The Beauty of Coaching
As children, we have parents, other family members, teachers, sport coaches, performance instructors, etc, all holding us accountable. As we get older we lose most of that accountability. Life gets busier and we put important things on hold. This is why there’s a whole industry of coaching. Life coaching, personal development coaching, professional coaching, health and fitness coaching, and the list goes on. There is immense value in getting a coach who has been through what you want to go through, someone who can show you the path and hold you accountable on your journey.
As a fitness professional myself, I’ve had a number of coaches in my life. A powerlifting coach to increase my strength, a bodybuilding coach to help me compete, a posing coach to help me present on stage. I’ve even had professional coaches for my business and a lifestyle coach for my personal life. All of them cost me thousands of dollars, some of them at a time when I didn’t have that much to invest.
So why did I hire them? Because investing in myself has the biggest payback. All of my coaches led me to the next step in my life. Because of them, I wasn’t struggling to figure out my next steps, and I wasn’t stalling in my progress. All of my coaching experiences were tough but necessary to move forward in that area of my life. I’ve always believed there’s immense value in learning from other people’s experiences rather than waste time and money making my own mistakes and starting over a year later with no progress. Time is far more valuable to me.
Because I had coaching for whatever my main goal was at the time, I was able to pay full attention to other areas of my life. For example, I could continue preparing for Nationals, (4 hour per day commitment with training, cardio, posing and meals), while seeing 6-8 clients per day (8-10 hour commitment) and serving my online coaching clients (4 hour a day). Without a prep coach keeping me organized, I would have paid far more attention to my prep while neglecting other areas of my life. I was able to fit everything in my life with a little support from my coaches.
When you see people who are well-rounded and seem to have everything under control, this is their secret. I know this because these people are my clients. Ladies who are extremely dedicated but just don’t have the time to research and try out different programs to find one for themselves, so they hire me to get them to their goal efficiently and safely. They have families, are running businesses or have demanding jobs- sometimes even both.
A good coach takes into account your lifestyle, your commitments, your schedules and your preferences. They create a unique program that is highly custom to your physical ability in the gym as well as your energy demands in life. Here are some more benefits:
More free time, less stress: Clients don’t have to worry about if what they are doing is going to get them results or not. They don’t have to waste time at the gym deciding what exercises to do, how to progress, how to alter an exercise for their body and ability. They don’t have to worry about failing and starting again in the same spot next year.
Expertise: If you’re not knowledgeable in the project you’re trying to tackle, you may not come up with an effective plan at all. You need an expert to tell you what is best for you. If a client wanted to try powerlifting, I would refer them to a powerlifting coach. If someone contacted me regarding rehabbing an injury, I would refer them to a physiotherapist. Similarly if I needed help with my taxes, I go to my accountant. I can do my own taxes if I tried but I definitely don’t want the stress of making a mistake.
Gets you doing rather than planning to do: A coach lays out your plan and you have to follow it, especially if you’ve invested.
Keeps you honest: You may think you don’t need help with something, however that exact part may be holding back your progress. A coach can see your blind spots and figure out a way to improve them.
Makes you see yourself in a different light: A good coach will point out your weaknesses and strengths that you may not notice. Sometimes, you think you’re not progressing and might want to quit, but your coach keeps objective records of your progress.
Keeps you engaged: Constant communication with your coach keeps you involved in the process. You understand why you are doing certain things. You start to “own” it and improve on it. Your coach also teaches you new things that you would have never thought to try yourself.
Personal cheerleader: Knowing that you have someone helping you achieve your goal is a huge motivator. Tackling a huge goal by yourself can be difficult. hard Friends and family might not support your new lifestyle choices and you may start to feel alone. In those times it definitely helps having someone in your corner.
Helps with goal setting: To achieve a big goal, you have to achieve a bunch of small goals first. What are your small goals that will lead to the big change? Most of the time you don’t even know what the small goals are so being able to figure it out with a coach helps to break it down into steps, and not make it seem so overwhelming. And, being able to share small victories with your coach is a great way to stay motivated!
Keeps you on the path: So you don’t fall off after putting in all the time and effort. You may have a bad couple weeks and think you’ve lost all your progress, however, your coach can show you ways of starting exactly where you left off.
The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) did a study on accountability and found that if you have a specific accountability appointment with a person you’ve committed, you will increase your chance of success by up to 95%. Such a high chance of achieving your goal- what better benefit can there be of having a coach?! I honestly believe the only ones who wouldn’t hire one are the ones who don’t want to achieve their goal in the first place.
If you ready to finally make serious progress in your health and fitness journey without the time-consuming trial and error phase, get in touch with me here!
