1) Are you happy? How would you rate your happiness on a scale of 10? Are you happy with your current predicament, or status in life?

This first question is an excellent way to do an initial assessment of your client’s general mindset. Ask your clients to be as open, honest and candid as possible.

It often helps to talk them through the life coaching questions and to ask a series of broken down smaller questions about life such as: When you woke up in the morning, did you feel happy? In the last two weeks when do you recollect being the happiest? Why?

Once your client has given you their perspective you can then work out a realistic plan to increase their happiness rating.

2) What are you most afraid of? What are your biggest fears?

This life coaching question will help you shed light on what a client views as adversity. This adversity can manifest as either psychological, physical or even both.

Often by virtue of putting these adverse obstacles into concrete words, it is enough to spur action against them. Helping a client understand his/her fears also helps to understand which areas he/she may have to pay attention to.

By helping a client work through their fears, you as a life coach can help alleviate stress, and build a foundation for success.

3) What type of life do you envision for yourself?

When you ask a client where they hope to be 15 years from now, you help them find their hopes and dreams. Helping a client determine what their ideal life would be, can help you devise a plan to get there.

By comparing the current state to the desired future state you can address the obstacles involved and devise step-by-step plans to help the client achieve his/her ideal life.

By visualizing whether they’d be happy with their lives if it was to continue as it is, to their ideal future state, it allows both you and the client to determine what can be done differently. Visualization can serve as a powerful spark for change.

4) What things from your daily life make you happy?

Although you may feel this life coaching question is related to the first question, it is significantly different. Here’s why- by helping a client understand the things that make them happy you allow them to find sources of happiness amidst the chaos.

Is it dancing? Playing a sport? Meeting a grandparent?

Clients often approach life coaches feeling overwhelmed, and answering this question can alleviate that feeling. The perspective can be very important to help a client build a sense of acceptance.

It can also be an important step to renewed energy, giving a client things to look forward to in the daily lives. When you help a client differentiate their daily sources of happiness it allows them to create a safe space for themselves, and understand what they can turn to within their daily lives.

Amidst the constraints of a busy life, it can help an individual make the time for the small things that make them happy.

5) Who or what are you grateful for?

It is often said that the most content people in the world are the ones who can appreciate the things they have.

By asking a client what he/she is grateful for you allow them to take their lives into perspective. It gives them the chance to understand the positives in their lives as well as the foundations from which they can kick off from.

When one is able to understand the strengths in their lives, it gives them the ability to utilize them.

Helping a client understand the significance of the people in his/her life can also help them value these bonds. A sense of appreciation can help build healthier relationships.

If you want to learn more about how to grow your coaching business by learning the right coaching techniques, build a six figure coaching business and learn how to get better results for clients in less than half the time, sign up for my launchpad here!.

6) In one sentence, how would you describe your previous year?

Asking a client about his/her previous year serves two purposes. One, it can help them break down recent occurrences in their lives, and two, it will give you further context to your client’s mindset.

The answer to this question will allow you to determine the clarity (or lack thereof) in your client’s mind, as well their general outlook on life.

Remember the intent of questioning is to help your client express, analyze and address his/her concerns. By looking at the past year as a subset of your client’s overall life, it will enable you to build a plan of action for your client.

7) What is your definition of success?

Defining success is the first step to achieving it. To some, it is being a good father, to others, it may involve traveling the world. The definition of success varies from person to person, which is why it is important to pinpoint what it means to your client.

You will also notice that clients may be confused in their definition of success. This can be due to external conditioning, which again reiterates the need for each individual to discern their own definition of success.

Once it is defined it can be broken up into smaller, more realistic milestones. This makes it easier to work toward without being overwhelmed.

8) How will you get to success?

Success is often a fine balance of many things. When working with your clients it is always very important to keep their point of view in mind.

Asking a client about how he/she will get to success sheds light on the approach that they are trying, have already tried, or are willing to do. This is valuable insight for you as a life coach, as it will allow you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your client’s route to success.

Achieving sustained success is not merely about delivering instant results, but about achieving sustainable results.
Working in conjunction with what your client prefers, as well as what he/she places emphasis on, will help you determine a much clearer path to success.

9) Which relationships do you value the most? Why are they important to you?

The answer to this life coaching question will help you consolidate your answer to question no. 5. By helping your client address his/her most cherished relationships you are also drawing focus to these relationships.

In most cases, this will help your client address, what the shortcomings in the relationship are, and how to address them. It will also enable your client to step back and assess which relationships require more or indeed lesser, time and effort.

You will find that a large part of an individual’s mindset is influenced by the relationships in his/her life. It is therefore critical to be aware of these relationships and help your client make them stronger.

10) What can you do in the next week to make you happier and more purposeful?

As I’ve mentioned before, it is of prime importance to help your client breakdown their goals, targets and dreams into smaller chunks.

By doing so you will help your client understand what works and what doesn’t, and in doing so it will give your client the boost to seek out larger targets.

Drilling down larger aspirations, and goals into weekly goals can not only help your client refresh periodically, it will also help your client proactively take charge of his/her happiness and purpose.

Addressing smaller goals of happiness and purpose also promotes mindfulness, which will alleviate stress, and help your client feel in control.

11) Who are the people you want to help the most through your life?

You will find that we all derive our purpose and self-worth with the impact that we impart to the world around us.

However, attempting to change the world or indeed the lives of the few around us for the better can sometimes become counter intuitive. It is therefore very important to help your clients answer this question.

Who they want to help, and who they want to have a lasting impact on is important to help you understand what they are working towards. As always, it will help to break these targets into smaller, more realistic goals.

It is also important to help your client develop a strategy to have the kind of impact they desire.

12) What do you want to accomplish in the next year?

People from all walks of life often put their goals on hold whilst they ‘try to figure out things’. It is a well-known fact that a goal is worked towards by simply starting.

Asking a life coaching question like this will help your client reiterate his/her commitment to his life goals. By doing so you are also helping your client set deadlines and work towards them- you are helping them create a sense of accountability to themselves.

And there you have it!

The 12 best coaching questions that will set you apart as a life coach. These life coaching questions are designed to help you understand your clients in a wholesome fashion and will help you devise a plan of action for them.

Remember to take these questions and build upon them, working with your clients to gather as much context as possible. By understanding your clients and working their problems and concerns through with them, you will be able to help them build systematic plans to achieving their targets.

With these life purpose coaching questions, you can help your clients find answers and the sense of clarity they desire!