Often clients of coaches erroneously assume their coach has a perfect life or, at the very least, is perfect at whatever they are teaching.

That’s not true. In fact, another theory poses that what we need to learn most we teach.

I like to think that most teachers gain a certain level of mastery that is above the level of their students before they begin teaching. That feels good and right to me. For instance, a 10th grade physics teacher knows more than 10th grade level physics but probably not as much as Nobel prizing winning physicists, who might be their teachers.

I used to think I wouldn’t be ready to coach until I had my life all ‘figured out.’  After all, I am a ‘life’ coach. I have learned and continuously remind myself that there is no such thing as being ‘done’ with this work.

The more we learn, the more opportunities 😉 we are given by life to deepen that knowledge. There will be a day when things will feel mostly good and thoughts will, for the most part, be positive, supportive ones because these practices will become habit.

Waiting for that day is not a good use of time nor does it feel good. In fact, it only prolongs the happiness we’re working so hard to get.

I want to be clear. I write this blog because I am usually putting these philosophies into deeper practice at the moment I’m writing about them and doing so helps solidify the concepts for me. I love this body of knowledge and live by it to the best of my ability because it has made me happier. I hope it does the same for you.

I am still a student myself so I reread these blog posts because I forget the messages and need to remind myself. It is my notebook like the one in the movie/book “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks. For those that don’t understand the reference, I’ll explain it in the next paragraph so skip ahead if you hate spoilers.

In “The Notebook,” the husband reads his wife their love story everyday from a notebook because she has lost her ability to remember. She keeps forgetting and doesn’t know who he is most of the time. As he reads her their story, it starts to sound familiar and she remembers but soon forgets again. This isn’t far from how we operate with these teachings.

My coach friends and I remind each other of these ‘truths’ often. In fact, that’s a big part of what we do when we’re coaching one another.

Make no mistake. We’re all in this together. The truth is often simple, so simple that it’s easy to forget. You probably need a notebook to remind yourself of it over and over when it slips from the forefront of your mind. Have fun creating your notebook. I will continue to add to the one we are using together – this site.

Here’s to being students of life and enjoying class 🙂

This post was inspired by my friend and fellow coach, Kasia Pytowska.