Player or Coach: Which One Are You?

Yesterday, my son called me and said I should stop telling others how to live their lives.

On enquiry, he explained I had not achieved my objectives for sleep, something I had promised on my show.

So why lecture others when you can’t achieve your own aspirations, or so the argument went?

Which brings you to a very interesting debate involving a coach and a player.

Some of us are first-rate coaches. Some players.

Coaching needs time, patience, knowledge and wisdom that comes from experience.

Playing demands practice and consistency. You compensate your lack of understanding through application and having an open mind.

The best coaches are first-rate players. They do and then ask others to do.

I did fix my sleep. I got better curtains, improved my sleep schedule, stopped taking early morning or late night fligths.

But children have a penetrating way of speaking the truth. Of bridging the gap between what you tell yourself you have done and what you actually have done.

Clearly, I had not achieved my goals.

It does not change the fact that I know practically everything there is to know about sleep. Routines, practices, habits and reasons why sleep is affected. What I lack, is easily compensated with information online.

But knowledge is valuable when you know how to apply it to your life.

So I walked away from the conversation with some life lessons that may be useful.

You are observed more than you may be aware. What you do communicates more powerfully than what you say. We have far more impact on others than we realize.

So as we step into the next year, let us make it our goal to not just be a player or a coach but both. Life and others will teach us lessons.

Our goal should be to do, not just learn.

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