It was a summer golf championship, one of the few that I was able to catch on TV. I was dozing on a Sunday afternoon whilst the melodic drone of the announcers voices served as a perfect backdrop for light REM’s. I happened to catch the last few holes, and at the time, Tiger Woods was in his prime.
As he walked off the last green, and winning the championship, he walked directly over to his coach, they embraced, and he walked on to the clubhouse to record his score.
The announcers made a quick statement about the exchange between the player and the coach, however, of all that I semi-consciously watched that afternoon, this was the scene that impacted me the most.
I thought, “If the number one player in the world needs a coach in a game that doesn’t have eternal impact, then how much more do I need a coach in life, where things matter so much more?”
This began my journey to seek out help in life. Although I felt as though things were going along at a semi-relatively-easy pace, there were things that I wanted to accomplish, and honestly, didn’t know how to start.
Enter Daniel Webb. Daniel is a life-coach, linguist, world traveler, entrepreneur, and all around family man, (and a man’s man). Daniel and I began to meet on a weekly basis, where he took me through the Strength Finders, and People Acuity, and basic life coaching, setting goals, and how to hold myself accountable to those goals.
This process began slowly, but I was eager to learn, and embrace the pain of self-reflection by allowing all the emotions to have a place, and deal with them as they came.
Since then, I have learned the importance of vulnerability and transparency in everyday life and as my friends Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger say, “No LHFing!” That is to say: Lying, Hiding, Faking.
Everyone of us deal with LHFing on a daily basis. We have lost the art of healthy and vitriol (most honest) feedback from people that we work and live with. This changed for me when I met Daniel. He encouraged me to pursue what I could see, and put people around me to speak into the areas where I could not see. We all have blind spots, and we need people around us to be able to see those, and help us grow in those areas.
Life is an incredible journey. I encourage you to find people that you can be honest and vulnerable with. Find people that love you and have your best interest in mind. These are your coaches, and it doesn’t matter if you’re number one in the world, you still need someone to speak into your life. Even when you’re walking off the last green and winning the championship…
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