Steve Jobs closed off his 2005 Stanford Commencement speech with 4 words “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”
These four words should mean more to a trainer / performance coach than almost anything else we hear or deal with each day. The reason for this is simple, we are always seeking more information because we remain foolish; we have to be, many of those who need our performance coaching services and training believe they know everything.
Except they don’t know everything, they just don’t know what they don’t know. In essence, they have stopped being students and started to resist the lessons the world and life throws at them.
Let me explain.
Adults should be hungry because they are not old. With the advances in health care, nutrition and the standard of living in Canada, it is not unreasonable to view mid-adulthood as the start of act two of life. You are educated, have careers that afford you more flexibility and disposable income to let them work on self improvement. You have life experience that help you to see that there are consequences to decisions but know that there is plenty of time to address those consequences IF appropriate action is taken immediately. You can and should be hungry for a better quality of life.
But be honest with yourself, you don’t know everything because, if you did, you would be doing everything that is needed to be achieving a life that will bring you unreasonable satisfaction. You wouldn’t be visiting us for training or performance coaching because they would be optimized. So approach us because something isn’t working.
But keep in mind that we are like you.
We are young, foolish and open to learning as much about the our clients, our selves and the universe as possible. The relationships we create are partnerships in the purest sense of the word. Our goals are mutually aligned – we seek clarity, information, wisdom and experience that will allow us to effect and transact lasting behavioral change in others. Our clients seek clarity, information, wisdom and life-changing experiences to help facilitate the creation of optimized behaviors that are concise, deliberate, and repeatable and which move them seamlessly towards a way of operating that allows the body, brain, mind and spirit to function as effectively as possible.
But all of this is possible ONLY when coach and client are simpatico in action, intention and purpose, and this is only possible when each understand that there is much work to be done, lessons to be learned and wisdom to be taught BY BOTH parties. For our partnerships to be truly remarkable WE MUST remain hungry and foolish when it comes to our clients. We cannot create the solutions they need if we do not know their stories and they cannot be a part of the solution if they already know the answers and are closed to the possibility that new and unreasonable results require new and unreasonable actions.
So stay hungry and stay foolish!