Setting goals to achieve goals has been emphasized many times. It is part of a process of achieving success and getting what you really want out of life. Clear focus, fixed goals are the major contributors for achieving optimum performance. This is where a personal coach can help by contributing his ideas for setting goals.

The role of a personal coach is to help individuals clarify their thinking, set and achieve their goals, realize their dreams, and create balance in their lives. Hiring a personal coach to help identify and achieve desired results is a relatively new phenomenon. There are now approximately one hundred personal coaches in the Greater Vancouver area, up from a handful in 1998.

The personal coach is a facilitator, not a therapist. A therapist treats disorders with remedial or rehabilitative processes that focus on the past, while coaches look to the future to maximize the potential that exists within each client. A coach can serve as a trusted confidant who is always there for you.

The personal coach does not give advice. We're always more committed to a plan of action we ourselves have created, than to a plan created by someone else. Instead, personal coaching helps the client identify what he or she most wants to be or do and helps them build on their strengths and create a plan of action.

Accountability to an objective third party is one of the key factors in getting measurable results and significantly improves the odds of achieving success. It has been estimated that only 20% of individuals who pursue fitness programs achieve their goals; of the 20% who succeed, more than 80% have had the benefit of guidance from a coach.

The use personal coaching can be beneficial for anyone who wants to achieve their goals. Virtually all athletes have coaches, and it is increasingly common for professionals and executives to have coaches as well. Many corporations have now implemented coaching programs as an integral part of their human resource management strategy.

The coach will do questions like this: What's the biggest challenge you have? What do you really want? What are you merely tolerating? What manageable steps would help you to achieve your goals?