6 Signs You Need a Coach to Achieve Your Goals
Are you feeling stuck? Struggling to meet your goals, no matter how hard you try?
If so, it might be time to hire a coach.
There’s a reason coaching is a lucrative profession. It works. But it takes the right combination of client and coach to be effective.
A good coach can assess your strengths and weaknesses and suggest addressing, improving, or eliminating them.
With a skilled coach, you’ll laser your focus on what you need to add, change, or delete to stop holding yourself back – unintentionally or not – and successfully complete your goals.
Still, not everyone’s a good candidate for coaching.
If you’re not willing to show up, listen, and do the work, or if you have unrealistic expectations, forget about it. A coach can’t make miracles happen.
Read on to see when coaching’s what you need to grow and get to the next level.
6 Signs It’s Time for a Coach
While you can certainly work toward your ambitions on your own, here are six signs paying for a coach is the better decision.
1. You know what you want but don’t know how to get there. You can have a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goal but lack the detailed strategy to achieve it.
If you’re just starting on your goal, or you’ve been working on fulfilling a dream for months, or even years, and aren’t moving any closer to its achievement, you need a solid game plan to move you forward.
A coach will evaluate where you’re at and help you design an approach to get you where you want to go.
You might be a big thinker that’s not detail-oriented. But with a coach’s help, you can learn to focus enough on the smaller things to reach your targets.
2. You lack self-awareness and have blind spots. When you’re not aware of your strengths and weaknesses or how they impact your ability to attain goals, you need someone who can provide that insight.
Perhaps you need to learn a new skill, acquire knowledge, eliminate a bias, or change your mindset. Maybe you need to develop a system or a schedule or invest in a tool.
Working with a coach will help you discover what’s lacking and the resources and steps necessary to attain your objective.
3. You feel like you’re stuck in a loop. If you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere, it’s time to get a coach. They can help break the pattern and open up new possibilities for you.
A coach can help assess where and why things are stuck, then show you how to take action to move forward with your career, business, or personal goal once again.
If fear of failure keeps you stuck, you need help overcoming it. If you’re indecisive or have a hard time making decisions, it’s time to get a coach.
When you’re afraid to put yourself out there, take risks, or make decisions because they might not be perfect, your coach can help. They can provide tips for navigating uncertainty and the steps necessary to reach your objectives.
4. You suffer from imposter syndrome. Do you question your worth? Or believe you aren’t smart enough, capable enough, or good enough to accomplish your ambitions?
Imposter syndrome can leave you doubting your abilities or feeling like a fraud. This pattern of self-doubt can lead to anxiety, stress, and failure to progress.
When you feel like you’ve mostly lucked into your prior successes, you need help squashing the self-doubt that’s keeping you from taking action now.
Coaching will give you insight into why you’re doubting your abilities or find yourself feeling like an imposter so that you can move forward.
5. You chase “shiny objects” or suffer from too many priorities at once. You have limited time or resources and need help prioritizing and managing your attention and goals.
When you’re struggling with work/life balance, juggling home and family responsibilities while striving to meet professional demands can be challenging.
Then there’s always the next new thang clamoring for your attention.
A coach can help you prioritize your time and tasks, creating a plan to maintain focus and achieve success in all areas of your life.
6. You lack discipline and procrastinate.; When you’re someone who struggles with self-discipline or has a hard time getting started, procrastination can be the death of your goal.
The best coaches help you find the right motivation and triggers to get you doing the necessary work, and they’ll hold you accountable.
A coach works with you to develop a plan and create accountability. So you stay on track to reach your objectives. And they’ll provide support along the way.
When you’re not getting things done, a coach won’t do those things for you. But they will help you develop structure and practices to make progress while providing the right amount of encouragement along the way.
Closing Thoughts
Using a collaborative process, a coach guides you through a blueprint to achieve your goal.
Although not impossible, it’s challenging to do it alone. Especially when you don’t have a clear idea about how to achieve the dream you desire, or worse, doubt your ability to do so.
A good coach will help you develop a plan for overcoming weaknesses, navigating challenges, and taking action toward your objective despite events or obstacles that may pop up.
Hiring a coach is an excellent next step when you’re serious about reaching your goals but are experiencing any of these six signs.
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