Now, today, I want to talk about being coachable and what does it actually mean to be coachable? Well, many of you probably have a coach and if you don’t have a coach in one or multiple areas of your life, I highly recommend it.
A coach was somebody that can show you the way, that can show you the path and it’s also somebody that can serve as an accountability partner for you and somebody that doesn’t have skin in the game in a sense that they don’t have any emotional ties. They can tell you the real deal. Now, I remember having coaches all my life, and I still do today. Most of my coaches now are in different areas but I remember being young and having a soccer coach, right? I played traveling soccer. I played soccer all the way up into college and whenever your coach would give you recommendations or things to do, me as a player, I would take that to heart and I would actually execute it. I wasn’t the fastest, I wasn’t the strongest, I wasn’t the best by any means but oftentimes, I rose to the top of a lot of the soccer teams I played on and became the captain and I also did really well. One of the reasons I did so well is I was coachable. I would take feedback from the other players from the other people especially when I ask for advice. That’s a critical step.
Now, in the business right now, I do the same thing. I have a business coach and when my business coach gives me things to do, they give me exercises and they give me advice, I follow it. Why else would you hire a coach unless you’re going to actually take their advice into consideration? What shocks me when we talk about being coachable is how few people actually are coachable. They’ll sign up for a course. They will listen to a podcast or show. They’ll hire a coach. They’ll ask a mentor questions or for guidance but oftentimes, they don’t follow through with the actions. They don’t do what that person has actually shown them. They don’t actually follow the step by step methodology of the course. That’s what I’m talking about when I say be coachable. That’s your ability to actually take direction from somebody else.
Now, of course, you don’t have to do everything people say. That would just be ridiculous but if you’re hiring a coach for their expertise, if you’re taking a course because you want a particular outcome that you don’t possess the skills to get right now, then you need to be coachable. You need to follow that course on a step by step methodology. Until you actually understand, can produce the outcome, then you can manipulate it and change it and make it your own. This is the same that goes for hiring a coach, whether you have a business coach, a relationship coach, a personal trainer or anything along those lines or if you’re taking a course.
If you’re taking a course of marketing or you’re taking a course on how to play the guitar, I mean you wouldn’t walk in and have a piano teacher sitting down next to you and tell you exactly how they want you to play the keys on the piano and then just do something totally different. It would be where you’d say, “Gee. That’s just crazy,” but how many times do people buy courses or hire coaches or go into mastermind groups or whatever it may be and they just don’t become coachable? Now, the people that become coachable and the people who actually follow through the plans typically are the ones that become the most successful. The rest of the people come with excuses, right? I didn’t have time to do this. I didn’t have the money or I’d try the shortcut or I’m running multiple businesses, whatever it may be.
The key is being coachable and oftentimes, my experience is the people that are the least coachable are the people that think they know everything, right? In sports, it was the most gifted athlete, so oftentimes, the most gifted natural athletes were the least coachable. As I got into college and was playing sports myself in college, I noticed that those really gifted athletes that I played with in high school fell off the wagon. They actually just didn’t actually end up making the team. Coaches would kick them out because they weren’t as good anymore. Their natural talent only took them so far and then you had the other people who weren’t that good like me that would just follow the coach’s orders, not orders but recommendations I should say, and actually became coachable. They actually listened.
I’ve been doing these for courses like I’ll take a course and I’ll follow it to the end. I just recently read a book that my business partner recommended called The Pumpkin Patch Plan and there wasn’t really anything really new for me in that book. However, they have several exercises that they recommend going through. What I did, even though this wasn’t new materials, I printed out all of the exercises and I ran through them. The reason I did that is that I took the time to read and digest this book and here, this person is showing, saying, “Hey, look. Do these exercises for your business that will help you,” and so, I’m willing to do that. I’m willing to take that next step and see if I can actually up-level my business in this case, as well as my communication with my business partner so we have a common language.
That’s what I’m just talking about being coachable. What I wanted you to ask yourself is where in your life are you not being coachable? This most often occurs to me when I’m talking to people, in the area of their body, relationships, and business, those three areas in particular. These are three areas that I often focus on when working with clients of my own. When clients of my own don’t become coachable and sometimes, they do resist, we fire them. You let them go because if someone’s not willing to work hard and really willing to do it, it’s not fulfilling for them. They’re not going to achieve those results. I recommend you look at this with your own clients as well.
That’s it for me today, just a quick tip and a quick thought is where in your life are you not being coachable? Where in your life are you seeking advice, are you seeking things, information or processes or taking a course or reading a book but you’re not follow through? You’re not following through the step by step process that’s being laid out or the advice that you’re being given or you’re basically just not doing the work. You’re not being coachable.
What I want you to do is grab your journal, write your five to thrive and in each of those areas, just be real with yourself. Are you being coachable in your mind or your body, your soul, your relationships, your business? We’ve given you tips for these daily growth hacks. We’ve had over 200 at this point and the tips that we give you are coachable tips or things that you can actually put into work. If you haven’t done any of these, then you’re obviously not coachable but if you have, then you’re on your right path but if you’re like me, there are other areas that I even resist and it’s good exercise for me to wonder where am I not being coachable or where could I be more coachable like where can I really put out that effort?
I know with my coach, this last week, I didn’t get everything done that I said I was going to get done, so I was out of integrity there and I wasn’t being coachable. In fact, I told my coach, I said, “Hey, look. If I were you, I would fire me because I’m not doing the work and that wasn’t the agreement that we had.” Obviously, there’s financial compensation that goes back and forth but your word’s your bond. I said I would do it and I know how unfulfilling it is when people don’t and I had a bunch of excuses and they were all valid but at the same time, I didn’t do what I was going to say and so in that instance, I wasn’t coachable.
I want you guys to think about it. It came up to me and I wanted just to pass it onto you. Write in your journal, your five to thrive and where are you not being coachable. I also want you to celebrate where you are being coachable, so if you have a personal trainer and you’re doing what he or she says, hats off to you. That’s great. You should be following that advice of that individual. If you don’t like the advice that person is giving you or you don’t trust them, then you need to find somebody else. You need to find somebody else to be a mentor or a coach for you. Then, always look at multiple coaches in your life. You probably have them. Hopefully, you have a coach or multiple coaches that can help you in your five to thrive as well.
Of course, as always, go over to authorofyourownstory.com where you can get the latest tips, tricks and techniques right in your inbox sent right to your iPhone if you like or any Android device. That way, you can be kept abreast of all the stuff that we got going on Author of Your Own Story. There’s a lot that’s going on in the background. The team’s been working hard and we’re real, really looking to make a major impact and we want to help you out too but the only way we can keep you abreast of everything that’s going on is if you sign up for the e-mail newsletter, so get on over there and do that today and remember, be coachable and go out and be the author of your own story.
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