With campaigns for positive mental health on the rise, life coaches have increasingly become popular in recent years.

Their main goal is to bring out the best in you and not boss you around. Here are three ways that a good life coach can help and guide you towards positive change.

1. Communicating clearly and directly

Direct communication is a trait every good life coach possesses. They should ask challenging questions that help shape your perspective of the world.

If you express self-doubt concerning a particular area, a life coach will help you see things in a different light. They should prompt you to think about what is truly important – your choices, capabilities and self-identity – and help you commit to taking the steps to achieve your goals.

2. Providing an outsider’s perspective

Having a life coach is like having a neutral third party that observes your life. Their main responsibility is to start a conversation about your choices.

However, he or she should not be invested in or affected by anything you decide to do. Your life coach respects you as a resilient and creative person capable of making your own choices.

The people closest to us often limit us from achieving our goals, perhaps by being too critical or demoralising. Instead of talking you out of difficult choices, a life coach gives you more motivation through positivity.

3. Thinking of problems from a higher level

You can never solve problems if you retain the same thinking that created them. A life coach will ask questions from an elevated perspective that will make you aware of new possibilities and opportunities. He or she will bring issues that you are not aware of to your attention.

With new viewpoints, you are likely to grow and devise better methods to make positive changes in your life.

Dennis Relojo-Howell is the founder of Psychreg. You can connect with him on Twitter @dennisr_howell.