The problem with the world is that successful people are often overconfident, while smart people are full of doubt.
Smart people need your support more than they know and more than you think.
You’re out of your mind!
When you think of someone who is out of their mind, you assume there’s something seriously wrong. But that phrase has a bad rap.
For smart clients, one of their major problems is that they can actually think too much.
Overthinking is like trying to escape from quicksand. Your client becomes trapped in a negative cycle, where a series of beliefs, thoughts and ideas keep them frozen in inaction or unwanted behaviors.
The more your clients overthink, the less they understand. When they’re overthinking, they’ve often slipped from solving problems to creating problems that don’t yet exist.
So your job is to quickly break the grip of your clients’ thoughts, to get them out of their mind and into action.
If a client is in their head, I’ll often tell them to hit the deck and do 20 pushups. If they get back up and they’re not sweating or breathing heavily, I’ll tell them to do 20 more!
I coached a woman this week who was caught up and confused by her own thinking, so I asked her to do 20 burpees.
When she was done, I asked what she wanted coaching on.
She said simply, “Thanks. I’ve got everything I need. I know precisely what to do. I’m good.“
Get your clients out of their head.
During my most recent coaching session at the Porsche Driving Academy, I spent time driving on a skid pan. It’s a slick surface constantly sprayed with running water, designed to make your car skid, so you can practice controlling it.
Initially, my car spun in circles each time I hit the skid pan. It was incredibly confusing to know which way to turn the steering wheel, to straighten the car.
But over time I began to get it. And there came a moment when I intuitively spun the steering wheel in the correct direction, immediately straightening the car, as soon as it began to skid.
I turned to my coach and laughed, “That was so fun but I have no idea how I did it!”
He said, “Your mind has no idea because you were completely in your body… Why don’t you close your eyes next time?!”
“What?!” I asked incredulously.
He wasn’t kidding. The next time, as I drove onto the skid pan, my eyes were completely closed…
As the car began to slide, my body responded instinctively. Holding the wheel lightly by my fingertips, I rapidly turned the wheel, hand over hand, into the skid. And suddenly the car was still.
I opened my eyes. The car was dead straight.
I’d done it.
Driving with my eyes closed, on a slick skid pan, I’d straightened the car even better than with my eyes open!
Because I’d been out of my mind.
That’s your job, as a Powerful Coach: get your clients out of their mind.
By the time they come to you, smart, talented clients have done almost all the thinking they could possibly do on the issue they’re struggling with.
Get them out of their thinking and you’ll help them access their inner wisdom, their gut intuition, or their higher self. If a client gets really still they may even connect to their spirit or to the wisdom of the universe.
When you help your client access their inner wisdom – or the wisdom of the universe – they’ll have a new way of seeing things. And when they see things differently, their world changes…
You’re a Powerful Coach: get your clients out of their mind.
Smart people need your support more than they know and more than you think.
Love. Rich