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Are you familiar with your coaching voice? That voice in your head? It has a technical name: self talk.
There are 3 interesting facts about your coaching voice. First, it is the most influential coach you will ever have. Second, you have been able to recognize your coaching voice since you were about 5 years old. You have had it awhile. Third, your coaching voice can be trained.
The coach that will be with you for the rest of your life is you. Training the coaching voice in your head takes a little effort, but with the right message the effort is worth it. If you can incorporate encouragement, equipping and enthusiasm to your self-talk, you can coach yourself to your full potential.
My former tennis pro (coach) was a huge source of encouragement to me. He told me what I was doing well. He had enthusiasm as he looked for more success to come. On days when it was over 100 degrees in Tulsa, I still looked forward to going to tennis. If I didn’t feel great, I still looked forward to going to tennis. I knew that at the end of the lesson or drill, I would feel better. Even on the days that my game wasn’t where I wanted it to be, my pro had the ability to focus my attention in the right direction and encourage me to believe in that future.
My tennis pro was a great resource to equip me with the skills I needed. He studied my game and found areas that needed improvement. In addition to studying my game, he studied new teaching techniques so he could equip me better. Not everyone learns the same way so he was determined to see what was new and what was working so he could match that with his students.
The enthusiasm of this coach was the key to everything. You can have someone who is knowledgeable and someone who says words of encouragement, but if that person doesn’t do it with enthusiasm you don’t respond with enthusiasm. Words of encouragement need the connection of enthusiasm to transform them into encouragement with meaning. Instruction can be grueling without the enthusiasm of believing for change.
So I think back to my former coach and I think ahead to the mental coach I want to be for my clients. I want to be an encouragement. I want to hear those moments of discouragement, agree with the facts, but help my client understand that the future is what they want to create. I want to re-focus from discouragement to encouragement.
I need to equip. I need to provide tools and resources for improvement. Part of this equipping is helping a client understand what resources are already available.
I will have enthusiasm. Any time someone contacts me for mental training, I am filled with enthusiasm. It is great to know that someone desires a positive change and wants me to facilitate that in some manner. No one has ever contacted me because they desire a negative change. The desire for a positive change is all I need to bring enthusiasm to the table.
Can you be a good coach to yourself? Are you an encouragement to yourself? Do you re-focus on the success that will come in the future and become filled with encouragement at that future? Are you keeping your skills sharp and equipping yourself with new skills? Have you fully evaluated your resources? Are you stuck doing the same thing over and over because that is just how I do things? Can you simply try to be as enthusiastic for yourself as you are for others? What kind of coach do you want to be? Once you decide, you can reap the benefits for the rest of your life.
Regards,
Lisbeth
