Throughout my time as a Life & Business Coach, I’ve worked with a variety of people across a variety of careers. Each presents its own challenges and requires a unique set of answers. An example of this was when I worked with Alex.
Alex was an athlete at the time, and it was his coach who contacted me. Alex was very, very good at the niche sport that he did – one of the world’s best. He was doing well, and the plan was to make sure that he would do even better in the future. Specifically, his coach wanted to work on his focus and to improve his mentality. So we got started working on a programme for him.
However, just as we started to get to work, tragedy struck. Twice. Alex lost both his coach and his father in a car accident. Two of the most important, influential figures in his life had gone.
Working with Alex on his focus and mentality was suddenly a whole new challenge for us both. But life continued to flow as it does – and Alex was faced with two choices. He could get angry and give up, or he could use that pain to get better.
I told him not to go through it but to grow through it.
What happened was in the past, and it would stay there. Alex made a choice to continue to work with me; it was what his coach had wanted. We focused on his mental strength. He would call me for advice whenever he felt tired or demotivated, and we would talk about his motivations, his coach, his father, and how to get back to feeling determined. It was exhausting, but we worked on pushing through the setbacks and pain. Alex understood that getting better meant working hard.
And Alex continued to work. He trained harder than he ever had before. He had no other coach to help him at the time, so as Alex went through the programme, it was only me by his side. He reached out to his friends to train with him and help him put in the maximum effort.
The turning point came about two months into our programme. Alex reached the top in his sport globally by becoming number one in the world. Just two months after losing his coach and his father, Alex, achieved something truly incredible. He was still hurting and angry, but he used his emotions to fuel his fire and grow. He became number one for himself, for his coach, and for his father. He proved that you have two choices when setbacks happen, give up, or keep going and keep growing.
