Growing up I loved words. Word games like Boggle, Scrabble or Scatergories were popular at my house. And I can't tell you how many times at the dinner table my sister, mom and I would crack open the dictionary to a random page and have each other guess what the selected new-to-us word meant. It was great fun!
Knowing this, I can't help but chuckle to myself when I realize a key concept of coaching is found in definitions.
Definitions are HUGE. Not so much in the sense of knowing the correct meaning of a word, but rather knowing what the word means to you.
What?! Am I saying that different people can have different definitions for the same word? YES!
These personal definitions are developed largely through past experiences or things a person was taught, picked up or observed at a young age.
I'll give you an example. The word is: ROADTRIP
What does that mean to you?
To mean, a Roadtrip is a long car ride that spans over several days in which one stops at places of interest along the route before reaching the final destination which is somewhere in nature (i.e. not a city or metropolitan area).
I only just recently learned of the specifics I had subconsciously attached to this idea of a Roadtrip.
'so ...why can't it be a destination to anywhere that requires a long car ride...?'
It can be!
And that's the best part about learning your own definitions for things. Once you know what they are, you get to decide if you want to keep them as they are or change the definitions to better suit the person you are in the present (and better support what you want for the future).
Let's be real - my definition of Roadtrip came from childhood and I have definitely grown and changed a lot as a person since I was an adolescent youth.
If my body and mind can change over time, it only seems fitting that my definitions for things should change as well.
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