Coaching

Some of the greatest coaches in sport are not the best players.  They never were and will never be.  Yet something about their ability to communicate ideas, techniques, and principles transforms and changes the lives they touch.  It is interesting how others can watch from the outside and remain unchanged, yet those on the inside will always be different because of the relationship.  As I look at the best coaches in English football, remember some of the greats in American basketball, and consider the best in a wide range of other sports, I find myself in awe.  They, individually, personally, and from the inside out, discovered the heart of the game.  The best, in my opinion, also discovered the essence of what it means to be alive.  For them there was no difference.  You could not be great without being fully and completely alive in the moment.
 
Ironically most leaders, including this author, seem to forget the heart of real coaching.  We find ourselves caught in the particular outcome du jour.  It is as if our focus in blinded to what we believe is the present only to realize we are chasing an arbitrary outcome someone has designated as success.  There is only one success in life and it doesn’t involve the score at the end of the contest!
 
We have the opportunity to be coaches – for each other and our self.  We can represent the principles of mercy, love, and complete acceptance without conditions.  When this happens the mystery of how we relate to each other takes on a very different dimension.  It is as if “the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth.  He will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said.” (John 16.13)
 
Today is a fresh opportunity for coaching.  We can make a real difference, if only for ourselves!  The window of opportunity is here; seize it.