What most people call “coaching,” I do for free.
Sitting with someone and spewing advice is a service people charge for, but it’s not particularly valuable. It might get someone to feel better about their day and life, but it’s unlikely to lead to transformational results.
To get transformational results, you have to take the best knowledge and build systems of continuous improvement that you work and re-work every day until you get what you want.
Results are valuable, and they are the only thing I can imagine charging people for.
Do You Want Advice, Or Results?
A concern I have when I write each and every one of these newsletters is that I’m leading you into the same trap that I found myself in.
Spending more than 10 years of my life reading thousands of books on personal development, I learned a lot, but, honestly, I mostly just filled my head with redundant knowledge.
That knowledge is incredibly interesting to me, but knowledge by itself is next to useless. Just like that piece of meat between your, um, ears, it’s what you do with it that counts.
I’ve read many amazing books that gave me amazing knowledge. I’ve sat with top executive coaches—who charge six and seven figures per client—who have also shared ridiculously good knowledge with me, but on its own, it all fails to get the job done.
You get the job done when you systematize that knowledge and put it to work every day in driving what you want.
That’s my concern in writing these newsletters.
Those of you who have read my books know that my method is the antithesis of sharing “one more great idea,” (let alone a “life hack,” ugh!) but I fear that other people who read my work fall into the same trap that I did.
They might read the ideas and think, Wow, that’s really interesting. They might even go tell all their friends about what they just read, who too will say, “Yeah, that’s awesome.”
But until you take that idea and actually put it to work every day, it’s next to useless.
Can You Afford To Pay For Nothing But Ideas?
A lot of self-help authors, and especially those who run online programs or host seminars, typically aren’t teaching you what you need to know.
Even though many of them are sharing truly life-changing ideas, unless they are actually teaching you how to take those ideas and put them to work every day, they might as well be singing you the national anthem.
It sounds good. It feels good. You might get that rah-rah feeling of running around giving everyone a high five and walk away feeling like something has really “changed” in you, but three weeks later, what are you left with?
Likely some interesting ideas, but no better ways to create the life you truly want.
Most “coaches” are the same.
They’re not selling results. They’re not sharing with you a way that you can take amazing knowledge and use it to transform how you think, feel, and go for what you want.
They’re selling you the cathartic experience of being coached.
It’s the difference between a nice massage at a hotel spa, versus intense physical therapy. One is enjoyable, feels meaningful, and puts you in a relaxed state. The other makes you stronger.
Even some of the people who’ve helped me immensely are guilty of selling this catharsis-as-coaching. They have “packages” for people who want to attend a giant event, spend a weekend going to parties with their coach, and charge astronomical fees for a regular conversation.
In all of these situations, the coach’s job is to create an experience so enjoyable that people will come back and pay for it again.
Again, Do You Want an Experience or Results?
Even reading this newsletter you might find yourself having a “great experience.”
You might think to yourself: He’s so right. That’s a really great point.
But, again, the only way that I can possibly be helpful to you. The only way that I can be delivering you value in exchange for you using your time to read this, is if it’s getting you closer to your results.
That comes back to how you’re using this, and every piece of knowledge you’re accumulating in order to keep creating the life you truly want.
There are lots of ways for you to use knowledge effectively. Whether you use my System for Doing What You Want, Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, or any other approach, what matters most is that you have a method.
Whether you’re reading this, reading great books, attending seminars, or working with a top coach, you want to be taking the best ideas you can discover, and methodically putting them to work every day.
The most basic way to do this is extremely easy.
It’s a notion you see me reference a lot, I do it with every client, and it’s core to my own processes for learning and training myself to keep driving my most amazing life.
I call them Daily Exercises. And they are as simple as opening up a document, and starting to write out the specific knowledge that you want to remind yourself of, and the specific actions that you are taking every day in creating the life you truly want.
Then, you just do it every day!