How To Know When You Need Coaching

Now, this is not a coaching plug for my services because this is not about me but you the reader. However, if you want to know about my services you can contact me here.

This is for if or when you need coaching because not everyone likes being told what to do. After 20 years of marriage, I have the bruises to show for it 😊

Being a personal trainer for 13 years I’ve been in the coaching thick of it for a while. Enough to determine who responds well to coaching and who doesn’t. But to the general public, coaching doesn’t seem like a real job. You see them on TV, see them in the gym, and see them at ball games.

Coaches, they’ve got it made, right?

They’re strutting along the sideline yelling and screaming instructions at their players or clients.

“Get down and give me 20”

Or it’s the personal trainers at your gym wearing tracksuit pants, drinking coffee, and occasionally looking up from their phones to see if their client is doing it right.  Coaches don’t seem to be doing an ounce of ‘work’ and they get to wear comfortable pants to boot.

Why in the heck do you need one of those? What they do seems easy and surely, I don’t need to hand over my hard-earned cash for something I can do myself. This is an understandable line of thinking but if you fall into one of the categories below, you should consider hiring a coach.

A good one who pays attention, Like, hang on I said I wouldn’t plug myself again.

You Lack Of Accountability  

A big reason clients keep the coach’s around is accountability. It’s not because of the coach’s dress sense, knowledge, programming skills, or sparkling personality. It’s the fact the client pays for their sessions, schedules their sessions, and has someone who bugs them if they don’t show up.

Do you have every intention of starting but never do?

Start and then quit because the going gets tough? (No judgment here just observation)

Say you’re going to get in shape for summer but don’t because you lack the time, money, or know-how?

When you find yourself not being consistent, starting, stopping and starting, or not following through you may need accountability. Because if you cannot get yourself to do it when you need to, then get someone else to get you to do it.  

Do you lack accountability?

You’re Spinning Your Wheels  

Have you heard the saying’ a lawyer who has represents him or herself has a fool for a client?” The same can be said for a lot of personal trainers who write their programs. Sure, they know but do they have the objectivity. Probably not. Therefore, I have a coach because he gives me what I need and not what I want. Because before then I was just spinning my wheels.

If you have been exercising for a while and are not satisfied with your results. If you want your training to go to the next level and don’t know where to start or you’re overwhelmed, then hiring a coach and shortening your learning curve is right up your alley.  

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Sounds silly but let me explain. Health and fitness, my industry is a broad spectrum with a ton of conflicting information. When searching, getting started, or wanting to get to the next level it’s hard to know what is true and what is not because of information conflicting overload.

Can you lose fat and gain muscle at the same time?

This person says I can eat all the carbs I want and lose weight and that person says carbs are the devil.

That coach says deadlifts are the only way to get strong and this coach says this is crap, all you need is squats.

This popular site says I need to eat six times a day to lose fat and this other site said I need to fast for 16 hours a day.

CrossFit is the best way to train. What? Said nobody ever. 😊  

Well, this can go on forever, but I’ll stop there. A good coach will make sense of all this conflicting information to find what’s best for you. You may think you’ll find cutting-edge real-world information on Google but how do you apply it? How do you know it will work for you?

A good coach will know because they’ve been there before.

Do You Have the Support of Your Loved Ones?

This is a little off base but bear with me.

Personal training is a luxury for most and it is expensive. I can’t even afford myself. When you’re thinking about making an investment in your health & fitness it helps to have the support of friends and loved ones. If your significant other is not on board or if you’re doing it behind their back, it may end in failure.

When you’re having to sneak around and hide the money spent on training, I feel it’s like a dark cloud hanging over your head. In my 13 years of experience, there have been several occasions where my client didn’t get the support of their partner either financially or emotionally.

It didn’t end well every time.

When you enter the coaching relationship with the best of intentions but under a dark cloud, it’s tough to make it work.

Wrapping Up

Asking for help in the form of coaching is a big decision both financially and emotionally. You must go in with eyes wide open knowing what you want out of it and being comfortable being told what to do it. For me, that’s easy because I’ve been married for over 20 years. Hopefully, after reading you’ll know if it’s a good fit for you.

See I only plugged my services once.