Over 35 years ago, I made what I feel is one of the significant decisions of my life. I decided that for the rest of my life I would invest 10% of my time in personal growth. In order to make this time of value I knew I needed a personal coach, a mentor and I needed to belong to a mastermind group. Of the three, the use of personal coaches has done more for my career and life success than any other career decision I have ever made.

During my speaking career I have known hundreds of people and spoken to thousands of salespeople who have said they want a better lifestyle, increased income and greater satisfaction from their career and life. Many of these same people have turned over the responsibility of their personal development to someone else. Unfortunately this is not the most effective way to ensure a life filled with success and personal freedom.

Over the years, one common denominator I have observed in successful salespeople is their willingness to invest in the continued improvement of their skills, attitudes and philosophy regardless of how they did it – books, seminars, audio products and so on. What I have also learned is that the most successful of these, had a personal coach helping them learn new skills as well as the value of discarding unnecessary habits and attitudes.

There are different coaching relationships and I am distinguishing here between a coach and a mentor. I have a lot of mentors who are no longer with us. I can think of people like; Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Will Rogers as three very important ones. I can learn from them through the written words they left behind but learning from a coach is different. A coach is in your life to help you; self-discover, think, create, unload old baggage, re-invent yourself, learn new skills, improve your powers of imagination and much more.

Do you have a personal coach? Have you ever had one? Every professional athlete from Olympic champions to the tennis and golf greats of the past and present have or have had personal coaches. Why? Because a good coach doesn’t have to have the ability to be better than you on the court or course. Their role is to help you get more out of you.

I am a personal coach to a number of salespeople, speakers, authors and CEO’s. Each month we talk about their objectives, goals, challenges, decisions etc. My role is not to tell them how they should be or what they should do. I don’t have that right. One of my coaching clients runs a $300 million dollar company. I have never run even a $10 million dollar company. I do not have the right or the ability to tell him what he should do different or better. My only role is to help him become a better CEO by asking good questions, holding him accountable, listening between the lines and helping him get in touch with his real intent.

Life is an interesting relationship between paying the price and winning the prize. Between self-investment and rewards. Between investing time in personal development and your ultimate success.

It takes commitment, patience, persistence, and goals to invest wisely in yourself over the long haul. It takes nothing whatsoever to postpone investing in yourself until it is too late and the die is cast. We are talking about a philosophy of ‘life-long learning’ – not learning as an event. It is never too late to begin an aggressive on-going self development program.

Many of the salespeople I coach want praise that they don’t get from their supervisors, validation of their methods or attitudes and permission to do something new or different. That’s not the role of a coach – that’s the role of a mother.

Where can you find a coach? Do you have to pay for coaching? What will you get out of a coaching relationship? How long will it or should a coaching relationship last? These are all very good questions so let me give you a couple of things to consider.

A coach can be anyone you trust, respect, knows how to listen, is not judgmental or critical, does not give advice and believes in you and your potential.

You can find them anywhere but there are organizations and professionals in all walks of life who spend a certain amount of their time coaching others. This may take a little digging on your part but it will be worth it.

A personal coach can:

-Improve your performance

-Save you time and resources

-Help you identify personal weaknesses

-Accelerate your career

-Help you learn new skills faster

-Improve your lifestyle

-Sharpen you existing skills

-Increase your income and net worth

-Improve your effectiveness

-Help you make better decisions

For personal coaching to be effective you must be willing to:

– Be held accountable

– Accept new ideas and approaches

– Change behaviors

– Get in touch with your real intentions

– Spend 5-6 hours per month working on your goals, plans and actions

What can a personal coach cost you? Anywhere from: $500 to $75,000 a year.

A coaching arrangement if it is to be successful requires commitment, follow-through, persistence, time and a desire to improve. There are no guarantees. Life offers no guarantees, but after over 30 years coaching a variety of people I have learned that if you will bring these attributes to the coaching process you will get back – ten times or more – the investment you made. Remember you are investing in yourself and your future.

Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 3500 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management, leadership and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 60 books including; Soft Sell, That’s Life, Peace Of Mind, 81 Challenges Managers Face and Your First Year In Sales. He is also the CEO of Sales Clubs Of America. He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his websites at [http://www.timconnor.com] or [http://www.SalesClubsOfAmerica.com]