Why you need a Coach (or What you can learn from the Roman Military)

Why you need a Coach (or What you can learn from the Roman Military)

You need a coach. That is not a question, it is a fact.

Everyone needs a coach. That is not some personal failure on your part. In fact, quite the opposite. It is a testament to you that you could benefit from help. Let me explain.

Human beings are not meant to succeed in isolation. In fact, there is very little we are meant to do in isolation. We are a social animal. And we do better when we are looking out not for ourselves but for others. It's said that in many Native American languages, there is no word for I. In the West, that seems preposterous, but that speaks to a fundamental flaw in our society. We love to go it alone. Some of the best stories are about one man or woman, braving it and succeeding alone, overcoming obstacles independent of anyone else. We place tremendous value on our independence, but the truth is we are all dependent on others, no matter how rich, brave or strong we are.

I’m not sitting up here and judging anyone, I’m very guilty of doing this myself. But the problem with it is that were not particularly effective by ourselves. We are not tigers, as much as we wish we were. We are more like dogs. And we succeed in packs.

Case in point: The Roman Military were the most dominant conquering force in history, hands down. And they can attribute the vast majority of their success to their military tactics that was based on each man guarding not themselves, but their neighbor. Their buddy to the left. They were responsible not for their own protection, but for their buddies'. I don’t know what would happen to the guy furthermost to the right of each unit but lets just ignore him for the time being.

This tactic is so successful because we have a natural ability to see things for others that we cannot see for ourselves. Kind of like looking at your own nose. You could try really hard but you might just get the tip in…Now if you have a particularly large nose, like myself, you may be able to see more but thats besides the point. You can very easily see other peoples noses. And more than just their noses, or their ears or their arses you can very easily see their strengths and weaknesses.

And this is where the beauty of coaching comes into play. A friend or a coach, even a really average one, can see your strengths and weakness, where you could improve and where your points of leverage are FAR better than you can. No matter how smart or how stupid they are, it's just part of being a human. Other people can evaluate things and fix your problems much better than you can.

Now that does not mean that you don’t make your own decisions in life. It doesn’t mean you don’t follow your inner voice. In fact one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make is listening to well-meaning friends and family indiscriminately above your own intuition. However, what is does mean is that a trusted friend or coach's advice on specific issues that you find tricky can be invaluable, even life changing.

So, if you are willing to give up control every now and again, you can gain a lot of steam on any projects you're working on. Even the great Liron Kayvan takes classes, gets fitness and business coaching, and needs an MMA coach. Now, I am not so shameless as to plug myself as your coach or tell you you need to hire me. You can hire anyone. And maybe you need coaching in some completely different area of your life than fitness or health. But I would highly suggest evaluating the things you’re working on and checking to see if you might benefit from getting some help in this area. If it works for the Romans, it will probably work for you.