How to Help Your Clients Build Lasting Change

10 minutes reading time.

As a coach, you are more than just a health expert - you are a certified change maker.

The single most important attribute of a coach is the ability to help your clients change. Without the ability to provoke consistent action, progress or change from your clients, then unfortunately you are just a bag of knowledge. And knowledge is becoming increasingly cheap.

The good thing though is it’s easy to start helping your clients in a meaningful way. And to do this, essentially you need to become their guide.

You are the guide on their mythical quest to positive health change. You are basically Gollum, guiding your hobbits to the fiery goal of Mordor. You shine the light on the bits they can’t see, you steer them in the right direction, you challenge them and hold them accountable to their actions.

The ability to guide someone through meaningful and lasting change is perhaps the most powerful skill you possess.

When you help a client build sustainable habits, you're not just helping them achieve their goals—you're literally changing or saving their life. There aren’t many professions that have that level of impact.

Yet, despite this potential impact, it’s all too common to feel the frustration of watching motivated clients start strong only to fall back into old patterns, or wonder why they can’t just stick to the plan.

The difference between temporary change and lasting transformation isn't about willpower or just telling your clients what to do—it's about understanding how habits form and how to guide clients through the process of genuine behaviour change.

If you’re reading this because you want to become a better coach then read on.

3 simple ways to coach change

1. Break it Down to Habits

Start Small

The number one mistake coaches make is prescribing too much, too soon.

“Here’s the whole plan, now follow it” style.

When you ask your client to overhaul their diet, exercise six days a week, and meditate daily—you’re setting them up for failure. We don’t want catastrophic failure that puts our clients off completely.

What we want instead are tiny victories that stack up like Lego bricks into something meaningful. We want habits so small they almost feel like cheating. Because: consistency trumps intensity.

Start small. Start ridiculously small. So small your client might actually laugh and say "That's it?" That's when you know you've nailed it.

For example, try suggesting one of these for your clients.

• Increase protein intake with evening meal.
• Increase vegetable intake at lunchtime.
• Aim for 7k steps a day.

Track Habits

Let's face it - humans are notoriously terrible at remembering what we actually did versus what we think we did. Ask someone how many vegetables they ate last week, and they'll swear it was "loads" when the reality might be closer to "that one carrot stick that came with the hummus.”

This is where tracking comes in. Without tracking, progress can sometime feel non existent and hard to visualise. Tracking habits helps to ground your clients in action and awareness, whilst allowing them to understand the progress they’re making.

The act of tracking a habit, either by just noting down when it’s been done, using a habit tracking app or a calendar helps to show your clients when they’ve been successful. Not only that but the act of noting or checking off a habit increases the chance of actually doing the habit.

The magic happens when they see the chain of successes growing. As BJ Fogg says, "After you've done a behaviour for a while, looking back at your progress can be a powerful motivator to continue."The critical rule of tracking? "Never miss twice." One missed day is normal; two in a row is the start of a new habit—the habit of not doing the habit.

• Find out what method of tracking works best for your client, ie paper, app, journal etc.
• Ask them to check off when they’ve achieved the habit and keep score each week.

Good Enough

Perfectionism is the enemy of progress.

Good enough allows flexibility and focusses on consistency compared to getting everything right all the time, which is pretty much impossible for most people. We also do need some joy in our lives occasionally, and that joy may sometimes be a sticky toffee pudding.

The problem isn't enjoying these things—it's thinking you've committed a mortal sin against the fitness gods when you do.

The "all or nothing" approach is the true villain here. It's that voice that says, "Well, I had one cookie, so I might as well inhale the entire packet and start fresh on Monday.”

How often have you heard your clients say “I’ll start the new diet in January” or “I’ve fallen off the wagon now, I’ll just be healthy again on Monday”. This kind of perfection attitude creates big swings in behaviour and doesn’t promote realistic, long term consistency.

Instead, coach your clients to embrace the "good enough" approach:

• Teach them that consistency at 70% beats perfection at 100% that only happens once a fortnight when the stars align.
• Help them see that the occasional detour doesn't mean they've driven off a cliff—they can simply make the next turn and get back on the road.

2. Guide Them

Clarity

Many clients fail not because they lack motivation or the ability to take action but because they lack clarity. Like I said before you are Gollum in this story.

Vague coaching instructions like "eat better," "exercise more," or "reduce calories" are not helpful. These fuzzy instructions are the coaching equivalent of a weather forecast that just says "clothes recommended." They give your client absolutely nothing concrete to act on.

When you tell a client to "eat more protein," their brain immediately files that under "things I should probably do someday when I'm a better person." But when you say "add two eggs to your breakfast tomorrow morning," you've given them something their brain can actually process and execute.

Create crystal-clear guidance by helping your client find answers to these questions:

• Exactly WHAT actions they need to take (not "drink more water" but "drink a 500ml bottle of water with breakfast and another before lunch")
• Exactly WHEN they'll take them (not "meditate regularly" but "meditate for 5 minutes immediately after brushing your teeth in the morning")
• Exactly HOW they'll perform them (not "do strength training" but "complete these 4 specific exercises with this weight for these specific reps")
• Exactly what SUCCESS looks or FEELS like (not "get fitter" but "have energy to play with your kids after work")

Remember, your client's brain is already overwhelmed with approximately 17,000 other things they're thinking about. Your job is to cut through that mental clutter with instructions so clear that even a sleep-deprived parent of twins could follow them without having to make any decisions.

3. Shape Their Path

Mange the environment

Willpower is massively overrated. It's the resource that shows up for the first part of the day, makes a few impressive decisions, then vanishes when you need it most.

Let's be honest: relying on willpower alone is a recipe for failure. It's a finite resource that depletes with use, and by evening, most of us have used it all up.

Your environment, on the other hand, influences your behaviour 24/7 and is one of the most impactful ways you can help your clients change.

Your client's surroundings will either make positive choices easier or harder. Behaviour scientist Wendy Wood's research shows that a whopping 45% of our daily actions aren't conscious choices at all—they're automated responses to the cues around us.

The kitchen is ground zero for this environmental influence. "If it's in your house, at some point, it's going in your mouth." This isn't failure—it's basic human programming. We eat what's convenient, visible, and requires the least amount of effort.

As a coach, your job isn't to help clients build superhuman resistance to temptation—it's to redesign their surroundings so temptation isn't constantly staring them in the face and so habits become easier to perform.

• Increase the types of foods in the kitchen that supports their goals: Want them to eat more vegetables? Make sure pre-chopped veggies are front and centre in the fridge.
• Maybe having a few healthy pre-prepared meals makes managing calorie intake easier for them.

The best clients don't have more willpower—they need less of it because their environment does the heavy lifting. They've set up their world so that the path of least resistance leads to the outcomes they want.

Make it easier or harder

This is where the rubber meets the road in behaviour change—manipulating the physics of human laziness to your advantage.

Friction is the enemy of habits. Every extra step required makes a behaviour less likely, the more steps the more chance they'll just give up and walk away.

The solution isn't more motivation—it's less friction. Human beings are fundamentally lazy creatures, and we should stop fighting this reality and start using it strategically.

Help your clients reduce effort for positive behaviours:

• Gym clothes laid out the night before
• Healthy snacks pre-portioned in grab-and-go containers
• Running shoes by the door

These aren't just convenient tips—they're psychological shortcuts that bypass the decision-making part of the brain entirely. As Stanford researcher BJ Fogg says, "Make the good behaviour easier to do than not to do." When positive actions require less effort than negative ones, change becomes almost automatic.

The reverse strategy works brilliantly too. Want to break a bad habit? Add friction. Small obstacles can introduce just enough friction to break automatic habits and create a moment for conscious choice:

• Delete food delivery apps from your phone (re-downloading is just enough effort to make you reconsider)
• Unplug the TV and store the plug in another room
• Don’t store alcohol in the house, if you want some you have to go out and get it.

These small obstacles won't stop truly determined behaviour, but they create just enough pause for the rational brain to catch up with the impulsive one.

Remember, your job isn't to be your client’s willpower—it's to be their environmental engineer, designing a world where good choices are the path of least resistance and poor choices require conscious effort.

The most effective coaches don't focus on motivating clients. Short term inspiration may make you and your client feel warm a fuzzy, but that fuzz wears off.

When you transform from "motivational cheerleader" to "behavioural architect," you're not just changing what clients do today—you're redesigning the invisible forces that shape who they become tomorrow.

1 habit for you

Bright spots

What it is: At the start or end of every session highlight one specific success the client has had since your last meeting – no matter how small.

Why it works: Most clients (and coaches) focus on what's not working, they place a lot of energy on what’s going “wrong”. By shining a light on success, you train their brain to notice progress and build momentum. This creates a positive spiral where they begin actively looking for successes to share with you.

When clients start to notice success, these become small wins. And small wins lead to a continuation of behaviour rather than a “F*** it” and quit attitude when thinking about negatives too much.

Implementation:

• Cue: Beginning or end of every client session
• Routine: "Before we dive in, I want to highlight something that went really well. I noticed that you..."
• Reward: Shifted focus toward progress, enhanced client confidence

Summary

Let's be brutally honest here: knowledge without action is just entertainment.

Reading about behaviour change without implementing it is like watching cooking shows while eating takeaway—it might feel productive, but your life isn't actually changing.

So here's your challenge: As you finish reading this article, commit to implementing at least ONE new strategy with your clients this week:

• Guide a client to break down a lifestyle change into a small starter habit
• Create one environment modification for a client struggling with consistency
• Try bright spots coaching

The next time you find yourself wondering why a client isn't following through, resist the urge to push harder or provide more information.

Instead, become the guide who breaks down change into manageable steps, who offers crystal-clear next steps instead of vague encouragement, and who designs environments where the right choice becomes the default.

That's when you transcend being merely a health expert and truly become a change maker—someone who transforms not just behaviours, but human lives.