When I was 16 my Dad told me that I was very fortunate as I had hit the pinnacle of all knowledge and from here on it was downhill - for every year that passed I would become more aware of how little I knew, until I'd reach a ripe old age and I would know absolutely nothing!
He was of course taking the mickey out of his cocky 16 year old son, who thought that the world revolved around him. As time has passed I have indeed become more aware of how little I know, just as Dad predicted. The more knowledge we learn, the more we become aware of how much more there is to learn.
So what have I learned this month? or maybe relearned, because that's the other thing about learning, unless we use the things we learn, we usually forget we ever learned them!
Well, there are two things I have relearned this month. The first is the power of "asking questions". This month I have had trips to both China and the US, facilitating training programmes which entails a lot of coaching. I was reminded of how easy it is to think you are asking coaching questions, when in fact you are making a statement that is disguised to look like a question. Why does this matter? For me, the heart of helping an athlete realise their potential is understanding what their key motivators are. That can't be done by advising them, or sharing my 'wisdom' with them, it can only be done by asking questions and listening carefully and in doing so, helping them engage with their 'real' motivations.
It's something I try hard to do - but sometimes my desire to help overwhelms me and like most humans, I go into my default position of seeing the world through my eyes and making suggestions that are typically routed in what might be great for me, but not the person I am are trying to help.
My other relearning this month is more philosophical in its nature. I was jet lagged and finding it difficult to sleep and as usual when this happens I have lots of thoughts running around my head. I was starting to beat myself up about a lack of consistency in my training and starting to make it mean more, than the need to get back into a more consistent training routine. When we lose sight of the bigger picture we can very quickly get things out of perspective. Sometimes its useful to reflect on the reasons we feel the way we do about a race, session or situation - are we simply making it mean something it isn't?
When I got home, a few days biking and running quickly helped me establish my equilibrium and training pattern, so that was easy for me to resolve. Sometimes the meanings we attach to a race or sport can be really helpful and sometimes not. If the meaning we attach to the things we do is down to us, its worth asking whether we are attaching the most helpful meaning for ourselves.
So I'll leave you with a coaching question to think about (and the answer is entirely your own!) "Is the meaning you are attaching to your race or training session helping or hindering you?" - and if it's the latter, explore what meaning would be more helpful and try that on for size.
