Coach-The Words of Aspire (#9 of 11)

Coach

Lesson #9 in an Eleven-part series based on Aspire by Kevin Hall

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The word “Coach” is prevalent in today’s vernacular.  The old west had “stage coaches”, we travel in “coach class” on a train, and we sit in “coach class” on an airplane. 

We have “coaches” in sports, and today the in-vogue idea is to have personal coaches in all areas of our lives.  Harvey McKay, famous for the book Swim with the Sharks” has about a dozen personal coaches.  He has a coach for tennis, ping pong, running, writing, business, golf, and a few others. 

Coach means this:  Something or someone who carries a valued person from where they are to where they want to be.

Our American term is “Coach.”

In Japan it is a “Sensei”.

Sanskrit:  “Guru”

Tibet:       “Lama”

Italy:        “Maestro”

France:    “Tutor”

England:  “Guide”

Greece:   “Mentor”

All of these words describe the same experience:  One who goes before and shows the way.  Coaches guide us, steer us, lead us, teach us, and equip us.  They help us avoid pitfalls, muddy places, and dangerous bends in the road.  They help us avoid lousy habits that slow our growth, dead ends that lead nowhere and a thousand other traps in life.

Coaches come in all sizes and shapes, and with a wide scope of labels:  mother, father, teacher, guide, mentor, friend, professor, just to name a few, and the wonderful thing is they all have carried us to places we could not get to on our own. 

We need coaches. 

Ah, we do indeed need coaches. 

Coaches are teachers.  They see potential where it is but a small, seemingly insignificant bud poking its head through the dirt.  Oh yes, the potential is there.  It is quietly growing and waiting.  Waiting and growing.  It’s just looking for an opportunity, a nudge, a dose of instruction.  It just needs to be nudged in the right direction and taught the essentials.

Teachers show the way.  They model the how and explain the why. 

Kevin sums up the idea of a coach in this way:  You can’t teach what you don’t know, and you can’t guide where you don’t go.

When you light someone else’s path, you see your own more clearly. 

What do you say?  As for me, I want to be a coach.  I’ll hold the light for both of us.  Together we will tread the path to better - together.

P Michael Biggs

Encouragement in Sight

One Word at a Time