Coaching is often controversial.

Some people think it’s just fantastic.

Others think it’s an excuse to empty your wallet and get very little in return.

Which is right?

There’s more than a grain of truth in both answers.

And there are a lot of other answers as well.

Coaching is a wide and varied subject and can take on all sorts of different forms.

And self-coaching is certainly one alternative.

You can get books, videos, workbooks, home study courses and personal coaching on near enough any subject you care to mention.

School and college children use tutors to help them better understand certain subjects.

Almost every sports team has a coach.

There are classes that cater for various subjects and you could easily argue that the person leading the class is a group coach (definitions of coaching vary but the wider definitions would definitely include this option).

Most of the time, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions:

• What are you hoping to achieve with coaching?
• How do you best learn the particular thing you want to improve?

The first question is certainly the most important.

If you don’t know what you want from something, you are reducing your chance of getting it.

It’s a bit like setting out from home on a journey but having no destination in mind. Then taking random left and right turns to see what happens and where you reach.

That could be fun. Or it could be dangerous. Or it could lead to a dead end. Or it could take you somewhere you don’t really like.

Without a plan, you won’t know until it happens.

And that’s the same with coaching.

If your “plan” is that you want to improve your internet marketing, the subject is too wide to be able to get much help.

You’d be much better off doing an analysis of your current strengths and weaknesses.

Then, once you’ve got that list, prioritising them.

Once you’ve prioritised them, you then need to tackle the highest priority areas.

Go back in your mind to decide how you’ve learned whatever you’ve learned to date.

Was it by reading books? Or watching videos? Or attending a live workshop? Or just trial and error?

Then figure out whether the method you used was a good one for you.

Did you find it easy or difficult?

Were there times when you thought there was something missing?

If that was the case, were the missing parts easy to find?

Or did they take forever to figure out because you didn’t know the question you should be asking?

All those questions need answering before you can decide whether a “real” coach – one you meet with regularly, whether that’s online or face to face – will work or whether a “virtual” coach – those books and videos again – would work OK.

That’s the other part of the equation.

The 80/20 rule comes into play here.

Maybe you could learn near enough everything with a real coach.

And maybe you could learn the majority of what you need to know without having to block out the time and the money to find out the answers “in person”.

Chances are that you won’t have the same answer for everything in your life.

For instance, I’m self taught on things like computers and HTML code and weird things like that. Partly because when I first started learning, magazines and a handful of online resources were the only things available. So that’s how my mind thinks it should learn those subjects.

When I learned to drive, I had an instructor – quite close to a coach but the industry convention doesn’t call them that. There’s a lot of overlap in terminology unless you’re being super-pedantic.

Hypnosis: I used a mixture of books, audios and courses.

NLP (neuro linguistic programming) I tried to learn from books and audios but needed to go on a course for it to make sense.

Weight loss: books worked for a while but I normally went back to my previous weight. So I booked several sessions with a health and nutritionist and have been on the right track since then. But I’ve also had the advantage of the support of a friend who’s also been interested in losing weight. So we’ve effectively added in a buddy system where we’re both accountable to each other.

And finding a buddy is an option you could consider.

It’s not coaching in the strict sense of the word.

But it may well be what you need to push you in the right direction.

Take the time to consider where you want to go next in your business.

Then take action!

Whatever that action is.

It could be as simple as setting aside an hour a day most days to work on your business.

Or it could be immersing yourself in study in an area that you feel would benefit you.

Or it could be finding a buddy who’ll work with you.

Or it could be finding someone who’ll coach you and working with them either on a one-off basis or as part of a longer term process.

Ultimately it’s your choice.

And personally I think that the best decision you could make is to do something – almost anything – rather than do nothing.

You can always fine tune things once you know where you’re going.

But if you don’t know your destination then both everything and nothing will help.

Feel free to add your comments about coaching below.