Reason #10: Giving it 110%

Phew, we made it!  In our final installment of our ten-part blog series on why life coaches fail at a full-time career let’s explore the idea of giving it your all . . . all the time.

I am talking about that 110% effort!

In short, it’s rubbish, unrealistic, and anathema to what living the coaching lifestyle is all about.

You have all heard this misconception:  Successful coaches have to be coaching, thinking about coaching, networking for clients, or taking coaching seminars all the time.

Go ahead and live like this.  Before long you will collapse from mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion.  And who wants to hire an exhausted coach?  Trust me, it shows.

Action in the pursuit of your full-time goal must be balanced with reflection on what actions are working and what actions are not working for you personally and professionally.  This is true regardless of the full-time career you want.

I learned this lesson the hard way several years ago.  I started a fascinating business in Europe.  With a combination of hard work and luck it flourished within the first two months of its launch.  Instead of enjoying the success and reflecting on my good fortune, I assumed more frenetic action meant even better results.

Boy was I wrong.

Soon I was jet-setting back and forth between the USA and Europe juggling several business opportunities.  I felt like a big shot and I had the bulging wallet to back it up.  But even that was not enough.  The business in Europe had to be expanded, or so I thought, and the business in the USA had to be exploited to squeeze out every last possible dollar of income.

I gave it 110% and I paid the price.  An iconic failure ensued.  The business in Europe continued to flourish, just without me (and without my consent).  And the USA gig ended with unnecessary drama, severe emotional pain, physical exhaustion, and valuable relationships in tatters.

So many pundits recommend a life of either balance or harmony.  But I do not like the word balance (it implies inaction) and I do not like the word harmony (sounds too musical or too new-age).  Instead the full-time coaching career philosophy I am advocating for is what I like to call “Balanced Experimentalism”.

Balanced Experimentalism (BE) has a foundational premise:  We cannot have it all, all the time.  We cannot be all to all around us, all the time.  We cannot even be all to ourselves, all the time.  But unlike just balance, BE means we accept our humanity and still live our lives like a grand science experiment.  As we try new things, we have the potential to learn and to thrive, if we take the time to assess after each experiment.  We must resist the urge to go “all out” all the time.  But we also must go “all out” some of the time.

BE acknowledges that a coaching career worth having requires lots of action and lots of reflection, a combination of “being” and “doing”.  As you embark on your quest for the holy grail of coaching, a full-time docket of clients, stop thinking you can give anything 110% all of the time.

Lessons Learned?

So what are the major lessons from this blog series?  First, the desire to be a full-time coach is essential but not enough; the universe does not care if you only put it out there.  Second, it’s a business so treat it like one.  Third, experiment your way to success.  Try something, and if it is not working, stop to reflect, and then try something else.

Successful full-time coaches have three things going for them:  a coaching mindset, a business mindset, and an experimental mindset.

And one more thing:  If some of the advice in these ten blogs does not work for you, then figure out what does work for you.  Use what works, discard the rest, and formulate strategies that you can test to determine if they are helping your business grow.

Your loved ones and your clients will thank you for living a life of Balanced Experimentalism.  It will show in everything you do and everything you say.

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If you have any questions about coaching please feel free to contact me at scott@kineticcoaching.co, and remember I always offer a complimentary 30-45 minute session to prospective clients to determine if we want to work together.