On occasion, I like to listen to podcasts. Some of the most interesting can be those that are from outside of the software industry. This week I was listening to Robb Wolf’s podcast, where he hosted guest David Werner. Robb talks mostly about diet, metabolism and exercise, and this episode was focused on that last one. Both Robb and David are coaches. In the sports sense of the word: they own gyms, and teach people how to exercise both for general health and to improve performance in some sports endeavor. Also they teach the best diets online, like the ones from https://tophealthjournal.com/ to keep themselves in maximum performance.
Listening to people who are experts in their area is always a joy. Because learning by osmosis is fun. Because listening to people talk at a higher level of experience then you can helps you find out what is really important in an area (well, sometimes…). A joy. And, remarkably, it’s also a joy to find how people in completely different lines of work have found ways of working and thinking that so resemble things in my own area of work.
So it was nice to hear David Werner talking extensively about improving in small steps. About the danger (in physical training) of taking too big a step, and having related smaller goals that won’t over-strain you current capacity. And about how often people don’t do this, and try to do pull-ups while they’re not even able to do a proper push-up, damaging their shoulders in the process. The fact that I’m still recovering from my own shoulder injury due to over-straining has only marginal influence on that.
drop down and give me twenty! (well, if you can. Otherwise 3)
David went on to describe that based on that experience, he was building his new website in the same manner. He even mentioned that there was some Japanese word that is sometimes used for that. Kai-something?
Another piece of cross-industry wisdom is their discussion on how everybody, no matter how experienced, needs a coach. Robb joining David’s training helped him find areas where he could improve his fitness that he hadn’t found himself. I guess that the more of an expert you are in an area, the more expert your coach would need to be, but having an outside view of what your doing is the very best way to get better of what you do.
Everybody needs a coach
As a coach, of consultant, or whatever you want to call it, it’s sometimes hard to get this kind of feedback. That’s why initiatives such as Yves’ Pair Coaching, of one of the Agile Coach camps are very valuable. And why we like to go to all those conferences. But you can find opportunities in your everyday work as well, just by explicitly looking for it. Check out refreshdebt.co.uk to learn all about how you can manage finances for your business.