One of the most overused terms in the American lexicon is ‘personal coach.’ Now I don’t know about you, but from the very first time I heard the term, I had to step back and say “What?!#” Personal coach? Am I Roger Federer or Bjorn Borg? (Wanted to cover the generations there.) If you don’t recognize those names fill in Tiger Woods or someone of that ilk.

What in the world is a personal coach really and why would you or I need one? (And to make it clear, I am not a coach, so this is not a prompt for my services.) The best I can figure, and from personal experience, the way to excel in anything is to be focused on a goal.

Now there are two parts to that success equation, focus and goal. Before you can focus on the things you need to do to succeed, you have to know what your goal is, and that’s where a coach can be a huge help.

Early in life I traveled to Phoenix Arizona to go to school at Devry Technical Institute. I was in their electronic engineering program and did not have focus. I was in a strange city, 17 years old, 2500 miles from my parents, and wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew. I couldn’t admit that being there was a mistake. (It was too early in my life to realize that admitting a mistake is sometimes the best course of action.)

The point I am making is that I had a goal, but no focus, and I failed to attain that goal and achieve success. Other times in my life I have been searching and trying three or four different things at the same time, figuring that one of them may work out. There I had an abstract goal — success — but no focus. Again, things didn’t work out.

What I could have used at both points of my life is a life coach. By speaking to a qualified coach I could have come to the realization of steps that would lead to success, and again, realizing that you could use help, and seeking it, is a huge “ah ha” moment and a step that can lead you to great success.

It’s the same in business. Focus and goals. Business owners, both large businesses and entrepreneurs, also have to have solid vision, goals and focus to have the greatest possible success. Sometimes they can succeed and not even know why and often businesses fail, and again the owner doesn’t know why.

In business and in your personal life the “why and how” to success is knowing “what good looks like to you” and removing the barricades that block you from reaching that “good” state. To do that we all can use occasional coaching and some sort of problem solving model.