Setting yourself up for success

So you are looking for someone to work with to help you achieve success in your life?

How can you make sure that whatever funds you invest in will give you the maximum return in the shortest possible space of time? Read on...

Investing in yourself, whether it be with time, money, energy or all of the above if something we should all take very seriously. Indeed, in my experience it is much easier to make recommendations to others about what they should or could do, rather than looking at ourselves.

Sometimes, the difficulty is that we don't know what it is that we exactly want or need to help us, so having a start point is crucial.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Do I really know what I specifically want to be different/improve on or feel better about? Write it down...
• Where am I at with that right now? Use a scale of 0-10 to measure your current satisfaction, 0 - unsatisfied and 10 totally satisfied
• Using the scale above, where do I want to be and what does it mean to me? E.G. 8/10, which means that I will still have nerves but I will have ways of managing them...

Once you've established what you want to work on, its knowing where to find the right intervention, so consider the following ideas:

• Use friends, family or colleagues to throw some ideas around.
• Take your time to make an informed decision, don't rush into something without doing your research.
• See what online resources you can find, there are so many free personal development resources out there.
• Ask for recommendations or suggestions.

If you think that working one to one with someone is the right thing, you need to make sure that you find the perfect match. It's a little bit like dating - you need to make sure that you will be compatible and be able to be honest and open right from the start.

Some tips:

• Read plenty of profiles - does a coach seem like someone you can open up with?
• Are their fees within your budget? Sometimes there might be room for negotiation, but its unlikely that they will cut their fees in half for you.
• Look at what you get for your money, some coaches only offer the time of the session, whereas others offer support in between and additional resources.
• Select a short list of three-six people to make contact with, most coaches offer an informal chat up front at no cost as its in all of our interests to make sure we can work together.
• Be clear about what you want from coaching and how you expect your coach to help you move forward.

All of the above also apply if you are considering booking on a course, even a free course needs to be researched. Just because it doesn't cost you any money, is it going to meet your needs?

So just a few ideas to help you, most importantly, consider yourself to worth investing in.