Principle #45 in Jack Canfield’s book “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” is Hire a Personal Coach.
Years ago, the idea of paying a personal coach for help seemed completely foreign to me. However, I kept getting hints that it was the right thing to do and ultimately I did hire a personal coach. It turned out to be a great decision. As I mentioned in principle #2 “Be Clear Why You’re Here” and principle #42 “Just Say No!“, the biggest benefit for me was guidance on how to create governing core values.
Coaching Works
Can you imagine a sports team without a coach?
Probably not. Any sports team (baseball, football, soccer, basketball, and more) has at least one coach and often more than one. For example, professional baseball teams often have a head coach, batting coaches, pitching coaches, and more.
Why?
Because coaching works. Coaches point out what players are doing well, give them ideas on how to improve themselves, and sometimes bluntly tell them what they’re doing incorrectly.
Talented coaches teach, inspire, and guide their players to reach their full potential. They help good players become great.
Many people hire a fitness coach to help them improve their overall health. A personal trainer teaches people techniques for exercising. A fitness coach does this, but also inspires and guides people to reach their highest level of fitness.
Similarly, personal coaches teach, inspire, and guide people to reach their full potential.
Can You Skip Coaching?
Of course, everyone can skip coaching. But what’s the impact?
Good basketball players may be great at shooting baskets, but never become good with rebounds simply because they never engaged in layup drills.
Good football players may be great sprinters, but never learn to move laterally at a fast pace, an important skill for professional football players.
Good golfers may be great at hitting long drives, but lack any finesse when it comes to putting the ball onto the green.
Good executives may be great at creating a vision, but lack the ability to communicate it effectively.
Good authors may be great at telling stories, but never learn the discipline necessary to complete a project.
Good entrepreneurs may be great at creating companies, but consistently see them fail simply because they repeat the same mistakes.
In short, without a coach, you may simply never get close to reaching your full potential.
“I absolutely believe that people, unless coached,
never reach their maximum capabilities.”
– Bob Nardelli, former CEO of Home Depot
Where to Find Coaches
One of the challenges with getting a coach, is finding one that will truly help you. There is some misinformation out there that can lead you astray.
As an example, I was once advised to find a coach that has already achieved more than I achieved. For example, if I wanted to be a best-selling author, I needed to find a best-selling author to coach me. That isn’t necessary.
I ultimately hired a coach through Canfield Coaching. The program is structured around The Success Principles with a primary goal of helping people implement the principles in their lives. In my experience, the coaches help people identify what they want (no matter what that is) and use The Success Principles to get it.
And, at the risk of being redundant, the experience was enormously valuable to me. My coach recognized my need to identify governing core values for myself and he helped me do so. In retrospect, this was truly life-changing.
There are probably thousands of life coaches around the U.S., and many more around the world. A Google search is another way to get started, but if you go that route, I encourage you to do some research. When I searched, the first four results were ads advertising training to become a life coach.
About This Post
I’ve been learning from Jack Canfield (of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame) since 2008. I credit much of my success (including authoring or co-authoring more than 40 books) to applying principles in my life that he teaches. I’m currently going through his book “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” covering one principle a week.
Here’s a link to other musing’s on Jack Canfield’s Success Principles.
| You Can Do Anything | 7 Life Lessons Powerful Principles for Living a Fulfilled Life |
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