Need Expert Accountability?

The following conversation below is taken from a “Real Talk” Health Coaching session…

Coach (Michael Coleman): Many people don't understand that coaches coach people who are sometimes really talented, you know. 

So this idea of “I need a coach,”…I don't think it's a negative thing. I mean, if Michael Jordan needed a basketball coach, okay?

I think that we as human beings, the accountability ultimately is to ourselves…

But each person is on their own journey…

For example, some of us have a spouse who is less dedicated to the journey than we are.

So if you start a certain diet or something, it may not always be adopted by the person sitting next to you.

Coachee: Right.

Coach: And one of the next things I will be writing about is this concept is the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. And wabi-sabi talks about the beauty of imperfection.

There's a beauty to the haphazard way how life really works.

I've never met a perfect person. I've never seen a perfect life, and I don't think that it exists.

And so when you see these programs laid out and everything seems ideal, or when you observe the illusion that everybody's doing exactly what they're supposed to do every week, just remember the honest truth: Most people fluctuate frequently in whatever they're doing!

Coachee: Tell me about it!

Coach: So, as long as you get back on course and keep coming back to that middle line, you can definitely be successful. But sadly many people, once they start slipping in one direction just let everything go.

Coachee: Well, that's something I hear about a lot, right?

From families or friends who are trying very hard with their nutrition and healthy living in general. They have one bad meal or one lousy afternoon, or they're unable to exercise in the way they wanted for, say, a couple of days. And all of a sudden, the next two weeks is a downhill slide.

Coach: I agree. I think someone wrote a book that mentions something about two days in a row… And the main goal is to never have two days in a row where there's nothing happening. I also think that when you have a day when something unavoidable comes up, it doesn't have to completely derail you permanently.

Coachee: I like that!

Coach: It's an interesting concept.

There's the idea of success, and there's the idea of happiness. And I think of it as like a rise and run.

So in mathematics, the “rise” is how far you go up, and the “run” is how far you’ve traveled….Or, how long you can maintain it.

RISE = DISCIPLINE: So if you think of the rise as you doing something that's difficult, where you're working, and you're successful, you're moving up, and you're crushing it, as they say. 

RUN = GRATITUDE: But the run going horizontally is that you're content and happy with what you have. You love your progress, you love your situation…. It's like having feeling gratitude and peace because of what you’ve already accomplished.

And I don't think the two have to fight against each other!

Sometimes, you have to put your nose to the grindstone and focus and work. But then you have that rest period in between, like going to the gym and then recovering afterward. And it's like that with discipline and gratitude, too!