In Take Charge of You, authors David Novak and Jason Goldsmith highlight the importance of adopting a coaching mindset to succeed in coaching yourself.
In their book, they defined a coaching mindset as follows:
"Your mind is open to whatever is going to drive your growth or performance, which means avoiding the trap of preconceived notions or prejudging what's going to happen. Instead, you are continually searching for the next insight that's going to move you forward."
In my experience, a coaching mindset simply means:
- you are always curious
- you are open to experimenting and trying potential solutions
- you are capable of change through continuous learning and improvement
Here's how you can adopt a coaching mindset:
- Detach yourself from negative emotions when facing roadblocks or experiencing failure. Experiment with detaching exercises.
- Have conversations with yourself. Ask questions on how you can overcome the roadblock or take better actions.
- Be open to learning, especially from failure and actively find alternative solutions to get nearer to your goal.
The importance of adopting a coaching mindset.
Self-coaching is a continuous journey.
A coaching mindset allows us to learn new things about ourselves continuously and what drives us. It will enable us to adapt to different situations to help us get closer to our goals.