Give yourself a coach as a gift

I always thought having a coach was a bit much. It certainly intrigued me when someone had one, but I couldn't really see it for myself. That just wasn't for me; I figured everything out on my own. Until I kept doing the same thing and getting the same results and doing it again and getting it once more, and I felt that it was enough.

When you also consider that almost everyone with a goal has a coach, it suddenly sounds a lot less excessive to invest in yourself. Or have you ever seen a speed skater or hockey team win without a coach? Exactly, and I'll give you five more reasons to treat yourself to a coach.

1. It’s all about you for a moment
Not about your partner, not about your employer, not about your brother, not about your child, your best friend, or anyone else with feelings, but about you. Think of it as exercising or going to a beautician, but then on the inside. It’s maintenance. And if you get one investment back in your life, it’s an investment in yourself.

2. Seeing things a little differently
I leave the door with a kind of eureka-hermit feeling after a conversation with my coach, without exception. Because I thought I had dissected a situation in a hundred ways, but I always gain new insights that are actually just a bit better and more logical.

3. Continuing to develop yourself
Between your twenties and twenty-five, you usually finish school and start working. You take a course here, brush up on something there, but that’s about it. A coach ensures that you keep developing yourself, which can never hurt.  

4. Mirror, mirror
In your life, you learn behavior, starting with me hanging over my four-month-old nephew's playpen and rewarding him with cooing when he laughs. With that learned behavior come the patterns. For example, do you always solve everything and get rewarded for it? Then there’s almost a hundred percent chance you’ll keep doing this. A coach makes you aware of your behavior, your patterns, and looks with you at how you can break or improve that.  

5. Something to think about
I used to dream of writing, living on a warm island, and waking up by drawing a job from the sea. Idyllic, of course, and that’s why this image quickly disappears when you’re stuck in the same traffic jam every morning. So it’s nice when someone nudges you and tells you to keep dreaming.

Get a coach, it will be fun.