I dreaded the As and Bs.
A and B skips help runners build muscle power. The A consists of the initial drive up with your knee and the B consists of the extension of your leg forward. With C-skips (which I gladly escaped) you rotate your hip and swing your knee up and out to the side. These are awkward, tedious, and strenuous marching-style movements.
Sounds like a hoot right?
But I’m grateful to Mrs. Fox. She was my track and field coach in high school and was militant I perform these drills at the start of every training. No doubt I became a faster runner because of her.
Mrs. Fox had unmistakable long curly brown hair and even though it was the 90s, she appeared a bona fide 1980s runner. I envision her jogging to escape the teenage twerpiness of our track team. Or since she was also my math teacher—perhaps running was her respite from grading tests. She was a disciplinarian and taught me how consistency was the key to improving my speed.
For some reason, genetics I guess, running, as well as math came easy to me. At summer camp I was the kid who others wanted to pass the ball to for the score. At sixteen I became the fasted kid in the city (Vancouver is not that big so this may sound more spectacular than it is). The summer Olympics in Barcelona calcified a dream of running for Canada someday.
But not long afterward I went to Edmonton, where I raced against really really fast kids. And lost. This provided me with a wonderfully big slice of humble pie. I hung up my spiked shoes a couple of years later after high school.
I went on to study philosophy so perhaps I could think more about running rather than doing those godawful A’s and B’s.
Fast forward thirty years and I’m sat at a dinner with a load of new faces. One fellow perks up from across the table, “So what is it you do Jonas?”
Heads turn toward me and I reply, “I’m a coach.“
Uttering the word coach in relation to my self-image used to make me want to vomit in my mouth. However, that initial cringe has long since faded.
Now I find that when I share what I do, it often sparks curiosity and invites deeper conversation, with folks usually responding, 'Really? Tell me more…'"
The journey from track and field to coaching entrepreneurs isn't as far a leap as it might seem - both require pushing past perceived limits. I've carried those lessons from sprinting, not the skips, of course, but the progress, the transformation that comes from dedication and putting in the work.
Just as A's and B's were crucial tools in my training, I have noticed reoccurring tools in my coaching practice that help people achieve extraordinary things. Today, I get the gratification of helping my clients push past their comfort zones, challenge their own perceptions of their capacity, and attune themselves to the callings from within.
As I move into my sixth year of coaching, I'm more committed than ever to helping individuals harness their potential and find their stride. The themes that have come up time and again with clients I’ve collated together in a set of tools - A Coachers’ Dozen.
My hope is that it might be of benefit to those who can’t access coaching and act as an invitation to those who simply want to learn more. The first 3 are:
😈 The Devil Inside: Recognizing our inner voices that can drive our actions, oftentimes in ways that we might later regret. By acknowledging these sabateours, we can better understand ourselves and make more conscious decisions.
⏯️ The Pause: If there’s one self-regulating activity that stands the test of time, it’s the power of the pause. This simple practice of taking a moment to breathe to gain clarity helps us to respond intentionally rather than react impulsively.
✔️Getting to Yes: This is a strategic approach to conversations that helps us reach agreements in various aspects of our lives, whether it's at work, in your relationships, or in personal decisions.
You can jump in and explore them more right now:
Of course, like A’s, B’s, and C’s these tools are meant to be practiced and integrated. If they were easy to implement I’d be out of a job. They require fortitude, discipline, and adaptability. And since we are all works in progress, reaping the benefits takes time (and patience).
Mrs. Fox sometimes appears in my mind as a reminder that progress comes in small, incremental steps and that the path to success is rarely a straight sprint. Doing the ‘work’ is a never-ending affair.
There will be twists and turns along the way—- but with the right tools (applied at the right time), we can run the marathon of life with more ease.
Roundup
Idea Machines (Nadia Asparouhava)
Purpose Anxiety (Ness Labs)
Combinational Creativity (The Marginalian)
The Courage to Be Human (Freddie deBoer)Japan’s 72 Microseasons (Nippon)
How to Know It’s Time to Move On (Jonny Miller)
How Craving Attention Makes You Less Creative (Joseph G. Levitt)
Updates
Early Doors
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Sizzle
A new season, a new mix! It’s getting hot up in here. So this sizzle soundtrack may help you to cool down, or just make things even more Fuego 🔥
“If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.”
-Maya Angelou
seriously, wonderful wisdoms, thanks brother