by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
We are 18 days into the New Year… and I know lots of people with BIG plans for their programs and lives… Big plans, big goals, and big dreams. And that’s pretty natural—as coaches, we’re always pushing the envelope and looking to get better.
The only way to hit those big goals you dream about is to grow into them, and make sure you’re intentional in all you do. Randomness and inconsistency will get you nowhere fast.
To grow into your goals for 2022, you might feel you need new skills, new information, new wisdom, and new ideas to take your program or life to a new level.
That approach is hard to keep up with and is overwhelming.
In our fast-moving, competitive world of college coaching, having the ability to learn new skills and apply them is crucial for success and achievement. It’s not enough to be smart—you need to always be getting smarter—if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind.
For me, the evolution of my learning how to grow into my goals has gone from wanting to get as much information as I can as fast as I can to being very deliberate with what I study and what I put into my mind.
Wanting to learn more when you haven’t mastered the current information is a huge reason most coaches stay stressed and don’t make much progress.
Another problem we all face is that it is really tough to focus on mastering any specific topic because there is more content online than ever before, and there is a wave sweeping our society of feeling overwhelmed with information overload.
Most coaches have so much information—they read books, they go to conferences and seminars, they watch all the free videos online, and get advice coming from every direction on thousands of different topics—but they aren’t intentional, so they suffer from “paralysis from analysis”.
Trust me!! I have been there and it is something I have been actively working to resolve over these last few years.
The overload of information I was getting was pulling me in a million different directions and making it extremely challenging for me to master anything. I felt like I wasn’t really making any progress. I’m not sure about you, but when I’m overwhelmed I seek out distractions or procrastinate. And then nothing gets done…
To help you come up with a more manageable plan to tackle your 2022 goals, I wanted to share 5 keys in getting started to building mastery in the skills you need as you try to grow into your goals this year:
Start Small: Self-improvement can feel overwhelming. Realize you can’t take on everything. If you do, you’ll never accomplish anything. Instead, choose one or two skills to focus on at a time, and break that skill or skills down into manageable goals. I am very big on defining your vision, goals, and priorities so you have clarity on what you’re aiming to achieve.
30 day Mastery Challenges: Utilize your calendar better this year by mapping out a 12-month skill development plan that will push and challenge yourself. Every 30 days make yourself a personal challenge to become a better person, coach, friend, or leader. At the end of the month you can look to see how well you did.
Reflect: To move from experimentation to mastery, you need to reflect on what you’re learning along the way. Ideally you reflect every day. Otherwise the new skill won’t stick, and you’ll fall back into overload. Reflecting on and talking about your progress helps you get valuable feedback, keeps you accountable, and cements the change.
Study just one person this year: instead of studying a little bit of what a lot people are putting out there and getting overloaded with too much information, do a deep dive study of just one or 2 of them so you can master their information.
You could unsubscribe to the people you won’t focus on this year. If you still want to get their information, put an email filter on them so you still get it, but their stuff goes directly into a folder when it is delivered so it doesn’t clutter up your inbox. Or you could create a separate email account and just send everything there.
Cut down your reading list: I am a book reader. In previous years, I have read up to 40+ books but am guilty of not implementing much of the information. Having the right information is only part of the equation. I’m learning that the real power lies in how fast you can implement the right information into your daily routines. What’s the point of reading if it doesn’t sharpen your perspective, improve your results, or help your legacy? This year, I’m choosing to master 3-5 books that are congruent and in alignment with my goals rather than read 40 books and apply very little of the great information to my program, career, or life.
I challenge you to adopt mastery learning into your current lifestyle. Mastery is one of the highest forms of performance and success.
Knowledge is not power; it’s what you do with what you know that leads to mastery. Consistent action is the only thing that will ultimately determine your success. Unapplied knowledge is useless. Take action, be consistent, and go for it in 2022.
Mandy Green helps coaches get better recruiting results by establishing more productive habits and time management strategies. You can email Mandy with questions at mandy@busy.coach. You can also catch her webinar “Becoming Organized and Efficient as a Recruiter” at 2pm PT/5pm ET on Wednesday January 19, 2022.