Many look at getting a life coaching practice set up like they'd look at like a job or a business - where the end goal destination is making a certain amount of money or having an "undefined" amount of clients you serve. And once you get there, then you can finally be happy.

Here's another way to look at it which might be more useful. . .

Consider that the process of becoming a life coach is something that doesn't really ever end. . .rather it's an ongoing process of "becoming" where you "become" more and more "useful" to serve people at deeper levels and make a greater difference in their lives and you get to be a better person yourself.

Even the people you think have it all together still have tons of learning, further to go and haven't arrived.

What you might discover is that our clients are a reflection of us . . .if we're working out something, invariably we get clients who reflect that back to us. If we have a problem investing in thing that have our lives get better, we get clients who have problems investing in things that have their lives be better . . .if we have a hard time telling our truth in relationships, invariably we get clients working out the same in their lives. And as we continue to get pieces of our lives handled and cast off things that don't really serve us (i.e. false beliefs, judgments, fears, anger, sadness, grief, etc) - we are left living in more of a state of trust, love, compassion, peace and joy ourselves.

The more loving, compassionate and peaceful one is, the greater the capacity to just hang with someone and listen without getting triggered or judging what they have to say or trying to fix or change them. As people can sense it's safer to open up, they end up sharing more of their life with you and you have an opportunity to make more of an impact on their lives as a coach. . . you continue to become more and more useful to others in that way.

It's a progression. . .some will say "I'm not there yet" - as if there's a destination (and judge themselves against some sort of standard they think is it - like "X" amount of dollars coming in each month or "x" amount of clients). . .but it just doesn't work like that.

You see the people with lots of clients, lots of money and I guarantee you, while they might not publicly admit it - in the background they're still questioning how they can do deeper more impactful work with people and can see where there is to go. Even Tony Robbins would be saying the same thing (if you got him in a room and he got very "real" with you. . ).

Alexander Everett - the guy who trained Werner Erhard (who started Erhard Seminar Training or EST - which later became Landmark Education - a world famous personal development company which a huge percentage of executives from Silicon Valley have to take . . .wrote a book acknowledging that only something like 5-7% of people who go to these sorts of personal development seminars like Landmark, Tony Robbins seminars, Jim Rohn seminars, etc etc only come away with any lasting benefit or profound shifts in their lives. . .5-7% only! . . .Alexander Everett left that whole scene to continue doing work on himself for that very reason - basically giving his company away to his students for free.

I get to work with some extraordinary coaches and extremely "awake" and conscious people and coaches. . .I feel totally "asleep" around them and can see all the places I'm still unconscious. I used to constantly compare myself to them thinking "I'm not there yet" and unhappy.

But the really interesting thing is when you get around them - they're humble enough to actually saying the same thing. . .acknowledging where they're still asleep in their own lives and seeing all the places they're unconscious as well. . .so none of it is what you might think. . .

The very fact that someone wants to do the life coaching journey is really great. . .and it doesn't matter where someone is at on the continuum (whether they have no clients, one client, many clients, charging little, or charging a lot). . .it's not like there's a place to get to. . .there's always more to grow and learn.

If you keep up at it, you'll continue to get cleaned out and work out more and more pieces of your life - and more and more clients will come along and you'll get to make more and more of a profound difference for people. I know in the world we live in the mentality is "I want it right now!" and if that's the case - you might want to watch the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler where he has a magical remote control that allows him to fast forward the parts of life he doesn't like. In the movie he keeps on fast forwarding the parts of life he doesn't like and pretty soon gets to the end of his life realizing he's missed most of it.

Money is just a byproduct that gets sorted out along the way as part of the journey - while it's nice to have enough, it doesn't turn out to be the biggest prize at the end of the day by a longshot.

It took me years to get to the level of effectiveness I have with working with people and countless painful mistakes. . .and I still see there's so much more to do. . .and I know there will be further. The real benefit has been getting to live a more conscious and aware life for me. . .

I guess what I'm saying is to enjoy wherever you're at right now in the journey. . .(regardless of how many clients you have or don't have or what level of work you're doing or not with people or how much money you have coming in from your coaching practice). Sure, it can be a painful process learning this stuff and turning yourself out - but we seem to grow best that way and it's the real prize.

If you can't be happy right now, what makes you think you'll be happy later on? . . .there will still be other challenges later on so enjoy what you have and where you're at today . . Maybe that's the whole point of this. . .to love and see what's right and good with wherever you're at right now and have a party with that!