than being a coach at all.
The exact coaching services you offer (while of course they matter!) are secondary to the fact that you simply and absolutely cannot go through life as a task-doer.
This may frustrate some of your current colleagues, but it’s the ultimate mindset for success in coaching!
#6: You’re more interested in why someone sees the world the way they do than in what they’re doing
Surface-level advice doesn’t satisfy you.
When someone says, “I can’t,” your mind immediately wonders, “Why not? What belief or perception is underneath that?”
Before rushing in with hammers and nails and action steps for change, you examine why this person’s life is the way it is. You meet them where they are.
When someone keeps repeating a pattern, you may be frustrated, but even more so, you’re curious.
You’re drawn to the inner story that’s driving everything. The root, rather than the branch.
Not because you’re being nice. But because you know that how someone thinks is where ALL the leverage is in transformation.
So, for instance, if you assign someone self-reflection exercises for purpose, you actually want to know what they wrote down. Their answers matter!
You are not looking to fix behavior. In fact, you don’t look at people as needing “fixes” at all. You know that whatever way they are behaving is coming from what they see.
Therefore, you want to unlock understanding. First in yourself, and then, in the other.
That depth of curiosity is a core coaching trait. Without it, a person can have all the life coaching business ideas under the sun and go nowhere in this business.
#7: You’ve been quietly studying human behavior for years, even if you never formally called it that
Maybe it’s books, podcasts, workshops, journaling, philosophy, long conversations, or all the above.
Or paying unusually close attention when people around you speak and make decisions.
Whatever its source, you’ve always been fascinated by what TRULY makes people tick.
Why some people grow and others stay stuck. What makes some take bold action while others hesitate. The sudden, unexpected mindset shifts change everything.
At some point, you may have thought it was just “interest.” But when you look at the pattern over time, it looks less like mere curiosity…
And more like preparation for a career where you help paying coaching clients.
That’s often a defining component of a successful purpose-driven coaching career.
If you know you’re meant to be a life coach, here’s your next move:
You don’t become a coach the day you get certified.
You become a coach the day you decide to take your natural instincts seriously.
If these signs felt uncomfortably accurate…If you’ve quietly known this about yourself for years…
Then it’s time to stop wondering and start exploring your future as a coach a lot more seriously.
We’ve created a free five-day immersion hosted by successful 7 and 8 figure coaches who know what’s working, because they’re living it themselves.
Because it is!
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