Happy Monday!
Did you watch any of the Summer Olympics? My family loved watching the swimming and the running. It’s fun to watch sports, like water polo, volleyball, and rowing, that you don’t see every day. (Little Miss would have loved the gymnastics, but the coverage was on way too late to be kid-friendly.)
Each athlete’s story is pretty awesome. I’m always amazed by the amount of sacrifice they make to have the opportunity to break a record or win a medal. And the sacrifices that those closest to them make as well. Not one of the over 11,000(!) athletes arrived in Rio on their own, without help from someone along the way.
You need help to achieve amazing things too.
One of the things I couldn’t help but notice during all of the coverage was the relationship between all of the athletes and their coaches. During every race, game or event, the camera searched the crowd for the athlete’s family and their coach, all, watching anxiously.
Coaches critique dives, jumps, sprints, and laps and cheer on their students. They are usually the first ones to reach out with a big hug after the contest is done. Did you notice that in between every vault, Simone Biles got pointers and pep talks from her coach?
Yes, greatness needs a little help, even the amazing Michael Phelps.
At the start of the Rio Games, Phelps had 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold, the most in Olympic history. Michaels Phelps knows how to swim really fast (and he proved it yet again as he won 5 more gold (and 1 silver) medals. Would he be the greatest Olympian of all time without his coach? Not a chance.
Why do great athletes need coaches?
The answer to that question is simple. Successful people hire coaches because they want to get better.
The best in the world, no matter what profession, seek continuous improvement. It’s the key to their success. They know that without improvement they will fall victim to younger, faster, and smarter competition.
They also know that real improvement can be difficult to achieve without help.
Michael spends countless hours practicing, but he has a limited perspective on his own abilities. It takes his coach to tell him what he’s doing wrong. His coach will say, “Michael, you’re doing this wrong. Move your arms/legs/head/body this way.”
Would Phelps change his technique and improve his performance without the encouragement of a coach? Probably not. He most likely has no idea that he’s doing anything wrong.
There’s actually a term for it. It’s called “unconscious incompetence”. When you are in the activity yourself, you are unconscious about the areas of your incompetence. You can’t see what you’re doing wrong.
It takes someone outside of yourself to identify the problem and show you the adjustments that need to be made to bring your performance to the next level. Who is that person? That person is a coach!
The fastest way to improve is to hire a coach. A coach helps you:
- Acquire new skills
- Move forward / get unstuck
- Challenge limiting beliefs
- Stay a step ahead of the competition
- Break old habits
The best in the world have coaches. Those who are trying to be the best in the world have coaches. If you want to get better and stay competitive in a fast-changing world, hire a coach to get you to the next level.
“You can’t pay too much to rent someone else’s brain and someone else’s experience. They’ve been there, they’ve done it and there coming back to show you how to do it even faster.” – Darren Hardy
My family made sure we were back in our hotel room in time to cheer on Michael Phelps while we were on vacation. Hit reply and let me know what your favorite Olympic moment was.
Have a great week, and reach out if you have any questions about lawyer coaching and how it can make your law practice better.
-Kelli
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