"What Would You Say You Do Here...?"
"I challenge beliefs."
Challenging beliefs...is an activity that, by nature, eventually leads to conflict.
Challenging beliefs is not polite, and it is not easy. Surface relationships do not thrive in that environment.
I think of myself as the kind of person who removes obstacles, who greases wheels, who does the often unnoticeable thing that makes any big task easier.
As a human being, it is a nice way to go through life.
As a coach, it had led to often underwhelming and short lived results. I avoided addressing the root cause of my athlete's discomfort, choosing to address symptoms, and give tactical advice.
I chose short term likability over long term kindness.
I chose to limit the scope of practice to my athletes' beliefs. I very rarely challenged them, and that has been my biggest coaching mistake to date.
"What if...?"
What if I listen to what is in the room, but isn't being said, and ask difficult questions?
What if I am concerned with taking actions that are in alignment with longterm kindness rather than being likable?
What if I risk making a mistake, and trust that the relationships with my athletes are resilient and that I will make amends and we will move forward
"Do we take the prairie path or the river path?"
I can give you features and benefits for both paths... but they don't matter
What if I gave you space to choose the path that you are drawn to and we build out a plan from there.
What if we choose the wrong path?
It's super common, and I expect it, especially at first. Even with the BEST of intentions, we are human and we make mistakes
Well...what do we do?
We adjust to new information and keep movings
It's that simple?
Yes, it's that simple. It isn't always that "easy", and that is why coaches exist.
If having the results you always wanted was as easy as knowing what to do and doing it coaching wouldn't exist.
"It's not what you do wrong, it's what you do next."
Most people KNOW what to do to start and then either get off the path (few extra cheat meals, missing workouts...), or get thrown off the path (medical, financial, relationship crisis...), either way you've got to reset and move forward
Getting back on the path is important, figuring out how you got off the path requires those hard questions I talked about at the beginning of this piece.
Going to the same places we've looked for answers in the past will give us the same results we've always had.
If you feel like you're settling in your life and know have it in you to do, feel and be better, who's challenging your beliefs?