Page 30 - Taming Your Gremlin A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way (Rick Carson)_Neat

gremlin raised his head in fury. This gave Dale and me an opportunity to
simply notice him.

Subsequently, Dale labeled his gremlin “Coach Don Ledup.” Coach
Don Ledup resembled a coach I once had.

Most of the coaches I have had have been either big and burly or little

and feisty. Dale’s gremlin reminded me of the little and feisty variety. I
don’t recall ever seeing my feisty coach walk or sit. He was always running
around. As he ran he would shout things like, “Lotta hustle, gang,” or “Go,
go, go,” or “Be number one.” Sometimes he would just yell noises like
“Hubba, hubba, hubba.” He never made much sense, but he had a knack for
getting people moving. As a matter of fact, it was almost impossible to be
still when you were around him. Dale’s gremlin was very much like this

coach.

Dale saw Coach Don Ledup as having a whistle around his neck, as
being short, thin, strong, and not so much fast as quick. He used the same
sort of words that my feisty coach used, with emphasis on the “Be number
one!” For years he had Dale convinced that the world was a race and that
Dale absolutely had to win it. Dale was so busy running the race that he

never took the time to experience the world for himself. His coach spent so
much time yelling at him in his loud, speedy voice that Dale seldom
observed what was going on around him. He simply took the coach’s word
that he was in the middle of a race that he needed to win, and he just kept
running. Somewhere in the process he learned to drink alcohol and smoke
cigarettes, and he tended to do these things with the same fervor with which
he ran the race.

One of the myths that Dale’s coach perpetuated was that there was a

positive correlation between Dale feeling harried and his attaining the
monetary status he desired. He convinced Dale that in order to move at a
productive and efficient pace in his work, he must feel speedy and
somewhat frenetic on the inside.

Reverend Al Drydup