Beginning the journey

Paul and I launched into business coaching this week. We've had a few calls, but now that we know where he is, we're starting the journey to get him to where he wants to be.

This is the exciting part.

Starting at the foundation

Paul told me after the call, he wasn't expecting to start with his diet.

'It's one thing,' he told me, 'to be concerned with food when you're an athlete, but I never thought changing my diet would affect me very much in my career.'

I first started my experiments with food back in 1995, after I read the book 'Fit For Life.' I'd never considered how mixing different foods could hinder digestion before that. Since, I've not only changed my diet to great effect, but I've continued to experiment with my diet to keep my energy levels up.

The most difficult step for Paul, and he shares this with many other people I've coached, has to do with coffee. Paul loves his morning coffee. It's been a habit of his for most of his life, and he's loath to give it up.

Now, I didn't go so far as to steal Paul's chosen caffeine ingestion method – though when I started I did encourage people to let go of coffee (it didn't go over well at all). But, to help Paul get through that mid-afternoon slump, I did recommend he move his morning coffee to the afternoon. That way in the morning, when he's currently at his most effective, he's not using a stimulant. But in the afternoon, when his focus tends to get a little less focused, he'll have a bump of energy from his coffee.

Working with your life

That nicely brings me to my next point: coaching is flexible.

For many, the idea of a coach is intimidating. Often, people associate coaching with yelling, stern reprimands, and inflexible demands. While that may work for some, it's never been my style.

In fact, life requires us to be flexible, so when Paul told me he had some friends from Europe coming this week and changing his whole diet during that time wouldn't be feasible. We took the time to talk about what would be feasible, and I let him know that whatever his choice, pushing through and seeing what changes he could make or just pushing the changes off to next week, was completely up to him.

After all, you don't get visitors from Europe very often.

The tricky art of looking forward

Because of this small bump, I'm not sure where we'll be next call. It may take a few weeks to successfully migrate that morning coffee, or he may find the diet change suited his lifestyle so well he jumped right in.

But the important thing is, whatever the future holds he's dedicated to achieving his goals, and he'll have me right there by his side coaching him through the hurdles.

If you need business coaching assistance, contact David