Who Needs A Coach?

I’ve spent the past few weeks publishing my book "Clarity is Power" and scheduling some achievement workshops to promote it.

I was talking to my friend Michael and know he is working to accomplish many things in his life. I invited him to attend and he told me he didn’t need a workshop. He was coming along fine with his goals. I asked him about his progress and he spoke in general terms about what he was accomplishing. I suggested that maybe he needed to get another point of view to help him get over some challenges.

“You mean like a coach,” he laughed.

“Yes.”

“You mean you,” he was still laughing.

“I will be if you want, but anyone will do. You don’t even need to hire someone. Do you have a library card?”

“Of course.” He was no longer laughing.

“Go to the library and check out biographies. History is littered with coaches. Did you know Rudy Giuliani read Winston Churchill’s account of the Battle of Britain to help him lead New York City in the days after 9/11?”

“I don’t need a coach. I’m fine.” And with that he turned and walked away.

As I got on my subway, I wondered why so many people do not believe they need help to accomplish their goals and become the best they could be. Is it hubris or stupidity?

Some of the best have coaches. The best basketball player in the world, LeBron James has a coach. The best golfer, Rory McIlroy, has a coach. 2012 Gold Medalist in tennis and US Open Champion Andy Murray has a coach. NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson has a coach.

You will not only find coaches in the area of sports. Richard Branson acknowledges Sir John Whitmore as one of his coaches. Anthony Robbins thanks Jim Rohn for his guidance. Andrew Carnegie mentored Napoleon Hill.

What are some areas you need some help? Who do you know that has accomplished what you are working towards? Anybody can be a coach. You can learn valuable lessons from anyone. If you want to lose weight and get in better shape find someone who has and ask them how they did it. In NLP we call this modeling. You can model anyone, living or dead. Success leaves clues.

That is really all a coach is. A coach is someone who has made all the mistakes en route to accomplishing what you want to do, and they are willing to give you the benefit of their wisdom so you don’t have to make the same mistakes.

Do you want to accomplish your dreams? Get a coach.