I have been working with Dr Gordon Wright, a cycling coach who works with a handful of elite cyclists and provides weekly coaching sessions to High Wycombe Cycling Club. It has made me think about how we develop a focus, and about learning that can apply to other areas of life. So what have I taken from working with Dr Wright?
The importance of being prepared. Be it if you are running a coaching program or part of one: be prepared. Protect the time available, look to use every minute, make every second count, take yourself seriously.
Have a vision – build up as clear a picture as you can of what you want to achieve, of why you are doing this work. Write it down, map it out on a timeline, refine your goals.
Look to develop a detailed understanding of what can get in the way of you delivering against your goals; understand why you derail.
See the connection between the effort you put in today and what you want to attain in the longer run.
Create measurable objectives and outcomes. You should leave a coaching session energised and have clarity about how you are going to use that energy. Ask yourself: how am I going to apply the ideas and thinking that I have developed in this and these sessions? and, who can I share this with? What will I do with the effort I have just put in? How will I manifest it in other areas of my life?
Train harder – go into each session with objectives, and look to develop actionable ideas and plans, and then work to go beyond them.
Commit to action and make yourself accountable to a partner you trust.
Finally to quote from Dr Wright: “don’t short change yourself!” You are taking time out of your day to do this work, it is coming out of a budget that could fund other projects: make it count!
