What if Everyone Was a Coach?

Who provided you with the best coaching ever?

It could have been an athletic coach, a choir director, a business coach, a therapist, maybe even a partner -- someone who listened with your own best interests in mind and then provided you with a skillful combination of support and challenge. Support because stretching yourself can be tough, too tough to do all by yourself, and challenging because we tend to relax into being relaxed, assuming a kind of stasis that leads nowhere.

Whoever that person was, imagine how much tougher it would have been for you without them. And, if you don't have someone like that you remember, imagine how wonderful that is -- because it is indeed wonderful. It doesn't always feel wonderful at the time, but the results are splendid indeed.

In that sense a coach is a bit like a meditation partner. A bit like your inner voice who keeps you alert when you tend to relax too much, and a calming support when you tend to get too frantic. Coaches help us stay grounded while sprouting our wings.

What if it wasn't hard to find someone like that? What if you were practically surrounded by coaches? What if everyone was a coach?

We'd all have access to both challenge and support. We'd all be able to instantly focus on relaxing the busy mind and waking up the sleeping motivation. We'd be sharp, we'd be calm, we'd be high performance leaders.

We're not there yet. We're a long way from there. But, if like me you've ever wondered "Gee, are there already too many coaches?" I think the answer is clear: there is room for everyone to be a coach.

-- doug smith

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