What can coaching do for you?
If you’re anything like me, then you grew up with a variety of teachers, guides, mentors and coaches. Personally growing up, besides the teachers I had at school, I had teachers at music school teaching me the instruments I used to play, mainly piano followed by saxophone followed by percussion and drums. I then joined the local orchestra where I was mentored by the senior musicians as well as the conductor.
Besides my distinctively average music career which ranged from the ages of 8 through to 17 I played a variety of sports. I played basketball and golf when I was younger, both of which involved a coach, coaching and regular training sessions. Later in life I took up thai boxing, rugby and Brasilian Jui Juitsu which also involved regular training with coaches.
This was complemented by lecturers, mentors and other academics at university and later by bosses, mentors, buddies, senior colleagues and coaches in the work place and officers and senior NCOs in the military.
When reading those last three paragraphs, it sounds like I’ve received a hell of a lot of coaching in almost every area of my life. That’s not to mention parents, siblings, extended family, friends and partners.
However, until a few years ago, if you’d asked me if I needed a coach or wanted a coach, although amiable to the idea of having a coach, I did not see the value in paying for a coach.
Especially when prices can range to infinity when you consider what people like Tony Robbins charge for a weekend seminar.
Yet, I’ve been on this journey, which you can read about here, over the last decade in becoming the best human I can be. I’ve made a lot of progress on my own without a formal coach. I’m very proud of my achievements and am thankful for the support network of friends and family I’ve had around me as well as any informal coaching that I received during this time.
Then I decided that in order to really progress in my olympic lifts (the snatch and clean and jerk) I should hire a coach who can help me by looking out for where I can improve and pushing me harder. I immediately saw improvements in my lifts beyond what I saw when training without a coach.
Further to this I had a goal in the new year to get back into golf and to get back towards the 10 Hcp I used to play off and in fact exceed this and break 80 consistently (about 7 Hcp). I took two actions towards achieving this goal. Firstly, I started taking lessons again from a golf professional for the first time in 10 years and secondly, I joined a golf club as a member.
I had already self-diagnosed the issue I had with my swing by filming myself and with the many books I’ve read on the mechanics of the golf swing as well as from my own experience of playing golf for many years at a 10 Hcp which isn’t amazing but isn’t bad either. Within just a couple of lessons with a coach, I saw huge improvements and started hitting the ball better than I had in years. I knew what I was doing wrong and also knew the perscribed methods of fixing it. It was however having that external person standing there and giving me feedback on every swing and holding me accountable for practicing and working on the drills, even when he wasn’t there watching that advanced me beyond what I was achieving on my own.
The next step was my professional life. I’ve been seeing success in the business environment since working on my mindset and striving to improve and learn everyday. I’ve been reading a book a week for the last 3 years and although I still have far to go, I knew what I needed to do. However since I’d been seeing success in both my lifts and my golf due to coaching, I went ahead and hired a business coach.
Just like with my golf and my olympic lifts, having a business coach elevated me up another level. By having a coach with whom I could be honest and share my issues I was able to get a fresh perspective on how to achieve my goals and am held accountable for implementing what I say I’m going to do and taking daily action towards my goals.
I’m not here to say that everyone needs a coach. There are plenty of examples of people achieving success without a coach.
What I can say is that I’ve managed to push through blocks and hit higher levels faster with a coach. And that my coaches also have coaches. And their coaches have coaches.
Coaches are valuable because they hold you accountable and help you push yourself towards the highest of your ability. Being able to talk about your wins and loses with an external impartial source who can the give you guidance is extremely powerful.
Furthermore I get pushed out of my comfort zone by my coaches. And this is where growth happens. I know what I need to do in most cases. The issue is that it’s oftentimes something I don’t necessarily want to do. And this for me is the real value of coaching. I make a commitment to implement a certain action or work on a certain thing. And if I don’t do it. Then i’m wasting my time, I’m wasting my coaches time and I’m wasting the money I spent on a coach in the first place.
And this brings me on to money. Money is a great motivator for many. It’s strange. We all seek free advice. However, when we receive it, we don’t value it and oftentimes just ignore it and don’t implement it. Well guess what. Advice is only useful if you take action. And for a lot of people, they only take action if there’s something on the line. For some, this could be a last hope and they’ll do anything to make it work. For others, if they paid a lot of money for something. If they stretched themselves, then they want to get the value for it.
This is how coaching works. It’s tough to work on yourself. It’s hard to work on your flaws. It’s difficult to go beyond your comfort zone. And it’s hard to open up and be vulnerable and honest. It’s not easy and isn’t meant to be. It takes time and effort. But a coach on your side makes it better. And you go out and push yourself because you know that you’ll be held accountable if you don’t.
Coaching is an investment in yourself. And you are worth it. You deserve to spend both time and money on yourself. Because unless you manage to fill your own cup first, you won’t be able to share and help and empower others. So work on yourself so you can then be complete and help others.
I created the Agoge Project because I’ve seen so many people struggle with similar issues around me. We live in a world of ever-increasing complexity and new ways of living and new technologies are creating both stress and anxiety at levels unprecedented. I believe that with the right training and tools, everyone can develop their mindset and tackle the obstacles that they face in order to become the best possible version of themselves, clarify and achieve their goals and live a happier, more fulfilled life.
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This article was written by Stuart Munnich. If you’d like to know more or receive notifications for future articles, please head over to the Agoge Project Website or subscribe to updates right here!
