“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” -Frederick Douglass
Over the past few years, I have found myself doing more and more unofficial “Life” coaching in addition to the “Recruit” coaching, “Executive” coaching, and “Sport” coaching I have been doing for some time. In recent months, I have started taking on clients as their personal Life Coach. It has been extremely rewarding, and it has made me reflect on the many legs that have grown out of my new company.
“Do I prefer one type of coaching over another?”
“What are the common denominators amongst my diverse clientele?”
“How much am I adapting from one type of coaching to another?”
What I am learning is that whether I am preparing my basketball team for their next game, consulting with a University President or Corporate CEO, coaching a family through their child’s recruiting process, or guiding an adult through a rough transition in their life, the message that is ever constant out of my mouth is “Your value is yours…and yours alone. No one can take that from you. Only YOU can give it away.”
Many years ago, I asked one of my former players to write a recommendation letter for me for a job I was applying for and considering. We always had a good relationship, and I loved coaching her, so I felt confident that she would be fine writing her honest thoughts about her experience with me as her coach. She wrote an amazing recommendation for me [much more than I deserved…I know, ironic!] , but she wrote one sentence that rocked my world and very much changed how I viewed myself as a coach, teacher and mentor:
Upon graduation, I left the university and basketball program with an unbreakable sense of self-worth.
What? I did that? I had that kind of impact on an already strong, independent, loving, and highly intelligent human being? It was like a punch to the heart. I remember crying tears of…joy…pride…gratitude…I couldn’t describe it. All I knew was from that point forward, it was important to me, above all else, that I helped every person I was lucky enough to coach to leave me knowing that their self-worth was unbreakable.
Trust me when I tell you that concept is a lot harder than teaching someone how to shoot a proper jump shot or convincing a CEO that they need to change their company’s marketing and sales strategy, but it is a thousand times more rewarding in the end.
So, what is the moral of this story? Whatever you are going through in life, whether it be good or not so good, remember that you have the power to control and define your self-worth and value. More importantly, you have the power to help another find the courage to control and define theirs!
Enjoying these blogs? Want to schedule a free 30-minute coaching assessment with Coach Rogers? You can do so here: https://www.significantcoaching.net/
Interested in Coach Rogers’ Playbook on College Recruiting? You can find it here: https://bit.ly/Matt-Rogers-Significant-Recruiting-Amazon
