Do You Need a Life or Business Coach? 6 Signs You’re Ready (+ 3 You’re Not)

Do you need a life or business coach? Don’t miss these 6 signs you’re ready for a coach (along with the 3 signs you’re not there quite yet!)

Accountability.

Whatever it is that you’re looking to accomplish in your life, whether it is a personal goal like losing weight, a financial goal like becoming debt-free, or a professional goal, like securing your dream job or even starting a business of your own, there’s almost nothing on earth that will get you closer to where you want to be than accountability.

According to the American Society of Training & Development (ASTD), you have a 65% chance of completing a goal if you commit to someone, and if you set up regular check-ins with a person to whom you’ve committed, you’ll increase your chance of success by up to 95%.

Accountability is not just a nice thing to have, it’s almost essential.

And yet, so often, we think we should be able to do it all on our own. We think the fact that we get discouraged or distracted or derailed altogether, we think that somehow makes us weak or incapable of change. And then we start to wonder if those big goals we’ve been dreaming about are maybe just too big.

We forget that it’s completely normal to get off track, and that everyone gets discouraged and frustrated sometimes, especially when they’re trying to accomplish big things. That’s just the nature of being human.

So what’s the solution? And how do you actually find the sort of accountability that is going to help you stay on track and actually make massive progress towards accomplishing your goals?

One really smart way is to hire a life or a business coach, someone you pay to provide the accountability, guidance, advice, and tough love you’re looking for. This can happen in either a group setting, or on more of an individual, one-to-one level.

But like anything else in life, what you get out of coaching is going to depend on what you’re willing to put into it, and how committed you are to doing the work. Thus, before you decide to jump in, you should first take the time to assess whether you are actually ready for coaching.

Do You Need a Life or Business Coach? 6 Signs You’re Ready (+ 3 You’re Not)

SIX SIGNS YOU’RE READY FOR COACHING

1. You need clarity on what you actually want.

Maybe you’re in a period of transition—your kids have gotten older and less dependent on you, or maybe even left the nest altogether. Maybe you feel like you’ve spent so much time taking care of everyone else around you for so many years that now you’re not quite sure exactly who you are, or what you really want.

Those are big questions, ones that can be difficult to navigate all on your own, especially when the day-to-day grind of life keeps sucking you in

Part of what a business coach or coaching program will do for you is guide you through a process of getting clarity. You’ll learn how to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, and start giving yourself permission to dream a little bigger.

2. You have goals but you aren’t sure how to reach them

Maybe your problem isn’t a lack of clarity, but a lack of execution. You can see where you’d like to go, but you’ve got no idea how to connect the dots between where you are right now and that end result, and you feel frustrated by your lack of ability to move the needle and actually make it happen.

This is a very common struggle! People tend to fit into one of two camps—you’re either good at focusing on the things that are right in front of you and you have trouble with big goals (about 75% of the population), or you tend to be more visionary, but you have trouble figuring out what the next step should be. (25% of the population

Either way, you’ll probably need help breaking down your big goal into a concrete plan of action, one that translates to everyday action, and that is exactly what the right business coach or coaching program can do for you. It will not only make your goals seem manageable and actionable, but relevant to what you’re doing right now—today—to get one step closer.

3. You struggle with self-discipline

You’ve heard all the things you’re supposed to do, the daily habits you’re supposed to stick to, and you know all the “right” actions to take. And yet, you’re having trouble actually sticking to them on a regular basis. For whatever reason, you just can’t seem to get it done. You might even wonder if you lack the self-discipline gene that is so essential to actually doing hard things.

You’re not alone. So often we think about self-discipline as one of those “you either have it or you don’t” qualities, but that’s not actually true. And part of mastering self-discipline is understanding your own brain and the way you work, and setting up systems that will work with you, not against you

A good coach and coaching program will help you do just that. It’s designed to help you discover your own strengths and weaknesses, to help you figure out how and when you work best—as well as what type of things tend to trip you up—so that you can actually have the discipline to make real progress.

4. You’re feeling stuck, unhappy, or unmotivated

The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again, yet expecting different results, and you feel like that’s exactly where you are right now—stuck in an insanity loop of unhappiness, doing the same things over and over again, yet wishing something was different. You want to love your life, you want to be happy again, and excited to jump out of bed in the morning. But right now, you’re just not

Friend, it’s time to do something different! If nothing else, investing in a business coach or coaching program will force you to start thinking differently, and then to start doing things differently. It will be a jolt to your system that you probably need desperately right now.

5. Your progress has plateaued, and you don’t know why

Perhaps you started out strong. Whatever goal you were going for, whether you were working towards a personal goal or starting your own business, you felt for a while like you were making real progress. You were excited and energized and you really believed that you could make things happen.

But now you’ve hit the messy middle and things suddenly feel a whole lot harder. You’ve had some setbacks. You feel frustrated. You wonder if you’re doing something wrong. You feel like an impostor, like everyone else knows what they’re doing, and you’re just making it up as you go along. You wish you had a mentor to guide you.

This might actually be the point where a life or business coach or coaching program can help you the MOST. The outside perspective you’ll get from someone who is more experienced and who has actually been there, right in that place that you are, and who knows how to break through that plateau is completely priceless. In fact, it’s worth its weight in gold.

6. You’re craving deeper, more meaningful relationships

A recent study by Evite found that the average American adult has not made a new friend in more than five years. And yet, nearly half the respondents in the same study—45%–revealed they would go out of their way to make new friends if they knew how or had more opportunities.

As adults, making new friends—especially growth-oriented friends who will support us in our goals and push us to be better—isn’t all that easy. We tend to get stuck in the circles that we’ve always associated with, which can make change feel even harder.

A good coaching program—especially one that is centered around an actual community—can help to fill that gap. It’s an opportunity to not only get accountability and guidance from the group leader but to forge new and meaningful relationships with other growth-minded individuals who are going after similar goals.

If one or more of these signs feels similar to where you are at right now, then you should strongly consider finding a coach or coaching program to start providing the accountability you know that you need to get to where you want to go.

However, just to be sure, make sure the following signs that you might NOT be ready don’t apply to where you’re at right now.

3 SIGNS YOU’RE NOT READY YET

1. You want someone to fix your problems for you

You expect a business coach or coaching program to change your life, just by signing up. You don’t really want to have to do any of the work yourself, and you certainly don’t want it to feel hard or painful. You’re hoping for an instant fix.

Hopefully, this goes without saying, but that’s not how coaching works. When you’re hiring a coach, you’re not hiring an employee or servant to fix all your problems, you hiring someone to show you how to fix them yourself. You will have to do the work. And sometimes it will feel hard or painful, but a good coach will be there to cheer you on and keep you motivated. You won’t get an instant fix, but you will get a lasting one.

2. You hate change

You’re actually pretty content with the status quo. You like things just the way they are, and don’t really see the need to do anything differently. In fact, you don’t want things to be different. This is where you are right now, and this is where you want to stay.

It will be hard to benefit from any sort of coaching if you’re feeling completely resistant to change. And truthfully, if you are completely happy with where your life is right now, and with where you’re at right now, then the benefits of coaching might be minimal.

3. You’re not willing to invest in yourself

You like the idea of having a business coach and accountability, but you’re not that excited about the idea of paying for it. Is it really a worthwhile investment? Can’t you get the same thing for free by joining a Facebook group or listening to podcasts?

Actually, no.

There’s something powerful that happens when you’re willing to actually invest in yourself and your dreams. It’s like a switch happens in your brain, and suddenly you are committed to taking yourself seriously. And that is SUCH an important piece of actually creating the success you want in your life. Not only that, a formalized coaching program is designed to help you make real progress in a systematic way. It includes back-and-forth, give-and-take. And a quality business coach or coaching program will also bring the benefit of real experience, which is worth paying for.

The good news is that there are options for paid coaching at a variety of price points, ranging from monthly memberships in group coaching programs that start at around $30-40 a month to intimate high-level masterminds that require a serious investment of both time and money.

TAKING THE NEXT STEP

The next step, once you’ve determined you’re ready for coaching, is to actually find the right coach.

For that, I recommend, first of all, looking for someone whose teaching style works well with the way you learn. Listen to podcasts, read books or blog posts, or watch videos to make sure that the way they teach and explain things actually makes sense to you.

Second, make sure that the person you want to learn from is actually achieving the results that you want to achieve in their own life or business. The sad truth is that a lot of people decide to go into “coaching” because they haven’t been able to create results. Be wary of anyone who talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk.

Finally, look at your budget and determine what type of coaching program will be the best fit for both your budget and your personality. Do you like the community aspect of a group coaching program, or do you want something more intimate and personalized, like a small mastermind, or even 1:1 help? Keep in mind that group programs will always be more affordable but less individualized, while smaller programs will be a bigger investment but often result in faster and more dramatic results.

To recap, here are SIX SIGNS YOU’RE READY FOR COACHING

1. You need clarity on what you actually want.
2. You have goals but you aren’t sure how to reach them
3. You struggle with self-discipline
4. You’re feeling stuck, unhappy, or unmotivated
5. Your progress has plateaued, and you don’t know why
6. You’re craving deeper, more meaningful relationships

… and 3 SIGNS YOU’RE NOT READY YET

1. You want someone to fix your problems for you
2. You hate change
3. You’re not willing to invest in yourself

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