By JOHNNY CARCIOPPOLO / Community Columnist

Most people avoid taking chances because it leaves them vulnerable to making the wrong choice and it sets them up for ridicule. Many times, taking these chances is the answer to living a happier life.

So, if you are not very good at taking chances yourself, and if that can mean being happier, does this mean you are doomed to being unhappy, or at least not as happy as you could be? Unfortunately, for many people, it means just that. They will never get themselves out of their rut because they don’t want to take the steps to make their lives better.

If you really want to separate yourself from the crowd, but you are not very good at taking risks, then consider hiring a coach. Find someone who has experience in what you want to do and has taken the chance themselves to make it happen. This person can work with you to come up with a plan that can get you where you want to be. The best part is since they already went through it, they can guide you through the process.

When choosing a coach, the key is to make sure you can verify they have not only talked the talk, but have walked the walk, too. There are plenty of people that will pass themselves off as coaches when all they ever did was read a few books on Amazon and proclaimed themselves experts on a particular subject.

You see that all the time with people who claim they can help you write a book and make it a bestseller. Yet, when you look at their own books listed on Amazon, they have no bestsellers of their own. That is a huge disconnect and a major red flag.

It’s easy to see what a book’s sales rank is in Amazon. But what if you are dealing with some other kind of situation that is not related to becoming a bestseller? How can you judge potential coaches then?

You need to ask a lot of questions and have them show you any applicable work that they have done. If they have coached other people, ask to speak with those people along with examples of the work the coaches did for them.

Do a search on the internet to see if any negative stories pop up surrounding the coaches that you speak with. Above all, use your intuition as a guide to feel out the people that you are considering.