Why Coaching Has More Value Over 3-4 Months Than 4-6 Weeks

Many coaches offer coaching over 4 – 6 weeks and the possibility to extend it. Coaching in blocks of 3 months is the standard in executive coaching. Now more life coaches jump on the bandwagon by offering 3-month blocks of life coaching.  Why does this length of coaching have more value than coaching over 4-6 weeks?

The first stage – when coaching just begins to add value

Some say that it takes 28 days to build a habit.  I gladly endorse this principle with the caveat that the figure of 28 is a healthy average. Depending on the strength of their commitment and motivation to build the habit, some people will build it in shorter, others in longer time. But as an average guideline I agree with it. 28 days = 4 weeks.

The second stage – when you’re consciously competent

Once the habit has been built, it takes another 6 weeks to automate it in our lives. If a person is committed and motivated enough to finish building a habit, the higher stage is to automate it so that s/he can reap its benefits. Otherwise what would be the point in building the habit?  So these two stages make already 10 weeks = 2 and a half months. Time flies.

The third stage – when you’re unconsciously competent

And then comes the best for last – the most enjoyable stage.  This stage consists of living your new habit so automatically that it becomes part of your bloodstream. You don’t have to spend any more energy on automating it. You know that you can trust yourself to keep practicing the habit. The habit now bears the true meaning of the word. Since you no longer concentrate on automating the habit nor worry whether you can trust yourself to keep it up, you’ll begin to notice the compounding positive effect of the primary and indirect benefits of the habit in other aspects of life because everything is connected. These new – sometimes subtle but all the more powerful – connections will open new horizons. And that’s exactly where you’ll start feeling the real value of the coaching process.  This stage lasts 4-6 weeks = another month [and a half].

If we add up the span of these three stages…

we’ll get a month + a month and a half + a month (and a half), which makes 3 and a half to 4 months! As one of very few coaches out there I openly state my fees for coaching for 4 months.  My coaching fees may intimidate at a glance, because the figures for 4 months inevitably look high. But I did say at a glance for a reason.  The reason is that most consumers living in today’s world evaluate superficially. They look at the money before the value and return on their investment.

Coaching has more value over the long term

I wrote this article to help potential coaching clients to realise that it is impossible to put a concrete figure on the value of coaching. That figure would far exceed the figures you see on my fees page.  If you’re a coach or another professional in the field of personal development, especially one who has been offering the  coaching packages of 4-6 weeks before coming across this article, I expect that you’ll see sense and credibility in my argument, ignore all copyright, and jump on the bandwagon.  My work, website, and this blog is not for coaches and professionals in personal development. It is for members of the general public outside the field who need and look for coaching.