by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
Anytime a coach is approaching the end of a school and competition year, there are three questions I always try to ask them:
- How are you doing with the plan you set out to achieve a year ago?
- Are you clear on what you’re trying to accomplish as you finish out this school year so you can head strong into the next one?
- Most importantly, does your life look and feel how you want it to?
The reason I ask this last question is because I find that too many coaches, myself included, after they have pushed to make progress on their goals all year, find that they may be closer to their goals but had to sacrifice their passions, health, and their family to get there.
Take a look at this great What Drives Winning video: Urban Meyer Interview: “I Became The Man I Didn’t Want To Be.”
Here are two critical exercises to do that will help you get clarity as to what you truly want and then set rules and boundaries for how you should work as you are in the final push towards to finish the year.
Exercise #1 I want this, I don’t want that.
Before you plan anything new for the next school year, I want you to be razor sharp and crystal clear about what you want and want you don’t want.
A lot of coaches don’t deeply consider what they don’t want. They rush toward some goal or objective and often hit it, only to be miserable at the end.
This is the cliché of the coach who wants all of the wins and works harder than hell to get it and does—but at the cost of their real passions, health, and their family. This coach gets the wins and the glory that comes with it but realizes that the wins weren’t the only thing they wanted for their life.
A better way for this coach to approach this is to say, yes I want the wins, but I don’t ever want to get stuck working late in the office every single night. Or I don’t want to gain weight and get unhealthy, or I don’t want my identity 100% tied to being a coach, or don’t ever want to lose connection with my family.
If this coach had the vision to keep this in front of him and follow through on it, I’m guessing that his life would have turned out differently because different choices would have been made day by day.
So now, answer these two questions-
- Based on this principal, the rule I’m going to set up for myself regarding the goal/new change/or challenge I’m going after in life is . . .
- The reason this rule is important to me is . . .
Exercise #2 Do More of This, No More of That
To reach any desired goal, we must start or continue some things, and we have to stop others. Being clear about these start-stop actions is critical to know as you plan your route to victory.
Let’s continue with our coach friend who became super successful at the expense of their passion, health, and family. Wouldn’t this coach have been better off if they had set a few rules that said:
Do more this: delegating, creative work that engages me, eat more healthy meals, more date nights with my partner and more weekend outings with the kids.
No more of: browsing for hours on the internet, watching TV, playing video games.
Once again, answer these questions.
- Based on this principal, the rule I’m going to set up for myself regarding the goal/new change/or challenge I’m going after in life is . . .
- The reason this rule is important to me is . . .
I hope that I at least got you thinking what is important to you as you finish out the year and head into the summer.
These last few weeks are pivotal for creating momentum for the 2021-2022 season. This is your FINISH LINE.
As you continue to pursue high performance as a coach, it is important to keep clarifying what you want, don’t want, what you will do, and what you will stop doing for the next 12 months.
By knowing what you will stop doing, you will create MORE TIME where you can live purely in alignment with your top priorities.
Increasingly, your life will look and feel how you want it to. Let’s finish 2021 strong.
Mandy Green is a former Division I coach and founder of the Busy Coach organizational program for college coaches and recruiters. If you’re looking for a more organized recruiting approach in your coaching life, contact Mandy at mandy@dantudor.com