It is a coach’s job to motivate, organise and bring together his/her team to ensure that they get the best results possible. Similarly, as a self-developer, it is your job to motivate, organise and bring together your skills (and yourself) in order to leap from the bottom to the best in your field.

Both the coach and the self-developer need a good self awareness (and plan) to get to the top of the chain. The only difference is that the person you’re relying on to get the job done is yourself and only yourself, as opposed to a whole team of other individuals.

In this sense there is something to learn for every self-developer from thinking like a coach. Whether you need to develop a better understanding of your project or a better plan of action; this post is all about how you can introduce the coach mindset into your daily life in small steps that are guaranteed to increase your productivity in both the office and beyond.

Staying on Track: How to Discover, Plan and Achieve your way to the top…

The most important step to take before writing down a goal or taking action towards it is to ask questions. This is important because it saves time in the long run that would otherwise have been wasted on less efficient and thought out ideas and plans.

1) Understand Why You Want To Go Through With It

Meaningless projects cave in the second the going gets tough because the project has less to lose from letting go. On the other hand, a project that you believe will genuinely get you closer to where you feel you need to be is a much more efficient place to build a plan around.

Never go into a project because you think it will look good on your CV or get you extra money. Time is precious to the self-developer and you can’t afford to waste it on dead ends or pointless expeditions.

A good way to demonstrate this concept is in terms of sport. If a coach is training someone who aims to merely ‘get thin’ the second that someone ‘gets thin’ or sees no physical results immediately then that someone is less likely to feel the need to continue because this is solely what their motivation depended on.

However, if a coach is training someone who aims to be the best runner he/she can be, then there is no end to the extent of the project and chances are the individual will be much more determined when the going gets tough or they are presented with a much harder challenge.

2) Believe That Who You Are Is Not Fixed

If you believe that you have the capacity to grow and better yourself, you will want to learn and improve no matter what. Achieve this and in turn, it will help your achieve even more.

In this sense ‘belief’ is an endless triangle of success and one that you should aim yourself to channel. A good coach’s voice can always be heard over the rest in a sporting event. This is because a good coach knows that optimism makes the office (or in this case the team) go round and believe that success is possible.

I’m not saying you should hire a group of cheerleaders to follow you around each day, but what I am saying is that taking time out between tasks to appreciate the work you’ve done and the work you’re going to do make the work seem much more approachable and will most definitely increase your efficiency.

3) Know Your Strengths & Weaknesses

Coaches know that their players are human; they know that not every game will be a success and that there will be good days just as frequently as there will be bad. You too should know that you are human.

This doesn’t mean you can slack off every once in a while, but what it does mean is that you shouldn’t beat yourself up if something doesn’t go quite right.

The key to being successful is practising and developing what you’re good at and defeating what you’re not so good at. Unsuccessful people think that talent is enough to get to the top. Unsuccessful people think that talent outweighs any weaknesses – and thus any need to address those weaknesses.

But as a favourite author of mine, Stephen King once said “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” and this is where the whole ‘Believe in yourself’ mindset comes into play.

Planning & Improving

There’s no point in deciding on a goal, without deciding how you’re going to go about that goal in a plan of action. So take a leaf out of a coach’s book and ensure you’re constantly maintaining that high level of skill you were born to maintain by keeping yourself motivated and organised in your daily, weekly, monthly and annual tasks.

4) Don’t Be Disheartened By Failure

When the team flunks, everyone’s down but the key to keeping things together is to look at what you can do to make things go much more smoothly next time. The best way to do this is to pinpoint the weakness, (as demonstrated above) organise a resolution and apply a strategy.

Losers aren’t losers because they lost a couple of pitches, the same way a sports team doesn’t immediately flunk a league if they fall on one game. Losers are the people that refuse to get back on their feet and try again. And if you’re waiting for someone else to give you the motivation to do so, then you’ll be waiting a very long time.

5) Encourage The People Around You

As a coach it is not your job to be motivated, but to motivate other people. So when the going gets rough in the office, it’s time for you to step up and take responsibility. A smile is infectious and a happy team leads to a much more productive working environment for everyone – including you!

In life, chances are, you’ll have to rely on other people no matter how independent you are. But instead of getting frustrated when someone further down the line is slower, lazier or less reliable than you. Encourage them to be more like you and help them out. Nagging won’t speed up the process anymore, so why waste valuable time doing so?

One of the greatest lessons a self-developer can learn is that ‘success’ isn’t being well known, rich or talented. Success is all about being the best person you can be with the opportunities and skills that you have access to. And yes, unfortunately for the more independent-minded among us, these opportunities include the people around us just as much as they include job offers and events.

As life coaches ourselves, myself and Joe have learnt a lot through teaching you; even if it is through the web! So take it from us, one of the best ways to develop your own mindset is to look at what makes other people successful and to fuel that. Not only will it give you a greater understanding of what ‘productivity’ is and how it can be achieved, but it will also make your working environment one that fuels your own ‘productivity’.

6) Test The Waters Before You Leap

Anyone who aspires to achieve great things in their lifetime should realise that goals aren’t achievable if they’re tackled all at once. If we try to tackle a goal straight on, it can look much more intimidating than it actually is or lead us down a wrong path.

Therefore the best way to face a goal is from the bottom up – in small chunks rather than big steps – to ensure that the developments we make aren’t just flukes and can be demonstrated on every one of our performances.

This mindset parallels much of the mindset seen in the coaching world, after all coaches never put new members of the running club straight into the Olympics do they? They increasingly up their distance and timing, until their ready for the next, more prestigious club or competition and continue to train them – bit by bit – until they are ready for their big shot.

This is a technique well advised for anyone looking to create one big project as opposed to multiple little projects such as ‘to write a book’ or ‘to start a company’.

It would be physically (and financially!) impossible to just take a risk and get started, so always make a plan before starting any project and ensure that you are maintaining the momentum each day to get the best results.

Achieving

7) Don’t Be Afraid To Blow The Whistle

If a certain project is too much to handle or isn’t going in the direction that you’d like it to don’t be afraid to say you’ve had enough. Knowing when to quit is a skill that many entrepreneurs never learn until their later and wiser years but the truth is that it’s one of the most valuable skills a self-developer can develop.

8) Praise Yourself for Effort Not Results

Pressure is good because it adds fuel to the flames that keep the motivated, motivated but too much pressure can lead us to shy away from the harder challenges in fear that we’ll lose our reputation.

If you can leave the office knowing you were the best you could have been today, then you have had a successful day because you are one step closer to being the best you can be. And that’s priceless.

On the other hand if you leave the office knowing you’ve gained yourself only a mediocre score – but with no risk of falling behind – that’s great… if you’re aiming for mediocre. But where’s the chance of success, if you’re not willing to take the risk for it? 

Racing for Success: The Next Step

In writing this post I’m not suggesting you go buy yourself a whistle, a fluorescent vest and a pair of tiny gym shorts (unless that makes you happy that is) because that won’t propel you in any way closer to achieving the seemingly impossible goal of yours. But what I am saying is that mindset is the key to success, and success is not unlock-able if you have the right key.

So make sure you’re constantly tailoring your thinking to the task at hand, because the earlier you develop these skills, the higher and sooner your opportunity for success.

Wrote by Aimee Hall  -  Follow us  -  Comment Below!