Life coaching is one of those magnificent opportunities you have to receive valuable guidance to help you achieve whatever it is you want out of life. Whether you want more money, to be more fit, have better relationships, or to improve your business; life coaching can help you to examine what in your life is not working and preventing you from achieving what you truly desire and dream about.

While true success means different things to different people, at our core, the frustration comes when we can’t seem to get what we really want. We’re unhappy with our jobs, our relationships, being out of shape, financial situations, and feel stuck in a life we can’t control. Accountability Coaching can change all of that. Just like the quote from Home Depot President and CEO, Bob Nardelli, says – people do not reach their full potential unless they are coached.

This holds true for anyone. Take professional athletes as an example – every single professional athlete has achieved success with the guidance of a coach or coaches. They might have had the talent, but it needed to be improved and refined to get them to the professional level. This is also true for actors, entrepreneurs, doctors, and even multi-millionaire entrepreneurs – they all received coaching in one form or another.

Accountability Coaching is a specialized field and is designed to improve both your personal and professional life, and it can help you –

– Realize your dreams, desires and spiritual purpose.

– Create a detailed action to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

– Identify and focus on your main priorities.

– Refine your strengths.

– Reduce and eliminate destructive and sabotaging behaviors.

– Create a more balanced life.

– Get Results!

There are many methods for coaching. Here are four methods to consider:

1. Self-coaching

You may be tempted to initially try self-coaching. Although I wouldn’t recommend this method, it is an option. You would want to create systems for daily, weekly, monthly and annual goal tracking. You would need to identify your highest payoff activities that will put you in the best position to achieve your goals, and then do those things first and foremost. Reading books about coaching might also be a good place to help you get started.

Personal and Professional Assessments are great tools to help you. They might even be able to guide you into a method that is best for you. You can take a complimentary online ‘Am I Coachable’ assessment and Implementation Index at http://www.accountabilitycoach.com. These brief complimentary assessments will provide personal and professional insight to guide you for what you might do next.

Kathy Kolbe, an action and conative styles researcher, has developed a standardized assessment designed to measure an individuals’ dominant conative traits. She established four distinct patterns of action based on the Kolbe Conative Index. The Kolbe Index classifies people into four categories, and predicts how they will instinctively act in unknown situations. You can review their assessments at Kolbe.com.

A great resource for identifying your strengths is a book entitled, Now, Discover Your Strengths. It comes complete with an exercise that provides you with Strength Finder results. When you have a full understanding of what your strengths are, you are in a better position to be even more successful.

2. Peer Accountability Coaching (3 people minimum)

You agree to meet weekly by phone or in person with your peer-coaching team (if you don’t have access to a 3-way conference calling feature, feel free to use a service like freeconferencepro.com for example.

Here is how it works with three people on your peer accountability team:

o Person A holds person B accountable

o Person B holds person C accountable

o Person C holds person A accountable

So, in this scenario nobody is being held accountable by the person holding them accountable. Each participant agrees to devote themselves to the individual they are holding accountable for the period of agreed to. Each participant agrees to provide unselfish service to the individual they are holding accountable by investing, time, thought, and (no nonsense) encouragement until which time you decide to change or dissolve the group.

You will want to make sure to create an agenda and structure for the calls so you can measure progress against your goals every time you talk. Creating tracking methods is very important to creating success with this method and any coaching method you choose.

3. Group Coaching

This method of coaching can be beneficial for people who already have a sense of where they’re going and what they need to do to get there. It is also good for the person who doesn’t want the intensity of one-on-one or wants to initially stick their toe in before jumping in head first.

In a group coaching environment, you can learn great tips for success, but you need to learn how to implement them and that usually takes the guidance of one-on-one coaching to know how to do that. However, if you have already received some level of coaching, group sessions can be great “mastermind” sessions. Group coaching can be done over the phone or in person.

You can surround yourself with other ambitious people – just like you – who are striving to achieve success. These coaching groups might allow the members to brainstorm about how best to solve every day challenges in your personal and professional life. Group coaching should have an agenda and individual assignments due for each session to report to the others. There also should be some form of accountability within the group to make it effective. Group coaching can be formed in variety of ways: with friends, business associates, colleagues or networking contacts; and can be led by a professional accountability coach.

If you’re not naturally a very social person, then this could be a great opportunity to step out of your shell and become more comfortable in group settings. Even people who are not naturally a ‘people person’ can find benefit from group coaching. Group coaching brings new ideas and new people into your life and can be the vital pieces to your puzzle of success.

4. One-on-One and Personalized Coaching

These coaching services are typically conducted on a regular basis (weekly, biweekly or monthly) by phone or in person. The client and coach will schedule appointments to define your main focus and desires, develop strategies to achieve them along with a detailed plan of action, and create a way to measure progress. Most of us don’t even know we’re not going about it the right way until we have a coach who brings an objective sense and can identify the things we’re doing or not doing that are preventing us from achieving what we want.

Professional coaching provides you an objective outside voice that helps you identify what it is you want and a plan of action to get it – plain and simple. One-on-one coaching sessions have so much to offer and you will learn so much about yourself that when you come to the end of your sessions you will feel like a very different person – a new and improved version of you. You will have finally identified what has been causing you so much frustration and will develop productive habits that increase your success instead of sabotaging it. One-on-one coaching is ideal for anyone who is not where they want to be in life, and any one area of their life. The intense focus and the personalized guidance can literally make the difference between staying stuck where you are and living the life you want to live.

What if I told you that Accountability Coaching is designed to help you achieve everything you want? Really – achieve anything you want. Life is what you make of it – not what is dealt to you and you can literally have anything you want if you know how to get it. Achieving success merely comes down to identifying the destructive habits and incorporating positive, success habits. Accountability Coaching does exactly that – guides you along the path of success until you learn to make the right decisions on your own.

Ask yourself these questions and write down your responses:

– Are you truly happy with every aspect of your life?

– Do you live your life feeling as if you are fulfilling a valuable purpose or destiny?

– Are there things you want to achieve or do that you just haven’t been able to?

Now write down your responses to these questions:

– If you could change 3 things in your life right now – what would they be?

– Do you worry that you won’t be able to achieve the goals you have set?

– You do want to change your life, but find that you face challenges in doing so?

Coaches may help you along the way, but ultimately your success is up to you. Your best strategy is to seek the best coaches to accelerate your progress to your next level of success.