Do You Need a Life Strategist?

Strategy, as a word, conjures up visions of military precision and successful battle outcomes, but you’ll feel personally successful if you nail down a life strategy. That’s an action plan designed to move you to your goals. Once you write down your dreams, and they begin to take shape, you have a strategy. If that feels beyond your ability, you can check into hiring a life strategist.

What in the world, you ask, is a life strategist? She or he is a specialist who morphs their personal or business successes onto a teachable method. These people may not have a license or a degree in life strategizing; most states don’t regulate the specialty at all. Strategists have stronger than average communication skills with a clear understanding of how to recognize clients’ goals, map a successful route to them, and motivate people to travel their success route consistently.

Like life coaches, life strategists charge an hourly fee for services. The fee can range from about $50 an hour to well over $150, depending on the strategist’s background, resume, and ability to demonstrate success with clients. Just as you would when hiring any professional assistant, you’ll want to check reference and background details before you start shelling out money for help.

The help is sometimes face-to-face, as a therapist would provide. You make an appointment, meet with the strategist and talk together for a specific period of time. But this is the 21st century, and more often than not, you’ll never meet your strategist in person. Generally, there will be a preliminary consultation phone conversation, with some e-mail exchange tossed in. The idea is to get to know each other a bit so you can evaluate whether this person is a good match for you.

At the same time, the strategist will, or should, evaluate your degree of commitment to your own success. Unless she or he is so hungry that they’ll accept anyone as a client, and that’s not a good sign, they will want to determine whether they can work with you. Their goal should always be to move you efficiently to your goals. Then, in regular phone consultations, they offer help with getting organized, setting priorities, managing time, and letting go of people, tasks, and things holding you back.

The relationship is intellectually and emotionally intimate. You should feel comfortable speaking the truth to a strategist. She, in turn, should be adept at recognizing honesty and forthrightness. If you’re hiding from reality and the strategist doesn’t pick up on that, you might as well donate the money to charity and throw in the towel.