Working with your clients to assist them in achieving their life, career, money or business goals can be truly satisfying, but on the flip side is a very real dilemma that all coaches face: Taking care of their own mental health and needs.
Any self-care often gets pushed to the backburner because you are always prioritising your clients. However, it can be rather stressful being the one who’s constantly providing support to others, and let’s remember that it’s impossible to pour from an empty cup.
This is why taking care of your mental health is crucial to maintaining your well-being and effectiveness as a coach.
If you’re wondering how to take care of your mental health, we’ve got some tips to help you work self-care into the nitty gritties of running your coaching business:
1. Set clear boundaries
The first step to getting on the path of maintaining good mental health while running your coaching business is to establish clear boundaries between your personal and professional life. This could translate to fixing certain days of the week reserved as non-coaching days or having a strict cut-off for your working hours and sticking to them. This ensures you’re able to maintain a balance and can segregate your personal life from your professional one.
Of course, this means establishing boundaries with your clients. Being clear about your availability, working schedules, and scope of work is essential not just for your mental health, but to set the right expectations and reduce scope for disappointment.
2. Prioritise self-care
Engage in activities that bring you joy and help you relax. This could be engaging in hobbies that you have left behind, taking short trips by yourself or with family, spending time with loved ones, and so on.
It’s also a good idea to weave self-care into your everyday – get an exercise session in, meditate once a day, and simply take 5 minutes in between sessions to ground yourself. These everyday practices are often more impactful and easily achievable.
Essentially, it is vital to spend time doing things that you actively love doing and that help you recharge, rejuvenate and get back to your profession with zeal.
3. Seek support and professional help
As an independent coach, working by yourself can become isolating, so it’s always a great idea to build a support system. This could mean being part of coaching communities with professionals just like you so that you can share experiences and gain support. Consider also attending networking events or participating in mastermind groups.
Aside from this, seek communities based on your hobbies or interests (like running or pottery making) to interact with individuals with similar interests.
Additionally, don’t hesitate to seek therapy or counselling if you feel the need for professional support on your mental health journey.
4. Find ways to manage stress
Managing stress starts with first identifying what aspects in your life trigger your stress. Once you know what about your coaching business causes stress, only then can you find ways to address and manage it. If your administrative processes are getting overwhelming, try to outsource them or find a coaching management platform to help automate a lot of the busy work for you. If it is a client of yours, reflect and see how you can put better boundaries in place.
As mentioned earlier, practicing stress-reducing techniques like deep breathing exercises, mindfulness, or journaling can help greatly with managing stress. Even engaging in physical movement as simple as a walk outdoors, listening to calming soundscapes and music, or practicing relaxation techniques like progressive muscle relaxation, visualisation, and meditation can help vastly if done regularly.
5. Delegate & outsource
Running a coaching business involves various administrative tasks. Find the core activities that are in your realm of strength and delegate the rest. It may seem like an added investment, but in the long run, it will pay you back in returns by ensuring you can make the most of your expertise to grow your business, instead of wasting time in mundane everyday activities.
You can delegate all your business administrative work, or marketing, or website management. This will free up your time and energy to focus on your coaching practice and prevent burnout.
6. Harvest healthy habits
Your physical and mental health have a cause & effect relationship. So, to have a healthy mental state, you need to do the right things physically. Which means maintaining a healthy lifestyle by prioritising sleep, nutrition, and exercise.
7. Set realistic expectations
It is but natural to want your coaching business to succeed and thrive. But in doing so, it is also common for coaches like you to put an excessive amount of pressure on themselves.
Set realistic goals and expectations for your coaching business. Recognize that success takes time and effort, and it’s okay to make mistakes along the way. Celebrate small wins and acknowledge your progress.
8. Take a break
Allow yourself regular breaks from your coaching business. Schedule vacations or days off to recharge and disconnect from work completely. Taking breaks will help prevent burnout and promote a healthier work-life balance.
FAQs
1. What are ways to maintain good mental health as a coach?
An effective way to maintain good mental health as a coach is to find ways to separate your personal life from your professional life. Another way to do the same is to invest in a coaching management platform that can help automate a large part of running your coaching business, thus leaving you with a lot of time to spare which can be better utilised in coaching your clients or taking breaks as needed.
About Simply.Coach
Simply.Coach is an enterprise-grade coaching software designed to be used by individual coaches and coaching businesses. Trusted by ICF-accredited and EMCC-credentialed coaches worldwide, Simply.Coach is on a mission to elevate the experience and process of coaching with technology-led tools and solutions.
Content Marketing Manager @ Simply.Coach
Ipsita Nayak is a full-time writer-editor-content strategist and a part-time NLP coach and yoga teacher. She believes conventions are overrated, has a disproportionate need for solo time over social time, and loves a good mix of sci-fi and trashy TV in her free time!
