As a coach, I’m obviously biased to the incredible role coaches can play in our lives.
In fact, in the past year alone I’ve hired coaches to help me grow my business, improve my mindset, and to help get me into amazing shape.
And the result?
I feel like 2015 has been my best year ever, both personally and professionally.
I’m clearer or what my priorities are, what’s important in my life, and what I need to do to continue to grow and be successful.
Here are four reasons I feel each and every one of us should have coaches in our lives.
#1 – For Their Expertise
The most obvious reason to seek out a coach is to find someone who is an expert in his or her field.
Even with the dearth of information available to us these days, it’s simply not possible to know everything (as much as we may try!).
And even more importantly, we can’t expect ourselves to be experts in each and every area of our lives.
As a coach, I expect myself to be an expert in the world of coaching.
But on the other hand, I’m also a business owner, which leads to an entirely different set of skills I need to develop.
I’m expected to market my business, sell my services, keep tabs on the accounting, and a host of other tasks.
Some of these are things that I’m willing and able to do, while others are easier to outsource.
The same could be said for your training.
Even if you train clients and athletes for a living, chances are there is someone out there who is a better trainer or coach than you – and it’s totally okay to admit that.
So here’s something to consider: If you found someone who was a better coach than you are right now, and hired them to write your programming, how much could you fast-track your skills as a coach?
It’s definitely something to think about.
Over the years I’ve hired Mike Tuscherer, Bill Hartman, and Eric Oetter to write my programs.
All of these guys are coaches I deeply respect, and while I got great results with each of them, perhaps the coolest part is that I became a better trainer and coach by using them.
#2 – To Increase Accountability
I’m a big believer that by simply having a coach, you are instantly more accountable.
I’ve coached athletes for over 15 years now, and I’ve written more programs than I care to remember.
But when I write my own program? It’s like the laws of biomechaincs and physiology change.
Just because I know what a certain exercise or modality is supposed to do, I can rationalize a reason for myself not to do it.
It’s crazy.
It’s a well known fact, but the bulk of your success when it comes to training (and life) is simply showing up and putting in the work.
A coach, then, is essentially a way to “buy” accountability. If you write a program for yourself, or simply take one off the Internet, there’s no accountability built in.
But if you take some of your hard earned cash and actually hire the services of a coach, you’re immediately more likely to stay true to the program and put in the work.
#3 – To Provide Objectivity
Let’s be real here – it’s very easy to lose objectivity when it comes to your own training.
Again, I can use myself as an example: I’ve trained myself so long, and can get so stuck in my own head, that it limits my ability to program effectively for myself.
Here are some questions we should ask whenever we design a program:
- What are this athletes goals?
- What are their needs, both with regards to movement quality and capacity?
- What do they need in the short term? What do they need in the long term?
Chances are if you’ve been training yourself for any extended period of time, your answers to these questions are not nearly as clear as they should be.
Or even worse, you’re stuck in the same rut, doing the same things month after month, year after year.
This is another great time to hire a professional. A quality coach can give you objective feedback on where you’re starting at, and what you need to do to get going in the right direction.
#4 – To Lighten the Load
Okay, one more example from the archives…
In 2010 when I stopped training all day at IFAST and moved strictly to evenings, I had a Friday morning where I had over 20 programs to write.
This was a really critical time in my development as a program designer for two reasons:
- This was the starting point for the R7 system, and
- It forced me to get serious about dialing in all of our progressions and regressions.
And while this professional growth was awesome, you know who doesn’t get a program written for them when you have 20+ programs to write?
That’s right – YOU!
If you’re a busy trainer or coach, or if you own a training business, the last person you want to write a program for is yourself.
If I’m objective looking back, the time I was most successful writing my own programs was in the early 2000’s when I was powerlifting.
I had a clear objective/goal (get stronger).
I was more focused purely on training.
And perhaps most importantly, I had less “stuff” going on. In other words, I didn’t have two businesses, a wife, kids, etc., that took up my time and energy.
But I’ve had some successful training years since the early 2000’s, so what was the biggest difference maker there?
Easy – I had a coach to lighten my own load.
If you have a thousand other things going on, it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself, or to put the time and energy into your own training.
In this case, hiring a coach to take some of that burden and stress off you is a very smart move.
Summary
As I mentioned up front, I think if you’re serious about achieving goals in your life, you should heavily consider hiring a coach to help you get there.
And if you have a goal of getting stronger in 2016, I’d strongly recommend checking out my Athletic Strength training group. It’s an awesome program, and one that I guarantee will help you start 2016 off on the right foot!
All the best
MR