Don’t Spend Money You Don’t Have

So you’ve got your certification as a coach. You’ve completed your training, passed your assessments and are ready to go out and change the world and all the people who live in it.

And you’re terrified.

What if no-one comes?

What if I don’t get enough clients?

What if I never get any clients?

What if I can’t do this?

As you sit, alone, in your office, waiting for the phone to ring and the email to ping, you may get more and more anxious. Turning to Facebook to take your mind off your worries you see all the bright, shiny, happy coaches posting about their perfect lives; how happy and loved they are, how many clients they have, how much their clients love them, how generally brilliant and awesome they are.

Feeling a little more anxious, your eyes light upon posts that seem to be the answer to your worries.

“Be a better coach!”

“Build your brand!”

“Carve out your niche!”

“Market yourself better”

“Fill your diary with more clients than you know what to do with!”

We are inundated with messages every day that we need to do more, learn more, (spend more) to get more clients and be the coaches that we want to be.

It is almost impossible to resist the temptation to throw money at the perceived problem.

So you take out you credit card and sign up for something for which, you are assured, the return on investment will be bigger than you can begin to imagine.

Now I am not suggesting that you will not get a good return on your investment. I am sure that all of the courses are excellent and provide important knowledge, tools and skills. I am a firm believer that we sometimes need to spend money to make money.

Please understand that I am not saying don’t spend money on continuing and deepening your education and learning.

What I am saying is, don’t spend money that you don’t have.

Don’t get yourself into debt and overdraft.

Because debt and overdraft result in stress and anxiety. And when you are stressed and anxious you are not able to do your best work or live your best life. Instead, you will put yourself under enormous pressure to make all that money back and dig yourself out of debt.

You take on more clients than you can handle.

You work more hours than you have energy for.

You sacrifice time with friends and family to sit at your computer.

You work yourself into the ground.

And it isn’t necessary.

Your coach training has provided you with all the knowledge, tools and skills that you require to be a coach. You don’t need to spend money that you don’t have to get better.

If you want to improve your skills, coach more.

If you want to get clear on your niche, coach more.

If you want more people to know about you, coach more.

When you can afford to extend your learning you will almost certainly learn new skills and techniques that will allow you to be even better and more effective as a coach. But in the meantime there are lots of things that you can do to support yourself and get better as a coach that do not cost much if anything:

• Regular exercise.
• Eating well.
• Resting enough.
• Reading books about coaching.
• Being coached.

If you look after yourself your coaching will look after you. And part of looking after yourself is keeping yourself out of debt.

Don’t panic. Trust the process. All will be well.

Tags: be a better coach | coach training | coaching | don't spend momey you don;t have | life coach | look after yourself | stay out of debt | trust yourself

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