“If a man is to shed the light of the sun upon other men,
he must first of all have it within himself.”
~Romain Rolland
I didn’t set out to become a coach’s coach. But in my coaching business, it has become a more common occurrence that my clients are adding mentoring and coaching to their business model and want strategies for building that area of their business too. I think it is wonderful. In every case to date, they are powerful, amazing people who have a lot to teach and give back.
They are inspired to share their special gifts, knowledge and unique abilities with others in a way that only they can.
And I have discovered that I love coaching coaches. Especially coaches in passion filled, artistic businesses who are inspired to make their imprint in this world and keep it spreading. I love all that energy. It is exhilarating and I can honestly say I get as much out of spending time with my coaching clients as they do.
It is a win/win for all of us.
It could also be draining if I wasn’t paying close attention. And to do that, I have to make sure that someone else is paying close attention to ME.
Part of being a good coach is making sure that I am being well coached myself. Just as my coaching clients rely on me to help them stay accountable and create workable strategies and time lines, I have my own team of accountability partners, mastermind groups, coaches (different mentors in different areas) and friends who I rely on to keep me on the straight and narrow.
In order to spread the sunshine, I have to make sure I keep the sunshine inside of me first.
It’s hard to show up to work with an upbeat positive attitude, inspiring others to do their best if I’m not walking the walk.
And I’ll be honest. (Because that’s what we do here…)
Nobody walks the walk all the time. So don’t let anybody fool you. If they tell you they do, keep right on walking.
Everybody has good days and bad days, better days and worse days. We practice persistence, not perfection, and consistent habits, systems and rituals, but we don’t pretend we don’t fall off the wagon from time to time. We just focus on getting back up as quickly as we can and shortening the downtime with tips and tricks. We celebrate our humanness.
So sometimes even the best coaches have their bad days (and weeks) too. That is why it is important for us to be sure we are constantly refilling our own well with inspiration, knowledge, accountability and positive energy so that we have abundance of all of that to pass down to others.
But I’m not a coach, so what does this have to do with me?
Everything.
You may not get paid to share your energy, wisdom, special gifts, unique abilities and creativity with the world. You may think that nobody is watching. You may think that what you do has no affect, doesn’t matter, isn’t teaching, isn’t sharing, isn’t spreading sunshine (or rain) wherever you go. You may think that you don’t have time to fill your own well, or that it is way down the list of priorities because there is too much else to worry about.
But you would be wrong.
Every day, in every way, we mentor and coach the people in our lives. We coach our children, with our actions first of all…and with our hearts and words.We mentor our friends, our co-workers and even our boss. We teach people how to treat us, by the things we do, and by what we don’t do. By the boundaries we create….and the ones we fail to create.
We lead by example.
Or we fail to lead.
We show people our value. We tell them what we are worth…by our actions, by our mindsets, by our commitment to refilling our own wells.
We teach them respect. We share love. Wisdom. Joy.
Or we don’t. Because our well is empty and we have nothing left to give.
When you do share your unique energy, wisdom, gifts and creativity and mentor the world, you WILL get paid for it, one way or another. Mentoring is always rewarded. Somehow. Some way. With love, relationships, meaningful experiences, connections, and yes, also income. The how may not be the way you imagine…the universe can be funny like that…
But this I believe:
We are all here to mentor each other.
Fill your well so you can spread the sunshine.
