Hello and happy Monday! This is Susan Hyatt and it’s GO time.
This is episode number 127.
Today we are talking about what the top coaches in the industry do to get themselves out of a slump quickly!
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Wanna read the full transcript? Here ya go:
This one time, someone asked me, “Susan, you’re a life coach. Do life coaches ever get stressed out?”
Well, I can’t speak for every life coach. But I can speak for myself. And I can tell you that the answer is… YUP.
Coaches definitely get stressed out and discouraged just like anybody else.
Coaches have high-energy days and low-energy days.
And yes, coaches get burnt out.
And yes, of course, coaches get sick. Just the other week, I got slammed with a terrible cold. I actually thought I had mono or pneumonia! Thank goodness, it wasn’t that. But BLECH. I felt like crap.
Coaches don’t always feel 200% happy and positive and courageous. Even the top life coaches in the world go through slumps, sometimes.
I’ve trained lots of coaches, over the years—and I’ve helped lots of coaches to design and grow their businesses. I’ve seen all of the behind-the-scenes moments that don’t get posted on Instagram. I’ve seen the business launches that flopped. I’ve heard the tears on the phone. I know a coach who had to speak onstage even though, just minutes before, she’d been dealing with a super stressful situation with her event planning team. She had to just get on that stage and WOW the audience even though she was boiling with stress inside. So yes, for sure, coaches definitely get stressed out, just like anybody else.
HOWEVER…
– The top coaches in the industry know how to get themselves out of a slump quickly. They don’t wallow. They take action. They take the tools that they teach to their clients, and they use those tools on themselves. They shift their inner dialogue. They shift their mindset. Good coaches practice what they preach!
– Also, the top coaches make self-care a priority. The coaches who are totally ROCKING it, these are the people who have a consistent morning routine, a consistent workout routine, a consistent bedtime routine. They treat their body like a musical instrument and keep it finely tuned. They know they need a strong body and clear mind in order to serve their clients.
– And YET… even with excellent self-care, sometimes, coaches get burnt out just like anybody else.
Earlier this year, I was totally physically and emotionally fried. I’d been working too hard for too long, and traveling too much, and then I got totally rattled by an unexpected death in the family.
At the last minute, I had to cancel a retreat that I’d already sold out because I needed to rest and be home with my family.
It was such a hard decision, but fortunately my clients were amazingly understanding and supportive. It was a big learning moment for me–a moment that taught me a lot about resilience and managing intense life experiences. I’ve written about this on my blog.
And THAT is one of the things I love most about being a coach. When you’re a coach, you can take the tough stuff that’s happened to you, and the mistakes you’ve made, and you can turn these into “teachable moments” that you can share with your clients.
A story about burn-out can become a book chapter.
An embarrassing mistake can become a fascinating podcast.
The best coaches take their slumps and setbacks and turn these into GOLD. They use their personal experiences to inspire others.
So, if you work as a coach–and if you’re going through a rough time right now–it’s OK. It doesn’t mean you’re a “bad coach” or that you’re a “hypocrite” or anything like that. It just means you are human.
And, it means you’ve got an opportunity to do some work on yourself. And then, at some point in the future, you can take this experience and share it with others.
You can write about it. You can do a talk about it. You can explain what happened, and what you learned, and how you brought yourself out of this slump.
People will be so inspired by your story.
Take care of yourself as best you can, as often as you can, and allow yourself to be human. You don’t need to be super-human and invincible. You don’t need to be a perfect robot. You don’t need to pretend that you’re 200% happy every single moment of every day. It’s OK to just be… you. The real you. Including the stressful days and the grief and the sniffles and all the parts that make up your life. Remember that.
It’s GO time.
