Life coaching for college students?

Two life coaches recently discussed the idea that coaching may be helpful to college students who are struggling to make important, long-term decisions.

Ken Cochrum, in his blog On Leading Well, says that today’s college students are overwhelmed with choices, data, and information. “As a result their filters are high – most won’t even answer their cell phone if caller-id doesn’t show someone they know.”

We tend to assume that by having more choices we can make better decisions. Ken suggests that too many choices can lead to “paralysis by analysis,” and cites the book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, as offering evidence to the contrary.

Says Ken:

Each of us needs a few friends to help us sift through the mountains of information we’re inundated with each day and convert that into knowledge leading to wisdom. Wisdom is simply knowledge applied well. Wisdom, like a good coach, offers teaching, reproof, correction, and training in good living.

In Artful Life Coaching, Life Coach Tessa agrees with Ken’s premise:

Very wise analysis here of why people – especially college students – are seeking the guidance and support of life coaches! I really wish that I had had the benefit of a mentor/coach back in my undergraduate days, or should I say undergraduate haze! (I’m laughing! … I say haze because of the sheer confusion,I felt at that time with regards to my life direction!)

What is most intriguing about both Ken’s and Tessa’s comments is the shift they suggest in how college students approach problems. For those of us who do remember being undergraduates, we assumed we were on our own and had to figure things out for ourselves — not always with the best results. At least when I was that age, parents were the resource of last resort (unless it concerned money). Most of our “life coaching” came from college friends, who were likely as baffled as we were.

More students today seem ready to seek help when they need it. If that means hiring a life coach, I suspect they will readily do so once they learn what life coaching is and how it can help them. The coaching industry in general and life coaches in particular have both a marketing and an educational challenge in front of them.

The only question is: who will pay for it?