Articles - Snippits

Setting goals to achieve goals has been emphasized many times. It is part of a process of achieving success and getting what you really want out of life. Clear focus, fixed goals are the major contributors for achieving optimum performance. This is where a personal coach can help by contributing his ideas for setting goals.

The role of a personal coach is to help individuals clarify their thinking, set and achieve their goals, realize their dreams, and create balance in their lives. Hiring a personal coach to help identify and achieve desired results is a relatively new phenomenon. There are now approximately one hundred personal coaches in the Greater Vancouver area, up from a handful in 1998.

The personal coach is a facilitator, not a therapist. A therapist treats disorders with remedial or rehabilitative processes that focus on the past, while coaches look to the future to maximize the potential that exists within each client. A coach can serve as a trusted confidant who is always there for you.

The personal coach doesn't give you an advice. Instead, personal coaching helps the client identify what he or she most wants to be or do and helps them build on their strengths and create a plan of action. We're always more committed to a plan of action we ourselves have created, compared to a plan that someone else created.

One of the best way to ensure positive results is to install accountability. The best way to do this is to have an outsider regularly assess your progress. Studies have shown that while only one in five people who start exercise programs reach their goals, the vast majority of them had a coach to provide advice and progress reports.

The use personal coaching can be beneficial for anyone who wants to achieve their goals. Virtually all athletes have coaches, and it is increasingly common for professionals and executives to have coaches as well. Many corporations have now implemented coaching programs as an integral part of their human resource management strategy.

The coach asks simple, important questions. What is the greatest challenge you face? What do you want out of your career and your life? What do you deal with that you want to improve? What concrete steps will you take? Coaches need regular feedback to be effective, and want you to think about what they say outside of their sessions.