Coaching is such a powerful mechanism that can do wonders for your personal and professional life—especially if you’re a creative entrepreneur like me. Over the years, I’ve been so lucky to have found great mentors that have helped me achieve greatness in every opportunity I’ve sought after.

About a month ago, I started a fitness program featured in FLEX Magazine’s June edition promising an amazing athletic physique in four weeks. Six days a week, for two hours a day, I would go to the gym at noon and go through all of the exercises in my plan. I was extremely disciplined and tried my best not to cut corners or cheat in my workout—because after all, I’d only be cheating myself.

After thirty days of self-motivation and control over my diet and fitness regimen, I saw a significant increase in my strength. While I did see an increase in my appearance, nothing could compare to what I was about to experience next.

Recently, I started working with Carlos X. Hernandez, a professional fighter with over 25 years of experience in Mixed Martial Arts. He created a personalized fitness program tailored to help me reach my goals through intense athletic conditioning, cardio, and strength training. After completing my first week with Carlos, I’ve experienced many revelations and surprises about my ability to do things as a human being—things I never thought possible until now.

Here are some “ah ha” moments I’ve learned so far:

• Working with a coach accelerated my results by 400%. I experienced more gains in one week than I did an entire month of working on my own. This actually makes a lot sense if you think about it. How far are we willing to push ourselves? Your concept of “the limit” is much closer than “the limit” actually is. Too many people either give up early or lessen the burden to make things easier. Working with a trainer has allowed me to step outside of this comfort zone that’s been holding me back.
• A coach knows a hell of lot more than you do. This is a really hard thing for people to grasp, but you simply can’t know everything. When you work on your own, you learn 100% based on your mistakes. While this is very valuable, learning from someone else’s mistakes is much more lucrative and saves a ton of precious time. Think about it. Every exercise I did incorrectly was wasted time. Only about 20% of my workouts were actually useful. When working with a professional, you replace the 80% of waste with 100% of effectiveness. You can get better results in less time by cutting waste.
• Coaches teach you to be a champion. When you invest in a coach, you’re telling your subconscious that you’re going to meet your goals. It’s much more difficult to cheat because you know someone besides yourself is holding you accountable. You work a lot harder fearing the shame of someone knowing you’re not giving your best.
• Coaches help you stay in the present moment. Too many times when we start new projects, our minds get in the way of our progress. Negative thoughts impede on our ability to perform well. A lot of people don’t realize this, but positive thoughts can get in the way as well. Doing and thinking are two different things—one involves action, and the other doesn’t involve anything at all. When you work with a trainer, you are putting things into action. Pulling your mind out of a task and letting your body do the work naturally yields results. Let your trainer do the worrying, all you have to do is focus on the task at hand.

Imagine if you had a coach for everything in life. How much better would you perform? How much more money could you make? How much time would you save? How healthier could you be?

If there is any area in your life that you are unhappy about or would like to improve, find a mentor or coach to help you get where you want to be. You simply cannot do everything alone.

• Create lists for everything and use them everyday. I use OmniFocus for Mac and iPhone to keep track my tasks for all of my projects. A simple notepad will do just fine as well. More is not better. It’s really important to remember that your goal is an empty checklist, so don’t bog it down with useless tasks that don’t provide value. Be realistic.
• Don’t multitask. This is a really hard concept to grasp, but if you think about it single tasking gets things done faster. Think of your brain as a microprocessor. It’s very fast, until you open too many programs and the system either slows down or crashes. If you’re working on task, finish it before you move on to your next task. If you feel that you need to run tasks in parallel, outsource the repetitive tasks for someone else to do.
• Limit your access to e-mail, instant messaging, and the Internet. Keep that inbox empty at all times, except for those that require action. Act on those e-mails immediately. Limit social networking websites to about 30 minutes per day.
• Do not be available at all times for everybody. Use a service like Google Voice for business use to allow you to screen calls. If you are working with a client and another client tries to get a hold of you, call them back when you’re finished. They would expect the same respect in return.
• Think 2-3 days ahead of yourself. What do you need to accomplish tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that? Don’t think too far ahead because your tasks will get overwhelming.
• Throw out long term goals. They really don’t work. It is far easier to accomplish things “in-the-moment” rather than a few months or even years from now. Remember, a goal without any action is only a dream.
• Wait until the last minute. This sounds crazy because it goes against everything you’ve ever learned, but the amount of time you spend on a project is usually equal to the amount of time you allocate to it. Studies have proven that if you put time limits and short deadlines on projects, not only is the quality significantly better, but it doesn’t cost as much to produce.
• Go for bigger projects. You can do more good on a project when it is properly funded. I often turn down projects that are full of frustration, baggage, and hassle because it takes way too much of my time. You should want to work with people that make you feel energized and happy.
• Working 80 hours a week at 50,000 per year is exactly the same as working 40 hours a week at 100,000 per year. Think of your work as hourly dollars and be fair to yourself and your client-you deserve to get paid for your time and your client will get a better product if you are compensated appropriately. It’s up to you to set these expectations.

I’d like to thank Marie Forleo, Tim Ferris, and David Allen for providing this insight to me. It has freed up a lot of my time and allowed me to do things I’m passionate about.