Weight Training Coach Wendell Bullard

If you are anything like me, you may have noticed a tremendous
increase in the number of coaches that have appeared recently.

Traditionally, coaches existed primarily in the world of sports,
but you could also find voice, acting and singing coaches.

Today however, this has all changed. Lifestyle, relationship,
personal development, business, soul, life, leadership,
executive, career and countless other types of coaching are now
widely available. So what can these coaches do for us?

The dictionary defines the term “coach” as “someone who
instructs or trains others”. From this definition, at least we
can draw a potential connection between the coaching profession
and ourselves.

So how do you know if you need a coach? Basically, if there are
areas of your life which you would like to improve or enhance,
the opportunity exists to employ a coach.

The Dream Team

In everyday life, we all employ “specialists” to perform various
functions because we have neither the skills nor knowledge to do
the job.

You wouldn’t consider attempting to fill a tooth if you had a
toothache – you would go to your dentist. Would you complete
your own tax return if your objective was to minimize tax
exposure – no, you would visit an accountant. If you were
feeling ill, you wouldn’t (or at least shouldn’t) self-medicate
- you would contact your doctor.

It all comes down to the fact that these professionals have
skills and knowledge that provide faster, better, safer and more
satisfying results than you could possibly achieve on your own.

I refer to this group of people as a “Dream Team” – a group of
professionals to help you achieve that which you want – in the
above-mentioned cases, a nice smile, more disposable income and
good health.

So why stop there? If there are other areas that you want to
change, the same principle applies.

For example, if you had a desire to improve your levels of
health & fitness, you could join a gym. The problem is that the
novelty quickly wears off and, unless you are incredibly
disciplined, it is difficult to keep going on your own. There is
also the dilemma of not knowing which equipment to use or which
exercises to do. In fact, a real issue is not having specific
goals at all, which will leave you lost. The result? You stop
going to the gym and your membership fee is wasted. Even worse,
you will feel like a failure which in turn will lower your
levels of self-esteem, negatively impacting many areas of your
life.

The solution? Get yourself a personal trainer! Make this person
part of your Dream Team. Your trainer (or coach) will help you
define your goals, provide a specific program to follow and will
also give you moral support. This approach offers a much higher
likelihood of accomplishing your goals in this area, and at a
much faster rate.

Other areas that most of us want to improve, include our key
relationships, levels of success or financial freedom. Time
management and career counseling are other potential areas for
improvement.

The problem is most of us don’t know how to
improve or make things better in these areas. We have our own
ways of handling things, which of course, has us where we are
now! Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity; “doing the same
things over and over and expecting different results!” If you
don’t want to qualify as being insane, then something
must change.

The solution of course, is to change your approach, and that
could mean finding someone that can help you in the specific
area you want to improve – in other words, a coach, to become
part of your Dream Team.

But Whom Do I Choose?

As in all professions, it is a fact that not all coaches are
created equal! Not every coach will be a fit with every client.

In order to select a coach, I would recommend spending some time
to identify your objectives, create some “interview” questions
for potential coaches, define your budget and do some research
to compile a list of potential candidates.

There are a number of coaching organizations and associations on
the web, that have lists of their coaches names, complete with
biographies, qualifications, areas of expertise and contact
information.

When interviewing your prospective coach, think in terms of how
comfortable you would feel working with the person. Are they
someone to whom you would be comfortable sharing personal
information? Do you like them? Do they seem to have an action
plan and strategy process that will help you achieve your goals?
What is their fee and what can you expect for that level of
investment? Can you work with them? Is their interest and
commitment mainly around helping you or collecting their fees?

Interview 3 – 5 candidates. Once you are comfortable, make a
selection and get started! You will quickly be on the road to
achieving your goals.

Please note one thing; hiring a coach to help you improve the
various areas of your life, requires commitment!
The process is likely to take several months and you must be
prepared to “do the work” that goes along with affecting change
in your life. If you are not fully committed to the process, the
result will be frustration (for both of you) and failure, not to
mention a bunch of money spent on nothing!

Affecting meaningful change will take time. Old habits will need
to be broken and new, supportive habits created. It took you
years to get where you are today, so it is unreasonable to
expect that accomplishment of your goals will occur in just a
few weeks!

Coaches are not miracle workers; they cannot do the work for you
or wave a magic wand to make things easy. What your coach
can do is help you to define what it is
specifically that you want, work with you to develop strategic
and tactical plans of action, provide guidance and moral support
in your quest and keep you accountable for following the plan.

With commitment, dedication and a good coach, you will be amazed
at what you can accomplish

Tony Davies
http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/whats-up-with-all-these-coaches-157.html

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