A coaching career comes from a genuine desire to help clients. However, there are many reasons why your offers may not sell. Our previous write-up Reasons Why Your Offer Isn’t Selling explains how a lack of trust from clients or an unclear vision of what you’re offering can lessen the appeal of your services. In times like these, it’s important to find a particular coaching niche that you can focus on strengthening and
marketing. Why not consider a niche in kicking bad habits? Bad habits are found everywhere and at every age. This means that there is an endless market of clients, so as long as your advice can make a tangible impact in their lives. Unsure where to start? Here are four starting approaches to kicking bad habits that you can incorporate into your coaching program.
Creating a Routine
Bad habits are routines, and in order to break them, a new pattern has to be forged. You can help your clients structure an everyday schedule that is straightforward, easy to follow, and compatible with their current capacity.
This is especially the case with sleep or late-night eating. The latter is fueled by the fact that our circadian clocks become accustomed to this routine. This means that our bodies will naturally produce ghrelin, the hunger hormone, during late hours to accommodate the bad habit. Research published in Sage explains that we can counter this effect through the circadian system itself.
This means introducing a new routine in your clients’ lives, like eating large breakfasts early in the day. Thanks to the circadian rhythm, the human body will have less physical resistance when welcoming this shift. Psychologically, encouraging consistency can also motivate clients to stick to a newly formed habit.
Helping Them Expand Their Options
Letting go of old habits and creating new ones can be easier done when you break each large goal into smaller goals. That’s because a goal that’s too ambitious can often lead to failure, and this can demotivate clients from trying from the get-go. Physically, adjustments are needed as well. This is the case with smoking. With smoking cessation, it’s important that the nicotine is slowly weaned out of one’s body
to avoid the onslaught of physical withdrawals.
Many clients don’t know they have alternatives and tend to be intimidated by the thought of a large goal like absolute cessation. This is what causes relapses. However, there are many alternatives ranging from nicotine pouches to nicotine gum. Prilla’s nicotine pouch mix packs come in various strengths allowing users to easily taper down their nicotine intake. Nicotine gum, which is provided by companies such as
Johnson and Johnson Inc. and Major Pharmaceuticals Inc., is readily available at convenience stores. Both pouches and gum are readily accessible, practical for beginners, and provide a wide range of flavors to coax new users into the product. Just remember to consult with a professional in determining the right starting dosage for your clients’ bodies, and teach them to work their way downwards.
Understanding Psychological Roots
Bad habits stem from psychological backgrounds and understanding how these affect our clients is what makes a proper coach. Binge eating or smoking tends to be triggered by stress, for example, which is why simply providing reactive solutions isn’t enough. We have to be proactive.
This means guiding our clients toward healthier alternatives for managing their stress while getting to the root of their stressors. Psychoanalyst Dr. Nina outlines how those suffering from addiction can be consulted in specialized clinics, and coaches can work in coordination with these third parties to gain a clearer picture of the problem and therefore create a solution.
Providing Positive Reinforcement
Coaches that have a better understanding of behavioral psychology can help clients identify the “reward” of their bad habit. PsychCentral says this can be stress relief when smoking, the taste of food when overeating, or free time when procrastinating. When we identify these rewards, we can figure out how to replace them with non-harmful and positive reinforcement instead.
A replacement habit offers the same reward without the downside of your bad habit. A procrastinator can be encouraged to stick to a realistic schedule that allows for regular breaks, for example. Larger rewards can be used as well, like allowing a client who doesn’t exercise to reward themselves with new gym clothes after 30 workouts. This will create a positive association with breaking old habits and form an
enthusiastic outlook toward getting help.
Above all, it is important that coaches remain patient with clients. This attitude will reward you with success and even trust among various referrals so that you can keep on helping other people in the long run.
