Build a Life - Build a Legacy: Why hire a professional coach?

Why hire a professional coach?

1) A Productive, Action-Oriented Relationship Although there are many people who may have a significant impact on your life, a professional coach provides a different, productive type of relationship.

Friend
Friends are an extremely valuable part of our lives. They are there for you and comfort you, but they are not always focused entirely on you. As a coach, I have no agenda other than you. I am focused only on you and what you want.

Therapist
Coaching is not therapy. Therapists generally deal with emotional or behavioral problems. Coaches, on the other hand, work with highly motivated individuals who want to overcome the gap between where they are and where they want to be in their professional and personal life. Coaching is for you if you want to achieve more, and do it more quickly.

Consultant
A consultant is hired for his or her expertise. They are paid to provide answers. Often times though, that is all that they provide: a nice summary that they leave on the client's desk. A coach can provide the next step in the process: assisting in the actual implementation of recommendations that a consultant made. All coaches are consultants; few consultants are also coaches.

Mentor
A mentor is someone who has walked down the path that you are on. He looks back and provides assistance by sharing his experience and perspective. However, the focus is not necessarily on the future or on action - it is on shared wisdom. A coach works with you to reveal and build on your own strengths, improve your performance and enhance your quality of life.

2) Assessments To Help You Progress A coach who has been professionally trained has access to, and is licensed to use, proprietary programs from the top innovators in the field. For example, I have been trained in a newly created program by one of the founders of the coaching profession, Thomas Leonard. It is called "A Perfect Life". A coach is trained to weed through the many different assessments and tools that are available and find the few that will benefit you the most.

3) Legitimate Coaches Help You Make Life-changing Breakthroughs A legitimate coach, one that is trained and experienced, can have a profound impact on your life. Through this partnership, you can make great strides toward the life you've been longing to live. To help you ensure you are working with a trained professional, I've developed a list of "Top Ten Ways to Recognize a 'Legitimate' Coach."

Coaching is getting rave reviews from the media. View articles from the press.

Say you wanted to learn how to ride a bicycle. You could hire a therapist, a consultant, a trainer, a mentor, or a coach. The therapist would encourage you to talk about your fear of riding a bicycle. The consultant would explain to you how its done. The trainer would present what others have done to be successful on the bike complete with a role-play and assisting you through visualizing your self on the bike. The mentor would get on the bike and show you how to ride. And the coach would encourage you to hop on the bike, and then would run alongside you until you were steady enough to go on your own.

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