Cultivating Clarity

CC #56: 7 lessons from wellness coach training

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Welcome to Cultivating Clarity, where I share a weekly lesson to help you live better, longer.​If you're new here: Welcome. FYI--all previous editions of Cultivating Clarity are available on my website.

This week's issue focuses on a few lessons I recently learned from completing Mayo Clinic's Health and Wellness Coach training program.​My hope is that you take 1 or 2 of these and apply them to your own stickiest health challenges.

Background

3 years ago, I thought I was going to become a doctor.I had taken the MCAT, interviewed at multiple medical schools, and taken out $50k+ in student loans to complete 1 year of prerequisite courses before I could even take the MCAT.

After spending a year working directly with hospitalized patients at the Mayo Clinic, however, I realized this path wasn’t for me.

It didn’t align with my values of building health and wellness proactively, rather than reactively attempting to restore survivable levels of health after a patient is diagnosed with a chronic disease.

I wanted to keep people healthy, not just alive.

So I didn’t go to medical school.Fast forward a couple years, and I’m still working at the Mayo Clinic as a health coach for cancer patients.And I recently had the opportunity to take a Mayo Clinic Health and Wellness Coaching course.

The role of a wellness coach is to facilitate conversations that help a client develop solutions to their health challenges.To build health in the positive sense of the word, not just to keep people alive.

Here are my takeaways:

7 lessons from health coach training

1. The answers are inside​​Most other healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, physical therapists) act in a consultative role–they tell you what to do.That’s valuable, but it’s incomplete.In the modern world of excess information, the problem is more often how to the thing you know you need to do.Unpacking the challenge of lifestyle change takes numerous conversations, facilitated by the coach but led by the client.It takes the client's awareness and understanding of their own life to make lifestyle change sustainable.​​

2. Run the experiment​​You’ll never know if a goal is actually aligned with your values until you start to pursue it.You’ll never know if a plan of action will actually work until you implement it.In your health journey, you’ll run a bunch of experiments as you identify what works for you.The key is to be patient with yourself as you implement these experiments and to iterate quickly as you learn what works and what doesn’t.​As Rainer Maria Rilke said, "Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."​

3. Ask good questions​​The best way to help a client spark change is through careful listening followed by thoughtful questions.These questions are open-ended (start with How, Why, etc.--don’t lead to a yes/no answer) and incorporate information the client has already shared with you.For example, a valuable open-ended question might sound something like this: “How would your life improve if you were able to maintain your exercise habit as you’d like?”Questions that start with "What", "How", "Why" are likely to yield a high-value response.​​

4. Listen more, talk less​​If you're in a service provider role, you might feel pressure to deliver knowledge bombs every 3 minutes.Really, though, the most valuable gift you can give someone is to listen.Listen to their thoughts, reflect back what you’ve heard, and encourage them to keep talking.This gift of time and attention will provide more value to them than any fact they could’ve found through a Google search.​​

5. Go deep​​Often, in a coaching conversation, a client will say something to the effect of, “I know I need to change ______, but it’s just really hard with my work schedule/responsibilities as a parent, etc.”That’s when it’s time to pull the thread.I’d reply with something like, “You said you need to change your eating habits, but it’s tough to make time for this change. Tell me more about how your life would look different if you were to make this change.”There's often decades of struggle behind such a moment.Numerous attempts to change that just didn't stick.Going deep into why a person wants to change is an important anchoring point for behavior change.​​

6. Live in the Land of Possibility​​Shoutout to my coach, Steve Galley, for this phrase.Coaching is about transformation.You’re frustrated with your reality today and our goal is to move you to your desired future over the course of a few weeks or months.To get to that desired future, we have to know what it looks like.You can’t get where want to go if you don’t know what your destination looks like.Imagine it in vivid detail, then retrace your steps back to the present day and execute on Step 1.​​

7. Focus on what’s working​​If my client sets a goal to walk 20 min/day on 5 of 7 days this week and they only hit this goal on 2 of the days, it’s not time to analyze the problem.It’s time to unpack what went well on those 2 days so we can set the scene for more success this coming week.It’s attractive to focus on the negative and troubleshoot (it makes us feel like we have more control), but such conversations are often the catalyst for a negative spiral.Better to focus on the positive and keep building momentum.​​

And, hey–if you’re curious about this health coaching thing–send a reply to this email.I’m helping a select few 7-figure entrepreneurs build a body that's as healthy as your business.If this is you, I’d love to see if there’s an opportunity for us to work together.

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That's all for this week.Thanks for reading.

See you next Saturday.Marcus

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