On July 27, we started our fifth coach training cohort. I am so excited to be with these amazing humans. It made me think about beginnings.
You know how sometimes when you start something it might kinda meander? Like when you get to work and you don’t know where to start so you open your email or chat with someone or pick up whatever is in front of you? Like those meetings where people just talk and they go on interminably? Or those important conversations with a loved one where you really want to get a point across, but it ends worse than it started?
I’ve got a tool for you! It’s so simple. You might know it already, but I bet you aren’t using it to its full extent. I know I don’t.
This is a tool about knowing what you want and being intentional with it. It will change your life if you use it and only to the degree that you use it.
We are beginning things all day, every day. Maybe it’s a workout; or a conversation. That might be a shorter process. I just started a Coach training program cohort that lasts for a year. That’s a longer process. I just started writing this blog post. That’s a beginning. Getting out of bed in the morning. That’s a beginning. Driving to work. That’s a beginning.
The tool we are advocating today is simple. If you use it. The tool could be called, “What do you want?”
I said it was simple; but it is not always easy. We all want things but often we don’t know exactly what it is we want. Often we cannot articulate it. When people come to coaching, we say, “what do you want from this call?” at the beginning of every call. Sometimes people don’t know. That’s fine. But things start to change when we ask the question. Just asking it is powerful. Figuring out and being able to articulate what you want is a game changer.
You will be more effective in your day if you ask, “What do I want today?” Another way to ask is, “When I think about the end of my day, where do I want to be?”
Or imagine how your conversations might change if you started by asking, “What is the outcome I want to achieve in this conversation?” This simple question, if you can answer it, will change your conversations. And your meetings. Your meetings will be shorter and more productive when you all agree on the outcomes at the beginning.
Getting what you want is so much easier when you say it out loud. And if you write it down.
This will change everything, but adding to it the concept of intentionality will make you even more effective. What this means is after you say what you want and ideally you write it down, decide to get it. Will you? I don’t know. However, you are so much more likely to get what you say you want when you commit yourself to it. Write it down, keep it in front of you and direct your attention and energy to getting it.
This is a formula for massive change and great effectiveness. At the beginning of anything that is important to you (exercise, a conversation, a meeting, a project, your day):
1. Decide what you want to accomplish by the end of that event; and
2. Commit yourself to it!
My example is Coach Training 2024:
1. What I want: all trainees to complete the program with the excellence and skill levels of professional coaches.
2. My Intention and Commitment: To be intentional, I keep this outcome in front of me, refer back to it regularly and always ask myself, “Am I committed to this?” and, “What would I need to change to get it?”
Now you try!
