As a student I worked part time in a coffee shop and café. One of the very things I remember being encouraged by the manager is to look busy, just in case the owner arrived. This meant that we would often be doing things just for the sake of doing stuff and looking busy.
While the individuals involved may have changed over time I found that wasn’t the first role where looking busy was encouraged.
The thing with being busy is that you are often taking lots of action – it just isn’t necessarily action that is moving you forward. So returning to my question at the start of this post, as a coach how busy are you?
Is the action you are taking actually moving you closer to where you want your coaching practice to be? Or is it action you’re taking because you think you “should” or because it’s what everyone else does etc?
When you are coaching clients you may be really good at assisting them to choose action steps that will make the biggest difference to them. You may have a whole selection of techniques, theories and methods that you use to be able to do that but do you walk your own talk?
It’s January so it’s entirely possible that you have recently created a vision about where you want your coaching practice to go in 2011 and beyond. You may also have devised a plan to get there.
It’s entirely possible that you have restricted time to work on building your coaching practice. I also know that sometimes it can feel like “real life” can get in the way. For instance, I know many coaches and trainee coaches work either part or full time doing other jobs.
Have a look at any to-do lists or schedules you have to do with your coaching practice, how much of what is on there actually moves you towards what you want your coaching practice to become?
As Joel Arthur Barker said:
“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”
If you think you need support to take more focused action, I’ll be running a Turbo Boost week at the start of February. You can find the full details of what is involved, including how you can reserve your place, here.