Are You a Good Candidate for Financial Coaching?

good canidate for financial coachingThinking about hiring a financial coach?

Not sure if you are a good candidate for financial coaching?

Ensuring that coaching is right for you can save you time and money.

Following are some traits and factors that will help you get the most from coaching, plus one bonus trait for working specifically with me!

Action Taker

You need to be action oriented. If you can’t take action on ideas that you and your coach came up with, then it’s a waste of time and energy.   You have to be willing to take action, it is the only way to get ahead.

The Timing is Good

You have to be ready to do the work. If you’re not in a position to be able to take action during the time you are coaching; then you will not get the most out of the coaching relationship.   How is this different from being action oriented?  There’s a difference between being action oriented and the timing of taking action.

I’m a very action oriented person, when I decide I’m going to do something I typically do it.   However, that doesn’t mean that if I decide to write a new book during the summer that I can actually make that happen right away.  Why not?  Because my son is home from school, our schedules are all off, and I just don’t have the time – no matter how much I want to take action.  Instead, I add it to my schedule to start working on in September when I can take action.

Make sure that you have the time to do the work today.  If you don’t, put it in your calendar to reassess the situation in a couple months.

*Warning – don’t end up using time as an excuse.  If you really want something and never find the time you have a priorities problem and this might be the perfect problem to solve with a coach.

Believe You Are Responsible for Your Future

Only you can make the changes in your life that you want.  You’re not looking for somebody to fix your problems for you.

Instead you’re looking for assistance in finding to the right direction for what you want out of life.   You’re not looking for somebody who is going to hand you money or bring in more clients for you.   You’re looking for the person who can help you plan how you will get what you want and support you while you are doing the work.  Only you can do the actual work.

You Know What You Want

You should know what you want to achieve or at least have some sort of general idea.

For example: Instead of wanting to coach because you want your financial situation to be better; a better goal would be to go into coaching knowing you want to pay off debt, or retire in seven years, or learn about dividend investing.

While most coaches will work with you on sorting out the specific details of what you want, it helps for you to save some general idea before hiring a coach.  Otherwise you may end up spending a lot of time figuring this out and may end up with the wrong coach.

You Are Stuck or Don’t Know How to Get to Your Destination

It would also make you a good candidate if you’re struggling to get to where you want to go.   Sometimes when we’re working on our plans we get stuck and can’t see the solution.

Why?

Because we are too close to the problem.

It’s hard to see what role we’re playing and what things we might be forgetting.   It helps to have a coach to help you figure out what you’re not seeing, and to look at it from a different perspective.   If you’re stuck, coaching can be a fabulous tool to help you get unstuck.

Along the same lines is that you know what you want, but just don’t have the knowledge to map out a plan to get you to your destination.  It can be hard to achieve your goals when you don’t even know what you need to do or don’t know what you don’t know!

Not Looking for Get Rich Quick

When looking to build your wealth you should not be looking for get rich quick.  Most get rich quick schemes are not legit get rich for life plans. You want to make a plan instead that allows you to build wealth for the long term.

While there’s definitely ways to speed up the wealth building process, there are no overnight successes.   Even those that you think were overnight successes, when you look into their history typically have some sort of years and years of focus and dedication.

Now, with that said, the ones that are truly overnight successes, such as winning the lottery, the percentages of those people actually holding on to their wealth within the next five years are minuscule. You cannot be after get rich quick approaches and work with a legit financial coach.

Holistic Approach to Life – Not Just Chasing Money

Our final trait, and the one that is specific to working with me in particular, is that you should be interested in building a life that is more than just about building wealth.

Instead of working 20 hours a day to pile up money, you want to work towards creating wealth while at the same time having a life.   Your relationships are healthy, your business is healthy; and you are healthy.  After all what is the point of having money if you are too sick and all alone to enjoy it?

Do you have to have all of these for coaching to be right?  No, but the more you have the more you will be successful in financial coaching.

 

3 comments
Erin says July 17, 2014

Really great insight, and you’re right, it’s all about being willing!!

Sally says July 17, 2014

Great points. And true for just about any type of coaching, consulting or training. It’s so important to be realistic and ready to take action. I also like your comment at the end – it’s all too easy to get focused on chasing wealth or business success. But that’s worth very little if you sacrifice other areas of your life.

Thanks for sharing!

    Andrea says July 18, 2014

    Sally, thank you – glad you enjoyed it!

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