Good morning! Today I’m delighted to introduce Joe Saul-Sehy, who will discuss how having mentors can help you achieve more than you ever thought possible. Let me know if you’d like to guest post on RFI. There’s also a new post on Make Money Your Way about how you can market your skills and find a tutoring job. Check it out for more information!

On the edge of my desk sits a box labeled “Life Coach in a Box,” which I impulsively bought from a discount table at Barnes and Noble. I thought, this is great—I’ve paid for coaching before, but now I can get the benefits without talking to anyone. That’s perfect for my introverted, budget-conscious self.

I’ve never opened it.

You’d think that if there were important secrets out there, we’d go looking for them. I do. I often find myself engrossed in a Bing search (because they give rewards, and I love earning free Amazon gift cards) on some obscure topic. A great coach, however, does much more than a search engine—they guide you to the key insights you need.

My experience with coaches started out of curiosity. I used to think hiring a life coach was a waste of money. Why would I need someone telling me how to live my life when I already get plenty of “advice” from my spouse and daughter?

This particular life coach was considering using my financial services, so I thought it was only fair to try her services in return.

I was blown away.

The first thing we did was complete a survey called “The Wheel.” It was a simple pie chart with categories like Spirituality, Work, Friends, Children, Spouse, Finances, Health, and Mental Health. I rated each on a scale from 1 to 10, and we discussed why some areas were rated lower than others.

During these discussions, my coach pointed out that people tend to focus on the negatives. While we would address those, we started by focusing on the positives and leveraging what I was doing well in those areas. The idea was to replicate my successful strategies across other aspects of my life to achieve the results I wanted.

Here are a few key lessons I learned:

1. Schedule Time: My job success came from sticking to a strict schedule, so applying this discipline to other areas would likely yield success there too.

2. Remember Your Body Rhythm: As a morning person, trying to work out in the afternoon when I was already busy was a recipe for disaster. By the afternoon, I was always behind on tasks and lacked the energy for a workout, so I consistently skipped it.

3. Leverage Your Tendencies: I realized that if I packed a lunch, my frugal nature would compel me to eat it instead of buying food. To avoid eating alone, I started organizing a book club during lunch, which let me enjoy a good book and conversation while saving money.

Thanks to my coach, I:

– Coached my kids’ soccer teams.
– Organized fantastic birthday parties and family events.
– Attended church regularly.
– Read fiction and watched movies more often.

And the kicker?

I quadrupled the size of my business over three years.

Initially, it didn’t make sense to me. How could I spend more time on non-work activities and still see such substantial work success? The answer was that my priorities were aligned with my actions. I accomplished more without stress because my productive time was balanced with quality downtime and family activities.

What I learned is that I didn’t initially want to work with a coach; I was just trying to grow my business. Now, I firmly believe that mentors and coaches can help you achieve much more than you can on your own. I constantly remind myself to seek feedback and use it to improve myself.

Who do you get coaching from?

Joe Saul-Sehy is co-host of the popular podcast Stacking Benjamins and regularly writes at the blog of the same name. You can find Joe on Facebook and Twitter @AverageJoeMoney. Thank you to Mom and Dad Money and Yakezie Carnival for featuring this post!