Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google said, “Every successful person in the world has a coach if they truly want to achieve success.”

Last week in the column I wrote, I talked about the first 5 reasons people need a coach, here goes the second 5 reasons.

This week I was reminded that coaching is making a difference in the lives of the folks I coach.   I had lunch with their boss, and he told me that these people were now the top in his division.  It was not just my advice; it was what they did with that advice that made them successful.   So here goes with the second five.

5.You want more meaning in your life. “Meaning” is what makes your heart sing. It generally comes from doing what matters most to you. This gets much easier when you understand what you most value and you are encouraged to find ways to express it. If life feels a little shallow, or you don’t know why you do what you do anymore, you will benefit from working with a coach.

6.You want to take better care of yourself. Most of us were taught to take good care of ourselves. That’s fine if you want an average life. But people who accomplish great things often need to upgrade their lives tremendously before that’s even possible. They need clearer boundaries, a physical environment that’s supportive, more organization (or an organized assistant), enough rest, better stress management, and/or people who “get” them and who are actively supportive. Otherwise, “death by a thousand cuts” will slice their dreams to shreds. A good coach knows how to assist their clients to get the wonderful self-care they need, to step into the lives they were built to live.

7.You want to upgrade the people in your life. I don’t know about you, but I used to choose my friends according to who I had the most fun with. Eventually, I realized I wanted to improve my friendships. Then I realized (gulp), I needed to upgrade myself to attract the people I wanted to spend more time with. It wasn’t that hard because my coaches helped me do it. I set higher standards for myself and started living up to them. I found others who lived up to similar standards and we were naturally attracted to each other. Now when I choose friends, I find people who are supportive, very supportive. And they’ve got a friend for life.

8.You want to make more money. It might seem crass to bring up money right after talking about meaning, values, high standards and good friends, but let’s face it, a great life or career usually includes enough money, sometimes lots of it. Many people hire coaches when they want to upgrade their careers or launch a new business. The funny thing is that values, high standards, good relationships, etc., tend to make people more successful in many areas, including finances. One thing a great coach can do is help you get over any internal blocks you may have about making money. In fact, eliminating all sorts of internal blocks is one of the ways good coaches help their clients enjoy success of all kinds.

9.You’re willing to invest in yourself. This is about so much more than money. Are you prepared to take the time, effort, risk and yes, money, to have the life or business of your dreams? Or are you satisfied playing small? Are you ready to stop talking about your dreams and start living them? If you had the right coach in your corner, would you have the courage to step into your greatness? Only you can answer that.

10.You’re a coach. If there’s one profession where you really do need a coach most, it’s coaching itself. Although coaching is still one of the fastest growing careers, success with coaching is definitely not a slam dunk. Every successful coach I’ve ever known has had his/her own coaches, usually several. It helps us keep growing and stay out ahead of our clients. And it’s an integrity issue for us; we can’t expect people to hire us when we’re not willing to hire our own coaches.