Professional coaching is growing in popularity. Some of the most successful people you know most likely have coaches. In fact, I’ve heard it said that Oprah Winfrey has four coaches. She has a coach for every area of her life she wants to improve upon. From health coaches to life coaches to career coaches and more you can undoubtedly find a professional with the expertise to help you transform your life.

I wholeheartedly believe there is value in partnering with a person who is committed to your success and trained to help you accomplish your goals. But what if you’re in between coaching sessions or just not ready to take the plunge? Don’t fret. I’ve outlined my top three techniques designed to help you coach yourself to success. I use these very strategies with my clients and you can use them too.

How to Coach Yourself to Success

1. Dig Deeper

The first technique is what I call Dig Deeper. Sometimes we can’t quite pinpoint what we want or why we want it. Dig Deeper will help you get to the root of your issue.

Here’s how it works:

Think about an area of your life you want to improve. Write it down. Next, ask yourself, “And what else?” It would go something like this,

I don’t like my job.

And what else?

I’m bored and I don’t feel challenged.

And what else?

I used to feel engaged and challenged at work before I switched teams.

And what else?

I miss the work I used to do.

You keep digging until you’ve “emptied out” as we like to call it in the coaching field. You keep going until there is nothing else. Again, this helps you identify what you really want.

This technique was used with a woman who originally said her problem was her weight. The Dig Deeper exercise revealed that she was unhappy in her marriage and was overeating to compensate for that dissatisfaction. Hopefully, you can see how important it is to understand what’s hiding beneath the surface. Without this exercise, this woman would have put a ton of energy into weight management when her primary focus should have been centered around improving her relationship with her husband.

2. Ask Yourself 3 Questions

As you start to coach yourself, ask yourself these three questions:

1. What worked well?

2. What didn’t work so well?

3. What will I do differently (or similarly) next time?

This works well as a check-in for a recurring activity. If you’re actively interviewing, immediately after you leave an interview you can write down the answers to these three questions. The same thing applies with sales calls. You leave a sales appointment and you answer the three questions. Or maybe you are looking to lose weight. At the end of each day you can journal your responses to the questions.

This is super valuable because you have a record of your strengths and weaknesses that you can refer to at any time. Before your next interview or sales call you can review your notes from the last time. It positions you to improve with each interview, event, or milestone. As time goes on the things that used to show up in the didn’t work so well category will shift to the what worked well category. Your habits and skills naturally improve as you pay diligent attention to them.

3. Right Now Technique

The last technique is Right Now. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say that they are stuck. However, there is always something you can do that does not depend on anyone but you. There are things that you don’t need any money for. You don’t need another person’s buy in or contribution in any way. In these instances, the only thing holding you back is you.

Whenever you feel stuck ask yourself, “What can I do right now to move my situation forward?” Your answer might be to apply for jobs or to make a phone call. If you keep doing what you can do, you will consistently be making progress little by little. Little progress develops into big progress.

There you have it – my top three techniques for coaching yourself to success. I want to leave you with one last tip. If you were to work with a professional coach you would have regular, scheduled meetings with him or her. As an example, I meet with my fitness coach every Saturday at 10am. That’s our schedule. Since you’ll be coaching yourself you will want to have a standing appointment with yourself. You will use this time to stay on top of your goals, monitor your progress, map out action items, and make adjustments to your plan. I like to start these appointments with the 3 Questions exercise. So I’ll start with, “between the last appointment and now what worked well?”

Congratulations! You are ready to coach yourself towards success. Go ahead and schedule a standing meeting with yourself. Put it in your calendar and commit. This is a must for accountability and structure. Buy a notebook to keep track of your progress and to complete the exercises. And lastly, go do something to move your life forward right now. Yes, right this moment!