Coaching is for Field Sports

A scroll through social media one day identified a wellness coach, lifestyle coach, nutritional guidance coach, exercise coach and even a sleep coach.

I’m sure there are a lot more but at this point I was already coached out from seeing it all. They are all showing these before and after shots of incredible results, floating in their pool, driving high end luxury cars, telling you how great their life is now that they did xyz and how you can do the same.

For a cost of course.

There are coaches for everything these days but I’m betting most are struggling to make that car payment and the pool is their neighbors. Not to sound jaded but how it’s presented on social media makes coaching feels like a new version of network marketing.

With all the coaching available, it got me thinking. . .

Do we really need a coach at all?

Coaching Your Way in Life

When I hear the word coach I think of a field sport like baseball or football with a team of players all marching out in brightly colored jerseys. Coaching is what happens to form those individual players into a team that wins games. It is strategic like moving the game pieces on a chessboard.

Coaches are important parts of team sports. They set the tone, build the culture and impart their perspective and wisdom on the players. They create unity and teamwork through their experience and knowledge. Coaches are tenured in their field and have that special insight that makes them admired, envied and inspirational to follow. They are leaders and some of the phenomenal teachers.

They didn’t just wake up one day and start promoting themselves as a coach. It took years, hard knocks and intense work to reach this status of being the coach people want to work hard for on a team.