155. How Do You Choose The Right Coach?

What does a coach do, and how do you know if you’re talking to the right coach for you? Finding a coach can change your life. Finding the right coach can change your life forever. When you’re looking to find the right coach for you, there is one question to ask: Will this person cause me to take different actions? Great coaches cause change in human behavior. You want someone who is going to come in and inspire you to take new action so you can cause different results. It’s fun. It’s uplifting.  Only people can imagine a different future. This is why we don’t see vacation posters for elephants, right? When we imagine that moment, we create a gap. It’s a gap between what’s possible, what we can envision, and where we are now. Closing that gap can be hard. We either don’t know what to do, or we’re not doing it because something is holding us back. It could be fear, a limiting belief or even mindset. Mindset might be something like, “if I do this, people will judge me.”  Maybe you’re staring at your balance sheet at the end of the year, and you’re thinking, “I need to make more money next year.” Or maybe you’ve realized you don’t have any boundaries. Or – and this one is my favorite – maybe you’re over-functioning and everyone else in your life is very happy about this because it benefits them, but YOU are not thrilled. These are really important issues. Think about how many times you have felt like you weren’t smart enough to get something done, or how many times you had this kind of deep ache in your gut and you were thinking, “you know, I just don’t have what it takes to get this right.” This is where coaching is everything. I’m going to tie this into sports for a moment because it’s where the term came from. So I want you to imagine you’re a gymnast working on your routine. Your coach doesn’t do the routine with you. The coach watches you do the routine. They stand back. Sometimes they are all the way across the room. Sometimes they might even stand up high to view your routine from above. They get all the perspectives about how the routine is performed. And those are all perspectives the gymnast doesn’t have. So, when you put yourself back in those moments, what you want is a coach who can see all of you, the entire landscape and outline of your “routine.” That coach can come in and tell you what to do next. That coach can come in and say you’ve done “xyz”, but you’ve totally forgotten about “q.” People who have coaches are incredibly strong. They’re ambitious and very driven. But they also understand there are things they cannot see that might be holding them back. It doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with those people. They recognize the value in having a coach who stands next to you and supports you and helps you to see things you can’t see.    Mentioned: How I’m Investing During our Biggest Year Yet: https://sarahwalton.com/investing/  Sign up for a Sprint: https://sarahwalton.com/sprint/  Sales Mastermind: https://sarahwalton.com/salesmastermind/  Other Game On Girlfriend podcast episodes you might want to check out:  Let’s Shake Up The Coaching Industry: https://sarahwalton.com/lee/  The Power of Mastermind Groups: https://sarahwalton.com/mastermind-groups/  3 Lessons I Learned From My 8-figure Coach: https://sarahwalton.com/3-lessons-8-figure-coach/  A Day In The Life Of A Coach: https://sarahwalton.com/life-of-a-coach/  You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton