What can an out-of-shape man in his 50’s teach fit professional athletes in their 20’s? Personal training is for amateurs, not the experienced, right? You don’t need personal training – you’ve been doing your stuff for years, right? In the tracks, veterans who ignore coaches hardly make it.
Ironically, most newbies who work with coaches succeed. Similarly, most professionals with life coaches do better than lone rangers.
When you’re new in a game, almost every day is your personal best. As days pass by, the graph begins to flatten. A coach helps to disrupt you from your comfort zone and kick your back to move to your next level. A life coach not only helps you to set goals but to identify your performance gaps and specific steps that you need to take to bridge those gaps.
In life, we all go through injuries. But no doctor can sufficiently treat himself. Everyone needs a coach. Proverbs 27:17 says, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.’
This week, I’ll sit under three of the most prolific life coaches on the planet – Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Outliers & The Tipping Point); Craig Groeschel (senior pastor of Life Church) and Ibukun Awosika (former Chairlady of First Bank of Nigeria).
Who is your life coach? Would your personal, relational and professional life be better with a life coach? Who nurses your wounds when you hurt? Who challenges distorted thinking and behavior in your life? Who checks whether you’re setting challenging goals and you’re on course? Who are you accountable to in your personal and professional growth?
Why are you doing it alone? What your coach does with you changes as you change. It takes humility and wisdom to recognize the need to be coached. The wise never outgrow learning. The naïve believe there’s nothing more to learn. If you truly need a life coach, you’ll find one. As ancient wisdom teaches us, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.
DR. K. N. JACOB
