Life Coaches Blog

I’ve had the unique privilege of watching over 400 people go through the highly successful Patterns of Excellence program as a participant and as a coach. While the program is power-packed with loads of material and hands-on opportunities for expansive personal growth, not everyone of those 400 people achieve the same results.

While visiting the most recent batch over the weekend, I had another chance to re-visit the answer to the question; what makes the difference between someone who can make use of every opportunity to make sweeping changes in their lives, and someone who walks away with less?

It’s Not What You Want

Even though everyone wants to improve their lives, not everyone moves on that desire. The secret isn’t desire, it’s choice. Everyone I’ve seen who’s benefitted from the opportunities & challenges presented to them were willing to stretch outside of their comfort zone, put themselves on the line, be willing to look bad, be flexible, take risks, and surprisingly, not take themselves too seriously.

Just Play The Challenge

If there’s a mantra I could offer that would sum up the attitudes, methods and beliefs of these people who could take themselves further in those 8 days of personal growth than anyone else, it would be this: play the challenge.

When they have to do difficult things, instead of saying they can’t, they play the challenge. When they’re asked about their deepest fears & cherished dreams, instead of hiding behind walls, they play the challenge. When facing alien ideas, instead of clinging on to old beliefs, they play the challenge. When meeting new ways to do things, instead of thinking their old ways are the only way, they play the challenge.

And because they were willing to play, they stepped over the line between people who did and knew from experience to people who just looked and thought they knew from watching everyone else. They might even have fallen flat on their faces while playing, but like all play, they didn’t take their ‘failures’ too seriously and picked themselves off and went at it again.

It’s not always about the results you get at the end of the day, but how much you grow as a result of the process along the way.

How can you play the challenge today?