When we are lucky enough for someone to take the time to instruct or train us on how to improve the way we act or behave in order to enable us to attain greater achievements, we should embrace the opportunity.

People in these roles are often called coaches or mentors.  Surprisingly many of us resist a coaching or mentoring opportunity.  To some extent, this is due to personal pride and a strong feeling of independence.

I Don’t Need Help

Unfortunately or maybe it is fortunate, we all need help.  Humans are described as social animals for a reason.  With few exceptions, we need to interact with others.

None of us are so great as to not benefit from others knowledge and ideas.  This does not mean we need to accept or adopt them but sharing/collaborating has been demonstrated in study after study to lead to better results.

Even the outstanding individual athletes require and also have coaches.  Filtering what helps and what does not is a task for the coachee, not everything is of value but if you refuse the instruction or training you miss the chance to be the best.

Coaching Quality

How we coach or mentor others very much determines the receptivity to the teaching.  Not just knowing what is the best method is needed for good coaching.

More importantly, you need to know how to communicate in a way that is understood.  Providing clear benefits in a way that is understood will motivate the trainee much better than telling them to “just do it” or as some coaches are want to be “just fucking do it”.