Most Significant Mindset Limiting Beliefs that New Life Coaches Have and How to Fix Them: Dr. Seku Gathers Explains. Many aspiring life coaches could help people more effectively if they learned to rise above the constraints of their limiting beliefs. Dr. Sekuleo Gathers is all too familiar with the stranglehold these expectations and false convictions have on people’s mindsets. His own breakthrough moment of truth came after contracting Hepatitis-C from a patient during a routine procedure. Ironically, losing everything finally enabled him to regain his self-worth. “I was on disability making $627 a month,” he recalls. “My house was in foreclosure, my marriage was falling apart, and my former prestige as a physician was gone. When I no longer had anything, I realized I had true wealth — and that wealth was myself.”
Limiting beliefs worm their way into people’s minds to shape their view of the world, and even their actions. These subtle lies infiltrate and block individuals from achieving their goals, taking risks, and growing into who they are meant to be. “It’s all about mindset and intention,” Dr. Seku Gathers explains. “In the emergency room, I literally saved people’s lives, but I was only able to appreciate this from a pure place later.” Today, as a successful concierge physician, author, mindset coach, and life strategist, Dr. Gathers guides aspiring coaches to unlock their full potential by overcoming three of the most common limiting beliefs.
1. ‘I’m not good enough’
Dr. Seku Gathers says if life coaches believe they aren’t good enough: they are probably right. “That is a hard truth,” he explains, “but it all goes back to mindset. The first step is acknowledging the untruth that is influencing your mindset. The second step is overcoming it.”
To rise above this limiting belief, aspiring life coaches can start by reexamining why they are drawn to the profession in the first place. “Usually, some spark of insight is driving you,” Dr. Gathers says. “That truth usually is born out of a transformative experience you have endured, only to come out stronger on the other side. That internal drive spurs you on to help others do the same. There is a fuel in those memories that propels many to conquer their self-doubt.”
Dr. Seku Gathers believes it is natural for those new to the coaching business to feel some lack of self-confidence. A significant part of overcoming this mindset involves aspiring coaches being open to receiving coaching themselves.
“I recommend that everyone going into this career should experience coaching for a minimum of three months,” says Dr. Seku Gathers. “We all have so many blind spots — those areas we’re just not aware of — that take away from our potency as a coach. I did six months of coaching before I tried to coach anyone myself.”
Learning from experienced coaches offers newcomers a thorough understanding of the industry. They come away with a clear picture of the process and the confidence to know they can succeed.
2. ‘I’m not making enough’
During their first years in the business, most life coaches struggle with the limiting belief that they’re not making enough money. Dr. Seku Gathers advises new coaches to give themselves the freedom of a three-to-five-year timeline for growth. “Coaching is not a get-rich-quick scheme,” he admits. “Don’t plan to make much money during the first year. In the second year, you’ll make a little more. If you’re consistent, willing to stick with it, and doing it for the right reasons, the money will eventually come.”
Dr. Gathers also cautions life coaches that careers tend to end in the same way they start. That is, careers that begin with a bang tend to go down just as spectacularly. “I’m a physician by training,” he says. “It took me roughly 12 years to be able to practice on my own. Some people think that is too long to get a career off the ground, but I will have this degree until I die. A time-honored principle says that those who choose the longer runways are able to climb the highest.”
3. ‘My family does not understand the work I do’
The third limiting belief plaguing aspiring life coaches stems from family members who do not understand the work. Life coaching, after all, is a fairly new profession. Mothers and fathers have dreams and expectations for their children’s careers, and those usually center around well-known professions such as becoming an architect, lawyer, doctor, or engineer.
At its core, coaching is an entrepreneurial endeavor. “You’re running a business,” Dr. Seku Gathers remarks. “For those who don’t share the entrepreneurial drive, a career in coaching can feel risky and ill-defined.”
As an example, Dr. Gathers contrasts the difference between his career as a physician and as a life strategist. He required 12 years to become a practicing physician. The time felt long, but he knew that if he did the work and passed the exams, he would achieve his goal. There is no comparable endpoint to mark an arrival destination in the coaching industry.
In addition to a lack of definition regarding timelines, coaching lacks the security of a pre-defined income. This factor can cause anxiety for some family members.
“In my own journey as a life coach, my current wife was extremely supportive,” remembers Dr. Gathers. “That doesn’t mean she didn’t get nervous. In reality, confronting this limiting belief is an excellent test for anyone new to coaching. You need the internal resolve to push through others’ opinions because that’s the very thing you will be teaching your clients to do.”
To learn more about the breakthroughs that life coaches can experience by developing a healthy mindset, readers can check out Dr. Gather’s Truth Prescription podcast. On the show, he talks to a variety of successful thought leaders about their real-life stories of overcoming limiting beliefs and realizing their full potential. “Once you can accept the truth, you can do something about it,” Dr. Gathers says. “Success is possible for anyone if they have the right guidance and the willingness to interface with the uncomfortable.” Dr. Gathers also encourages that, “Nothing can be achieved without energy.” In his book Total Body Wellness: The Truth About your Health, he explains the ways we can optimize our energetic potential.