by R.A. Weigel
Luke 6:54 (ESV) – The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Learning With A Christian Coach
Your best learning opportunities will happen when you’re working with a Christian coach. You may not think that at first, but a great coach will not only ask you great questions but will get you to ask the questions you need to ask to help you move in the direction you need to move and gain the insights, knowledge, or perspectives you need to grow into a better future. Working together you’ll explore your thoughts, feelings, perceptions, prejudices, and perhaps even how you’ve been wrongly taught. You’ll explore past, current, and future actions. You’ll talk about what seems to come naturally and what you can only do when someone brings your attention to it.
Half of spiritual growth is learning what we don’t know. The other half is unlearning what we do know. ~ Mark Batterson
To be your best at anything, you need others to help you. When you have another Christian who is willing to pour their best into your life and you’re humble enough to want to learn from or through them, that’s when your personal learning will take off like a rocket. By the way… all learning requires a certain amount of humility.
Proverbs 1:5 (NASB) – A wise person will hear and increase in learning, And a person of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
God is always interested in who you are becoming. He wants you to keep moving closer to the potential He placed in you. What you’re learning today has an impact on who you’re going to be tomorrow and what you learn tomorrow may be just the thing that changes the world for the better.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) – For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
The Box
Many people will try to “put you in a box” and give you a label in order to understand you. Far too many people want to keep you “just as you are” or keep you from becoming something more than what you are right now. Why? Because without a biblical perspective, many people operate from a perspective of “what’s in it for me.” (W.I.I.F.M.) When you improve, grow, and learn – and they don’t, they say that life is unfair. But God has never put you in a box, labeled you, or held you back. God wants – No… God expects you to keep learning.
Ephesians 4:15 (NLT) – Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
It’s highly likely that there are only a few people in your life that truly want to help you reach the next level of your learning, ability, and talent. There are even fewer who will verbalize that they want to help you reach another level of learning, ability, and talent.
The Bible is clear that the world’s systems are controlled by evil. Remember, the devil offered the systems of the world to Jesus, and you can’t give what you don’t own. (Matthew 4:8-10) That’s why there will be so few who want to see you excel and become more of what God has called you to become. But it’s through Christian coaching, working with someone who believes that God has placed an ever-increasing capacity for greatness in you, that you’ll keep moving toward your potential. God ingrained a way of thinking in you for a reason but learning how to tap into your full potential requires other people in the body of Christ to believe in you.
Philippians 2:4 (NLT) – Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
The art of learning is a process that’s amplified through Christian coaching. Great learning requires honest reflection and that happens faster when a Christian coach invests in you and together you make a commitment to reach more of God’s design within you. Now, reaching your next level of talent acquisition or moving your talents into strengths requires more effort and practice than the average person is willing to commit. But as one of God’s leaders, you should be seeking to improve in all areas of your life and leadership until the day you die.
There is a major difference between “practice” and “deliberate practice” and without a Christian coach helping you to improve, you’ll never fully know the difference.
God’s Design
God did not design you to be content, stop trying, and settle for the status quo. Certainly, you can make a lifestyle change, move someplace else, or take on a new job and learn a few things from the challenges associated with those actions. But you should want to continually improve upon all the areas where you can have the greatest impact for helping others.
Philippians 3:14 (NIV) – I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Everybody hits learning plateaus. Everybody!
When the average person reaches a level of “acceptable” performance, additional years of repetition, (un-coached practice), won’t lead to any improvements. If anything, over the years, most people lose their edge and actually become a bit worse at what they do, or they become less proficient than the person who has only been doing it for a shorter period of time. That’s another reason you need a Christian coach helping you to see how to improve and ignite the right kind of practice in you. God did not call you to maintain the status quo.
Accepting the status quo is the equivalent of accepting a death sentence. Where there’s no progress, there’s no growth. If there’s no growth, there’s no life. Environments void of change are eventually void of life. So leaders find themselves in the precarious and often career-jeopardizing position of being the one to draw attention to the need for change. ~ Andy Stanley
Christian Coaching For Your Future
Where have you failed in the past? When have you looked back and thought you wasted your time? What difficult and unsettling event have you gone through and wondered why you had to go through it? What hurt has happened that you’ve wondered if you’ll ever get over it? Well, God never puts evil in your path. (1 John 1:5) God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God does not tempt anyone with evil. (James 1:13) And everything works together for good for those who are called by God for his purpose. (Romans 8:28) But there is a devil who is constantly trying to hurt you, take you down, take you out, afflict you, cause you to despair, persecute you, and if possible, destroy you. (John 10:10, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
No matter what you’ve gone through in your life, God can help you gain from that experience and turn lemons into lemonade. If God can create the world out of nothing, he can certainly help you use the events of your life for good. As a Christian, everything you’ve gone through in your life has the potential to help you move forward to something greater. Your best life is not who you are right now, but who you are becoming. God expects you to use what you’ve learned, combine that with the talents he has created in you, and keep growing closer to Him to do something “next” for his glory.
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase – there is no testimony without the test – or – there is no breakthrough without the breakage. Having a Christian coach help you to embrace the setbacks you’ve had in your life and to learn from them can be just the catalyst you need for your next big achievement. Failure is not a negative – but a step towards your next success.
Psalm 37:23-24 (NLT) – The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.
Don’t Quit
Failure is not when things don’t go your way – but when you quit. Failure is not learning from what has happened. Success is making the decision to use what has been learned. There were many biblical leaders, (Peter, Paul, David, Moses, Ruth, Sarah), who had failures, but they picked themselves back up and kept moving to become more of what God called them to be. Before that “failure” you had, you may have been closer to doing something great than you knew. Quitting is when you’ve become content while living in your comfort zone and unwilling to stretch yourself to use more of the talents that God has given you. Don’t quit!
Galatians 6:9 (ESV) – And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Your next big improvement begins with your next big decision. Your next big decision begins with what you’re learning. Your next learning begins when you don’t quit, you continue improving your talents, getting coached, and asking the Holy Spirit an inspired question.
Expert performance reflects the mastery of the available knowledge or current performance standards and relates to skills that master teachers and coaches know how to train. ~ Anders Erickson
Become Your Best Self
To become your best self, you must increase your understanding of God’s perfect design in you. Stop… please stop thinking that God made you “less” of something. God made you unique…more unique than you may ever truly know. So, stop comparing yourself to others and start looking at yourself through God’s eyes. The only person you should be competing with is yourself. You have talents that nobody else has in a combination designed to do something great for God’s glory and your benefit. That doesn’t mean you should ignore your weaknesses, but it does mean that you should be working closely with a Christian coach who is going to help you shift your focus from areas of life where you are too concerned about what you can’t do – and discover more about what you can do extremely well.
As you focus more on your natural God-given talents, how God made you for a reason, you’ll enjoy life more and become more productive in all facets of life and work. When you build a Christian coach into your life, you’re going to amplify your learning. Now… let’s get to work.
Psalm 139:14 – Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
When you focus on yourself – there’s a good chance you’ll be disappointed.
When you focus on others – there’s a good chance you’ll be distracted.
When you focus on God – that’s your best chance to become your best.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Rich Weigel has an extensive background in leadership with over twenty years leading school districts. In addition to being a credentialed Leadership and Visioneering coach, he has been an adjunct professor five times in various universities teaching Strategic Leadership, Business Ethics, and Educational Leadership. He and his team provide support, coaching, and professional development for teams and leaders in schools and businesses around the country. Rich has served as CCNI’s President since January 2020. He can be reached at proedcoach@gmail.com.
