Let me ask you a question.

If you could improve the quality of you life by 1%, would you want to? How about 2% or even 5% maybe?

When I was in sales I used to love training. It was a lonely school of thought I inhabited. In fact so much so that most of the time I was calling the register and answering it myself.

My fanciful logic was that if I could take one thing away that helped me close a deal it was worthwhile. It was simple math, an improvement of 1% or more would allow me to close 1% more deals (actually probably more), thus I’d have more money and my manager and customers would be happy too. What’s not to love about that?

Most sales people though hated to be taken off the road. The road was their friend, the road was where they made their money and the road was where they needed to be at all times. Any interruption was seen as evil management stealing their time again.

It reminds me a little of the woodcutter parable that Stephen Covey tells in ‘The 7 Habits’.

I’m sure you know the one I mean. Two guys set of sawing down trees in a competition against each other. After an hour Ted stops sawing to sharpen his saw. He looks at this friend and says, “Bob buddy, aren’t you sharpening your saw?” “ “I’m too busy, I’ve got all these trees to cut down” mutters bad tempered Bob and carries on sawing. An hour later the same thing happens and Bob still carries on sawing.

You can imagine what happens eventually when Bob’s saw gets so blunt that he’s burning the trees down with friction rather than sawing anything. Yes that’s right, Bob whips out a chain saw and wins comfortably.  Ted accuses him of cheating so Bob turns the chain saw on his erstwhile friend slaughtering him mercilessly. I’m not sure if that’s exactly what happened at the end, but you get the general idea.

THE most common question I get asked when people call me is “What do you do?” I used to answer flippantly “Well you called ME, what do you think I do?” That didn’t win many friends and after a while I started to realize that I needed to stop being so smug and try and answer the damn question.

Ask anybody what life is and they can usually give you a coherent response. If you then ask them what a coach is, equally they can probably tell you. If you then put the two together and ask them what a life coach does, well you may as well have asked them to explain where dead birds go to and why dust sticks to fan blades. They are completely at a loss to answer.

I actually understand this better than my glib attitude would suggest, because I’m a life coach and sometimes even I struggle to explain adequately what I do without first saying what I don’t do. I don’t do counseling, I’m not a psychotherapist and I don’t do much digging around in the past.  As an elevator speech it leaves a lot to be desired and won’t close too many deals.

Having said that, the one thing I can and do say without feeling the need for false modesty is that I can shift your performance for the better. I can help you attain an improved understanding of yourself and what makes you tick. In fact any coach should be able to say something similar, otherwise they’re in the wrong job.

The most successful blogs on the Internet with a few exceptions are those that show people how to make money either directly or through a certain career or those offering advice on attracting members of the opposite sex.

The question worth asking (at least in my mind) is why do you want money and to be successful with the opposite, or even the same sex, in the first place? (If you’re already in a relationship I am presuming that you once wanted to be attractive to others.) Ok, I know that seems like a ridiculous thing to ask, even from somebody that has a Doctorate in asking ridiculous things, but the operative word is seems.

Before you start answering with stuff like to buy a big house, own a Caribbean island and get plenty, ask yourself why you want those things because the answer is more basic and simple than a Hyundai Accent.

It’s because you think they’ll make you happy. Like everybody else on the planet, you just want to be happy.

The strange thing is that people try to achieve happiness, which is an internal state, by chasing external things. Sometimes those things are material like the flashy car, designer clothes and $250 haircuts. Other times they are non-material like seeking praise and positions of power.

I’m not saying external things can’t help us tap into happiness and make us feel good, of course they can, but if we rely solely on external stuff for joy we’ll end up feeling empty and unfulfilled.  I have met plenty of wealthy and unhappy people both professionally and socially to know that there isn’t much of a link between wealth and happiness. In fact unless you are lifting somebody out of abject poverty, there is hardly any at all.

What do you really want out of life? What will make you look back on it and think it was a success how you define the word success. Why are you even here? I doubt you’ll be lying on your deathbed grateful for the Versace suit in the wardrobe, the huge diamond in the safe and gold plated colostomy bag hanging by your side.

My guess is you want to leave a legacy, to touch peoples lives for the better and have people deeply saddened to hear of your eventual demise.  Am I right?

If I am, what are you doing today to make sure you achieve that?