Hi folks,
Today is the day . . .
We are officially launching cohort 4 of Be Your Own Best Coach, our flagship online course on how to start each day with a feeling of excitement and end with a sense of achievement and satisfaction, get things done on time at a pace that is right for you, and transform relationships from bad to good with even the most difficult people.
It's been 6 months since our last cohort, and we've spent that time making extensive improvements to every aspect of your learning experience.
If you'd like to hear more about what we're planning, opt in by clicking the button below:
We’ll send you a series of short emails over the next few weeks with everything you need to know to join the upcoming cohort, including the schedule, pricing, major changes, answers to FAQs, and invitations to join an Ask-Us-Anything session that we’ll be hosting.
One of the themes we used for our work last year was resilience. Resilience certainly hasn’t gone out of fashion. In fact, it’s more important than ever and an important part of overall wellbeing. But resilience won’t solve the almost-universal problems of workplace stress and overwhelm, procrastination, and difficult personalities.
It definitely helps you endure their effects, but it won’t solve them.
This year, we’ll be expanding our focus to self-leadership. Self-leadership isn’t a term you hear everyday, not like “resilience.” And yet, self-leadership is exactly what you must have if you are a professional or entrepreneur and want to accelerate your career. That’s because self-leadership is fundamental to individual and collective success.
In fact, one of the greatest artists and geniuses of all time who made substantial discoveries in anatomy, engineering, geology, physics, and other sciences, had little to no direct influence on subsequent science because he couldn’t manage to publish his findings and make them widely known.
And his art? He ended up leaving a large body of work unfinished. In fact, many pieces that have been loved for generations, are unfinished due to his inability to focus.
In addition to being known for his crippling procrastination, his inability to get things done jeopardized his livelihood and at least one patron threatened to bankrupt him when he failed to deliver on contracts.
Who was this person?
None other than Leonardo da Vinci.
Know the joke, “Nobody will say on their deathbed: 'I wish I had spent more time in the office'?”
On his deathbed, da Vinci was reported to have lamented that he had “offended God and mankind in not having laboured at his art, as he should have done.”
We don’t know for certain if “not having laboured at his art, as he should have done” actually were Da Vinci’s last words. But if so, they probably had to do more with not having finished his great works rather than about the actual time he spent working.
Think about how well da Vinci would have done fighting off the vast number of distractions our on-all-the-time, 24/7 tech culture offers. The cost would have been enormous: Imagine Western culture without the Mona Lisa, Last Supper, or Vitruvian Man.
Now, reflect on your own struggle to manage to-do lists, set priorities, keep your head above water when you feel overwhelmed, fight the temptation of procrastination, or deal with difficult personalities of supervisors or coworkers.
Whether you’re Leonardo da Vinci from 500 years ago or today’s professional or entrepreneur, these challenges are universal and timeless.
But they are not unsurmountable.
Just consider Johann Sebastian Bach, another of the world’s greatest geniuses who lived almost 300 years ago.
Not only is he famous for his musical genius, but for his phenomenal output, too.
Each and every week for many years, he produced big, full-blown musical works with singers and orchestra for church services, festivals, weddings, funerals, and more.
One key difference between da Vinci and Bach?
The skills of self-leadership.
Self-leadership is the foundation for success. It’s big stuff: self-awareness and effective self-management; managing relationships with honesty, integrity, and empathy, and responsible decision-making. But it’s also what seems like small stuff, but stuff that has a big impact like:
Showing up on time
Being fully present, prepared, and organized
Focusing
Listening with full attention
Following through on commitments
Obviously, there’s a huge difference between the earlier eras of DaVinci and Bach and today.
But the lessons of self-leadership that allowed Bach to pump out work that is still enjoyed today are enduring.
In the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing insights on self-leadership that apply to you now and that we’ll do a deep dive into during Cohort 4 of Be Your Own Coach.
Be Your Own Best Coach
On the surface, the course is about winning the war on stress, overwhelm, procrastination, and difficult people. But it’s so much more than that.
It’s really about designing a life of optimal wellbeing. It’s about tapping into the full power of all your resources--personal and social, and capitalizing on the things around you and the places you’re in.
It’s about uncovering the many strengths and skills you already have and amplifying the many small things you already do well.
And by doing so, you take control of your destiny and live your dream.
Over 5 weeks, we will teach you the fundamentals of self-leadership using strategies and methods we’ve developed based on today’s best science on human performance and productivity.
You’ll learn what it takes to be your own best coach to help yourself take control of your career and drive the success you want. As a side benefit, the constant anxiety you might have about not being good enough, not getting enough done, or having to interact with difficult people will fade away.
Right now is the best time to equip yourself with a system for professional transformation through self-leadership.
Doing this now is crucial because the demand for people who can manage themselves (and others) is more important than ever. Book learning and tech skills simply aren’t enough to get ahead in the professional world today. Employers know it. Leaders know it. That’s why the human side of the equation is such a big factor in decisions about career advancement.
Opt in below and we’ll send you a series of short emails over the next few weeks. They will include everything you need to know about Be Your Own Best Coach, such as the full schedule, the curriculum, pricing, answers to common questions, and reminders of important dates.
There’s a lot more to say about self-leadership and the way we help you get there.
In the emails we’ll send you, we’ll use the series to illustrate that the same principles of self-leadership that worked for Bach (and is at the heart of all great performers throughout time), and that work today, will also persist far into the future.
Join us and let’s explore together.
Dr. Deborah Teplow & Glen Lubbert
Co-Founders
Be Your Own Best Coach