A growing industry across the country is life coaching. People are actually going into private practice opening offices and spending hours every week giving direction and a listening ear to people.
We have had psychiatrists and other mental health workers for years, but now people are training to help others with just the most basic types of problems and questions.
We live in an age when people are more desperate than ever for somebody to talk to. People have problems from spiritual and financial, to making daily decisions. People wonder about what to do with their lives. They don't know how to get a job or what opportunities might exist for them. Millions of American kids pass through 12 grades of school and graduate clueless about what to do next.
More than ever, people need to know that their lives are not in vain. They do not exist to just create social media postings in hopes that a few people will "like" them.
They need to know that if they do not make a television reality show that they are still okay because every day they exist in their own reality show. The reality is that each American has an opportunity to have a real life.
Life is never free from hurdles, work, challenges and the usual grit and grind. However, there are ways to navigate the maze of living life.
Bad things happen to people. People are brought up in broken homes, by single parents, in poverty, and surrounded by domestic violence. The scenarios are endless. This is why, more than ever, we need everyday life coaches who can help people with the simplest of life's quests.
Young adults up to senior citizens need guidance. You can find many answers on Google, but often people don't know the right questions to ask.
How do I write a resume?
What do I put on a resume'?
How do I dress for a certain job interview?
What are my career choices?
How do I choose a career?
How do I know what I am good at doing?
How do I save money?
How can I make my life better?
How can I avoid trouble?
How do I start a business?
How do I obtain financial aid for college?
What do I have to do to be a schoolteacher, a lawyer, a doctor an engineer or some other professional?
I am unhappy with my physical condition — what can I do to be a healthier person?
I understand that not every counselor has an immediate answer to every person's questions. However, answers are available and often a steady mind with a listening ear can help someone find an answer.
Some people need help from a medical professional. Some need help from licensed clinical counselors. Many today just need some basic common sense direction.
Every city in America struggling with violence would be well served to plant guidance coaches, mentors or life coaches throughout these troubled communities.
In reality, every parent should do the job. Unfortunately, parents have either dropped the ball, flown the coop or just cannot pull their own lives together. Sadly, in America, we have so many dysfunctional families that life coaches are needed to help mom and dad as much as the young teens struggling in these scenarios.
More law enforcement, more police dogs and more curfews are not going to solve the hurt being felt by so many lost young adults in America.
More than ever, these young men and women need community leaders, mentors and coaches with a listening ear and common sense advice for living and achieving a better life.
Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Why America needs mentors, life coaches