Page 91 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

After a disappointing round on the golf course, Tiger Woods will often take

a golf lesson. When I first heard about this, I asked myself, Who could give Tiger
Woods a lesson in golf?

But that was before I ever really understood the value of coaching. The
person who taught me that value was a young business consultant named Steve
Hardison. Hardison taught me this: Tiger takes a lesson not because his coach is
a better player who can give advice and tips, but because his coach can stand
back from Tiger Woods and see him objectively.

Steve Hardison had created an art form of coming into corporations and
seeing things objectively. In fact, his perception ran deeper than that. He had
near-psychic power to see what was missing. It was a gift he could also apply to
individuals, but only if they were ready for the rigors of his coaching.

I used to teasingly call one of his illustrative personal stories “The Parable of
the Mission.” As a young missionary for his church in England, Hardison broke
all records for enrolling congregants. He contrasted his own method with that of
the other missionaries.

While the others would rush out and knock on doors all day, Hardison would
spend the first part of each day planning and plotting his activities. By creating
his day before it happened, he was able to combine visits, economize on travel
time, and increase the number of enrollment conversations in a given day. He

also used his creative planning time to set up intra-neighborhood referrals so that
many of his visits came with a reference.

The other missionaries were very active, but they were focused on the
activity, not the result. They were in the business of knocking on doors and
scurrying about—Steve was in the business of enrolling people into the church.
The records he set for enrollment were no accident. He planned things that way.

Steve helped me understand something that lives inside of all of us,
something he called “the voice.” When you wake up in the morning, the voice is
there right away, telling you that you are too tired to get up or too sick to go to
work. During a sales meeting when you are just about to say something bold to a
client, the voice might tell you to cool it. “Hold back.” “Be careful.”

“The trick is,” said Steve, “to not ignore or deny the existence of the voice.
Because it’s there, in all of us. No one is free of the voice. However, you don’t
have to obey the voice. You can talk back to the voice. And when you really get
good, you can even talk trash to the voice. Make fun of it. Ridicule it. Point out