What is an Inner Coach?

Finding Meaning and Purpose

Leveraging our Inner Coach

Our inner coach is the private voice in our head that guides us on the subconscious level—it is the chief architect of our confidence.  Some people call it intuition or that reliable inner resource oftentimes used as a guide in sometimes unpredictable circumstances.  Others have called it the gut instinct, which we call upon in the uncertainty of the new and novel.  No matter what it is or how we summon it, most of us have experienced the power of its existence.

A properly trained inner coach helps us face challenges with meaning and purpose.  Unfortunately,  the duality of a private voice can either help us out in times of need or break us down when we least expect it.  Knowing the difference is critical to properly leveraging the power of our inner voice.

When our private voice works against us, it becomes our inner critic—breaking down our confidence and steering us toward questioning who we are and what we are capable of accomplishing.  As we give life to this inner critic, we not only work against the environment, our opponent, or the circumstances, but ourselves.

At times, it may feel like our inner coach and inner critic are in constant battle for our attention.  Our inner coach may get derailed by stress, pressure, or anxiety.  Unbalanced emotions which reside in the past or future provide fuel to that inner critic. 

How then can we build our inner coach and silence the inner critic? 

Simple.  Focus on the present.

Focusing on the now helps us to control those things for which we have mastery.  What then can we use to guide us to the present?

GOAL = Result To Which Effort Is Aimed

Change perspective.  Stop for a moment and think about how you frame goal achievement.  Think about a GOAL as the result to which effort is aimed.  By doing so, you may conclude that results are most often outside of your direct control.  If that is the case, then turn your attention on the effort (this is the process), which will help you to achieve the results you seek. 

Does this mean that we should not have goals?  Absolutely not.  Brad Stevens, Coach of the Boston Celtics says, "You can have the goal of a championship, but there's a process to get there and your focus needs to be on that."

I like to teach people that they are interviewing for their next job or professional opportunity every day they engage in their current role.  Excellence is hard to keep quiet.  The truth of the matter is that people talk and if we are focused on the efforts of the job at hand, we are successfully interviewing for our future.  This requires that we stay rooted in the present by focusing on the process which will set-up our inner coach for success.

Begin with the advice of Jim Collins and practice pockets of quietude.  Spend some time looking within to provide valuable insight into yourself.  Next, exercise the deliberate habit of documenting everything you do throughout the day.  Circle the two things you want to improve and challenge yourself with these coaching questions:

• What do I want?
• What's the real challenge here for me?
• What else?
• What am I going to do about it?
• What am I ready to act on right now?

Sometimes the process of calling on our inner coach does not work or we are met with silence.  If that's the case, seek the support of a trusted professional coach who can guide you through a process geared toward helping you achieve your goals.