3 Reasons High-Status Individuals Have High-Performance Coaches

Professional athletes and A-list celebrities are constantly under pressure to perform at their highest levels. That requires them to consistently push themselves, which can be excessively draining — emotionally and physically. That's one of the reasons many of these individuals seek out high-performance life coaches, trained and experienced to work with their unique reality. They recognize the need when they face a mental, emotional or physical challenge or they are ready, willing and committed to personal development.

Often these athletes don't understand what's going on and simply know they aren't showing up completely on the court or field. They're experiencing a void they can't shake. In other instances, there is an injury that will eventually heal, but they know the obstacle the time away from the sport can become. If they start suffering defeat or losing their ability to perform due to age or injury, they begin to experience a new awareness of life after the game.

For celebrities, the need for high-performance life coaching comes from mental or emotional challenges from loving to perform, but struggling with the responsibilities. They love the "show" but are challenged by the many nuances of the business. Often, celebrities and athletes become completely overwhelmed by their constant presence in the spotlight. They learn to live with the new reality, responsibilities and consequences of fame, and that is where high-performance life coaching can help to identify the issues and how to grow through them. In my experience leading a company dedicated to developing individuals like celebrities and leaders in business, I've come across three common reasons for seeking coaching and developed guidance for how to choose the best coach for you and your journey.

Facing Unimagined Challenges

Celebrity in any field comes with unforeseen challenges—stress, overwhelm, pressure, injury and more. For example, becoming famous means becoming a business. The responsibilities seem endless as executives, managers, coaches, teammates, general managers and owners want them to show up as a player and entertainers. They also have publicists, agents and sponsors who expect them at meetings as well as appearances. Many of them also have spouses and children and the added responsibility a family brings. The spotlight of cameras, phones and social media everywhere blurs the lines between fact and rumor, adding more pressure to these individuals' lives.

Professional athletes and celebrities need to learn to manage these pressures that play out in the public eye, in a healthy way. For those incoming, it is making the transition to the celebrity way of life. For others, it's coming to the end of a lucrative career. The goal of a high-performance life coach is to help celebrities and professional athletes mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically prepare to deal with the transition at every point in their careers.

There are a series of assessments that a life coach will perform to determine how best they can assist the person with whom they're working. The coach should take time to clearly understand what success looks like for that specific person. Avoid individuals who offer a cookie-cutter approach, but find someone who will listen carefully and who are truly wanting to find out who you are and not just assess what you do.

Uncovering True Identity

For those who have been identified as standouts for their entire life in their field, the challenge is to uncover one's true identity and answer the "who are you" question. A high-performance life coach can help those with celebrity (or similar) status identify who they are outside the game or outside the industry. For many, the world knows their name and assumes because they are successful in their careers, they have grown personally into that level of success. The truth is skill and talent can take individuals to levels of success their character cannot sustain in the entertainment industry even more than in sports. In entertainment, there is often no grooming and preparation.

For those who have achieved celebrity status, they may have the best trainers, best doctors and best nutritionists so they have the physical aspects down, but adding a high-performance life coach can make a big difference in the area of mental and emotional wellness. On one end of the continuum, I would say about 10% of these individuals know how to work through issues because they have a strong network and they are mentally mature. On the other end of the continuum, there is a mental illness with the need for a psychiatrist, psychologist and medicine. In the middle is the 80% who are trying to deal with life, conflict, decision-making, the everyday reality of being in the spotlight as well as being a parent, son or daughter, or spouse. Adding a high-performance life coach can empower them with the tools to grow personally so they can continue to dominate professionally and successfully manage the realities of life, career and celebrity status.

The problem with some life coaches is they are quick to offer advice that is shallow, generic and insincere. Others may want to provide solutions without properly understanding what a person really needs to transform their life. There's also a tendency for some coaches to simply accept a person's goals without offering them thoughtful insights to achieve those goals that are aligned with that person's true identity.

Taming the Pressure to Perform

While celebrities in every industry have the joy of their accomplishments, they also have the pressure for their next success and the burden of always performing at the highest level. Specialized high-performance life coaches work with celebrities and athletes to develop empowering mindset growth, establish healthy coping mechanisms, and practice the ability to maintain inner peace. They have chosen a profession where the spotlight is on, but they are still human, dealing with the same life challenges as those not in the spotlight. The role of high-performance life coaches is to help those in the spotlight get the help they need to be even better than they were before the challenges came. Life coaching is a healthy approach to exponential living, similar to choosing a nutritionist, dietician, psychologist or strength coach. These tools, like a life coach, help high-performing individuals sustain their status and live rich and fulfilling lives with contentment and joy.