[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]How important do you think it is to have a coach or a mentor? Now more than ever, people are seeing the value of having good examples to follow in life. We all need others around us who can help us find the answers we need and to whom we can ask the right questions.
Former AFL player Shaun Hart is the National Director of ID Sports. He is passionate about bringing transformation to coaches and leaders and has a vision to help change the face of sport in Australia. Shaun recently joined us to talk about how important a coach or mentor’s legacy can be.
“We talk about it a lot for young people,” says Shaun. “But I think through the whole journey of life, having mentors is invaluable. It can help you discover your purpose and deal with all sorts of issues. But I find that not enough of us are willing to take the risk and ask someone to be that person.”
Through his work in the sporting world, Shaun sees the power of quality coaching. He believes being intentional about meeting with others is a great place to start. We all need people to help us understand the phases of our lives. Investing in relationships will help us maintain our wellbeing at a premium level.
“We so often focus on performance,” says Shaun. “But the foundation we build through mentoring and coaching is allowing an opportunity to have life spoken into us. I love to talk about strategies that help people develop what we call the ‘third dimension’. These are things like our identity and purpose.”
Shaun believes that developing strategies to grow in those areas helps our psychology. It focuses on the way we think, what we believe and then improved performance becomes a natural flow on. It’s actually about getting the personal mentoring and coaching relationships right.
“I think we can all become great performers,” says Shaun, “We can do great things when we have security. I want to flip the narrative, which is essentially taking things from performance-based identity to identity-based performance. Our value is not in what we do, but in who we are as a person.”
Shaun says that we should not just chase performance, but instead build a foundation for it. This gives us a chance to make sure that the right people give us real input and real wisdom. We need to be strong in all three foundations of who we are.
“When I discovered the importance of focusing on something other than my performance,” says Shaun, “it freed me up to become mentally healthy. I began to achieve beyond my wildest dreams.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
