If you’re shopping around for different coaching packages, identifying the perfect one for you may be a challenge. With so much variance between available offerings in the market, questions stack up quickly. Should you try a 6-month coaching program or an ongoing coaching service? Weekly sessions? Bi-weekly? Monthly?
In this article, learn about some of the most common coaching packages and approaches as you consider the right choice for yourself.
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Understanding Different Coaching Packages
First and foremost, as made clear by the title of this article, not all coaching is the same! For as far as the coaching industry has come in recent years, there still exists a wide variance in coaching quality, styles, and structures. In fact, this inconsistency is a large part of why we started a)plan coaching—to bring to market a consistent coaching method, quality, language, app, pricing, and more.
As you begin to analyze the different coaching packages on the market, it’s important to first consider what you want, even if you’re not entirely sure yet. Are you committed to round-the-clock self-improvement? Or do you only want to level-up your life and career for a set period of time? Both can have their time and place, although at a)plan, we see more value in an ongoing coaching approach, as we’ll explain later.
Your search for the right coaching package may take you down a rabbit hole. Some coaches offer a 3-month coaching program, a 6-month coaching program, and even year-long commitments. Within those structures are key details explaining what you actually get as part of the package. Is it one-to-one coaching? How frequently? Is there a coaching app to supplement the experience? What happens if you want to switch coaches?
Getting your questions answered and finding a fully transparent coach or company in the process comprise the first step of finding the right coaching package for you.
What Is a 6-Month Coaching Program?
A 6-month coaching program, or a 6-month coaching package is a coaching experience with a predetermined timeline generally highlighted by key steps or benchmarks along the way. Six months is a common coaching timeframe because it provides enough time for habits and behaviors to be changed and rewired temporarily.
One of the key highlights of a 6-month coaching program is the thinking or approach backing it. Aset timeframe conveys the idea that a coaching client can experience some form of transformation within that timeline. Then, when the program is over, the hope is the client will continue on with a new and improved outlook or approach to life. While this might work for some, it’s common for clients in these programs to see progress during the program, but much less so after the program when accountability and commitment naturally dip.
Although we deploy an ongoing coaching approach at a)plan (as opposed to a 6-month offering), many of our clients begin their coaching journeys with 6-month commitments. After the initial contract term, coaching continues on a rolling, month-to-month basis, much like a coaching subscription that supplements your daily life.
What Is Ongoing Coaching?
Ongoing coaching is a coaching approach dedicated to the notion that coaching is a supplemental resource to life with no predetermined timeframe or end date. In ongoing coaching, clients are dedicated to the forever work of self-improvement. This approach comes with less pressure to experience growth, progress, or transformation by a certain deadline; however, it still prioritizes those outcomes, albeit on a more fluid timeline.
Again, you can think of ongoing coaching as a coaching subscription. You bring coaching into your life as you would any other subscription, like Netflix or Peloton, available as circumstance and need require. It’s a lifestyle benefit, albeit a much more impactful and transformative one than the above examples. As long as it provides value, you continue to keep the subscription and benefit from it.
The effects of ongoing coaching compound, meaning the work builds on itself and the value builds over time. This is the result of building a strong rapport with a coach who truly understands you the more you work together. It’s also the result of stacking breakthroughs on top of one another. When progress is made in one area or moment of life, it unlocks a new door to another breakthrough.
Moving Forward with a Coaching Package
Of course, if you’re new to coaching, you don’t know what you don’t know. Finding the right coach may take some tinkering and experimentation. However, it’s still helpful to enter the coaching world with a rough idea of how you’d like it to play into your overall lifestyle.
Ultimately, your relationship to coaching will be heavily shaped by the specific coach you pick. Some coach-client combinations are not compatible, while others unlock rich roadmaps toward success and progress. Your desire to either try coaching on a fixed-term basis (e.g., for three or six months) or to adopt it as an ongoing investment will largely depend on finding a coach who can do just that for you.
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Ongoing Coaching at a)plan
When comparing ongoing coaching to a 6-month coaching program, a useful analogy is to think of your life or career like a piece of technology. Coaching provides the software updates. With ongoing coaching, you never miss an update and you always stay at the top of your game. With a fixed coaching program, you may get one software update, but the impact and utility of that update usually fades with time.
This analogy shapes the way all coaches at a)plan operate. We are proud to claim a roster of nearly 60 coaches, all of whom are deeply experienced and closely vetted before joining our team. Our coaches are trained in our proprietary coaching method to see the brilliance in their clients. For some clients, the impact on their lives has been so positive that they’ve stayed with their a)plan coaches for years. For them, ongoing coaching is truly a must-have supplement to life.
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