People have been through gurus/psychiatrists and businesses have been through the equivaletn, ie, management consultants … and are wary and skeptical if a specific, tangible thing is not presented by the coach.

Will a coah help me figure out my goals? If I have goals, will a coach help me reach them in a way that I can’t? Just because I may have problems, how can a coah possibly know me and my specific situation enough to help me.

What, specifically, do coaches offer? After 5 sessions or 10 – to fix a problem? That implies incompetance on my part and super-human ability on theirs.

To make more money? Why bother coaching if making money is that easy that you can explain it in 5 sessions.

To fix my problems? How can they know my problems better than me?

To motivate me? Perhaps. But how will that lead to the change I want? The girl I want to date doesn’t like me. I go to a coach. I get motivated. How does that change my situaiton? Will she change her mind because I’m more motivated? Or simply accuse me of harassing her?

The problem with coaches is that they’re too general and the comparison to sports teams is thus improper: a sports coach usually played the sport and competed and can share insights on how to train better, manage aspects of life, etc.

Unless someone’s in my situation, how can they have the credibility to make me pay them to tell me something that they have no experience with?

Equation: Your current life + My coaching = what, exactly?

Status quo? I could go to a bar and have more fun drinking and my life stays the same.

Change? How, specifically? How so that is not possible without the coach?

Change towards what? An increase in outer, material goods? Usually people are reluctant to share that kind of info, so that brings skepticism.

An increase in inner, mental qualities?

How, specifically? Do you have some "thoughts" or quotes or something I repeat when life gets hard or I lose focus or motivation?

Some proven exercise with proven results?

Secret mantras I repeat that open up a previously unused part of my brain and help me perform better?

Subliminal messages to trick me into performing better?

Here – let me give you an example.

There’s a book I recommend to many people: Kaizen – How One Small Step Can Change your life.

In it, the author, a psychologist, offers a specific, simple tool and a clear explanation as to why it works better than other things: to overcome doubt and procrastination, start ridiculously small because big plans scare your brain and shut off the creative part you need to do modern work.

After reading the book, I know what specific technique I get to use during what situations, why it works, and why I should pay attention to the guy touting it, and how to apply it and how to test if it really works.

Therefore, I can judge his effectiveness.

Since "coach" = nothing specific, there’s no way to judge whether "using coach" = good use of time.

Hence, people are reluctant to use coaches.

No, there’s nothing wrong with you. There’s not. Period. (Even though most of us believe that there is and constantly criticize ourselves for our behavior in an attempt to improve on ourselves.)

And yet, there is, in the sense that most of us have been brought up with a belief system that’s hurting us and limiting our happiness and what we can do. And that there’s another belief system that’s more true and helpful, and that we can learn instead.

So there’s nothing wrong with you, there’s something wrong with what you were taught to believe.