I Have to Be a Product of My Product

My work is hard.

Not in the way that shoveling dirt is hard.

Not in the way that stacking bricks is hard.

My work is hard because in order to teach change, I have to keep changing.

I have to be a product of my product.

I have to experience the awkwardness of learning something new.

The frustration of failing.

The vulnerability of getting it wrong.

The humility of starting over.

Again.

And again.

Sigh.

And again.

Because I don’t believe in coaching from a textbook.

I don’t believe in teaching principles I haven’t attempted to live.

I don’t want to talk about transformation from the sidelines.

I want to know what it feels like from the field.

I want to know why people quit.

I want to understand why someone can desperately want a different life and still struggle to take the next step.

I want to remember what uncertainty feels like.

The Mechanics Are Simple

The truth is, change isn’t complicated.

It’s repetitive.

And repetition is where most people give up.

We all know how to lose weight.

Eat less of what hurts you.

Move more than you did yesterday.

And yet we don’t.

We all know how to make more money.

Create more value than you consume.

And yet we don’t.

We all know how to build stronger relationships.

Listen better.

Tell the truth.

Show up consistently.

And yet we don’t.

The mechanics are simple.

The identity shift is where things get expensive.

Where the Real Work Lives

That’s where my work lives.

In the gap between knowing and doing.

In the space between intention and action.

In the messy middle where a person is becoming someone they have never been before.

Which means I don’t get to simply teach the work.

I have to do the work.

Sometimes that looks like vegetables when I’d rather have cheesy potatoes.

Sometimes it looks like adding more weight to the bar when comfort is arguing its case.

Sometimes it looks like sitting in a conversation I’d rather avoid.

Apologizing first.

Admitting I was wrong.

Sometimes it looks like supporting something that matters deeply to my person even when it isn’t my thing.

Sometimes it looks like writing the thing I’d rather keep private.

Saying the quiet part out loud.

Creating something that might be misunderstood.

Credibility Is Something You Live

Trust me when I say there is an easier way to do this work.

Plenty of people do.

They teach things they don’t practice.

They sell things they don’t embody.

They build businesses around outcomes they’ve never personally achieved.

Maybe that’s enough for some people.

It isn’t enough for me.

Because I decided a long time ago that credibility isn’t something you claim.

It’s something you live.

So here I am.

Thirteen years later.

Still lifting.

Still learning.

Still apologizing.

Still having uncomfortable conversations.

Still investing in my own growth.

Still changing my mind when new information demands it.

Still doing the work I ask other people to do.

Not because it’s easy.

Not because it’s fun.

Not because it’s good marketing.

Because the irony is that all this changing hasn’t made me less myself.

It’s made me MORE myself.

Every uncomfortable conversation.

Every new behavior.

Every belief I’ve challenged.

Every season I’ve outgrown.

Has brought me closer to the person I was meant to be all along.

And if I’m going to ask someone else to walk into the fire of change...

I better smell a little like smoke myself.

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