There is a growing frustration with the condition of your body so you finally decide to do something about it. With great enthusiasm you take the gym tour and sign up. Along with membership comes 3 free personal training sessions and maybe a massage or two. This is great and your new life begins. Early morning before work seems to be the best time based on your schedule. 6:30 AM on the treadmill for thirty minutes, another half hour on the weights and then a steam and a shower. What a great way to start the day.
You feel amazing, never better! You see the pounds start to peal off and your muscles firming up. You hear compliments from your family and friends that you look better then ever. “Have you been working out?”
Then it slowly begins. You stay out late one night and your 6 AM wake-up alarm feels like it’s three in the morning. You decide to sleep in and miss the gym. “Hey, it’s only one day, I’ve been doing so well, and I deserve it.”
A few days later, you hear the rain pounding the roof and the howling winds. There is no way you are going out in this weather, and so it goes. The excuses grow and your enthusiasm wanes. Eventually the gym becomes a distant and annoying memory.
Hiring a business coach is a lot like joining the gym. I have coached dozens of great people with an amazing amount of enthusiasm about changing their business and their lives. We begin the coaching process by working diligently on making the changes needed to grow the business. Exciting and lofty goals are set. A Strategic Vision is talked about. If you could have the business of your dreams, what would it look like in 5 years?
Then, just like the gym, something happens. Something creeps into your head that is confusing. It is an anxiety that grows when the present day reality is compared with seemingly out of reach goals. To illustrate this point, imagine a rubber band stretched around your two hands as you hold them out in front of you. Your left hand represents today-your current reality. Your right hand represents your goals, your Strategic Vision. It is your dream business.
What happens when you pull your right hand away from your left? Actually two things occur. The first is your goals become loftier and grander; the other is that the tension of the rubber band increases. As you hands spread apart, you are striving for greater achievements, but there is increased resistance from the rubber band. What is this tension, is it stress?
It is natural to think that this tension is anxiety or stress. Obviously something we want to avoid. But what would happen if we analyzed this emotion differently? What if we tried to put a positive spin on this uncomfortable feeling?
We need to find a way to change our behavior if we want to make any improvements in our lives. The only way to do this is to examine what causes us to self-destruct? Why do we have good intentions but fail at the execution? Is it because we label any tense feelings as negative?
Tension often leads to feelings or emotions associated with anxiety, such as sadness, discouragement, hopelessness or worry. These negative emotions do not need to overcome our dreams and goals. Here is where we need to be careful not to confuse these two emotions.
We may feel deeply discouraged that our goal is not happening and we might lower our vision. The feelings that we dislike go away because the tension was reduced. Our goals are now much closer to our current reality; the only price we pay is abandoning what we truly want: Reaching our original goal.
Business Coaching is effective because you are working with someone who keeps you focused on your goals and offers advice, encouragement and a plan to follow. But this takes a strong desire for behavioral changes.
As the graphic above shows, the realm of coaching resides above normal behavior. It requires a journey to seek out exceptional behavior in order to reach extraordinary goals.
Just like going to the gym, optimal health requires behavioral changes. You start of with the best of intentions, eventually the goals seem unachievable and you experience that uneasy feeling or tension associated with pursuing an unattainable goal, so you quit.
Challenge these negative emotions, recognize that there are different types of stress and not all of them are bad. Do you get butterflies before you speak in public? Does this make you afraid or do you channel this into your toolkit as a positive ally?
Success depends on what goes on between your own two ears. A Business Coach is someone who can help you remember this and make sure you stay on track.
What would happen if you could free your mind and imagine the business you dream about? What would happen if you could actually make it a reality? All great athletes and business leaders believe in coaching. But it is up to you to decide what kind of life you want to strive for.