Are you in the right environment?

If not, shape it or ship out

Thanks to everyone who has commented about my new Excelsior website. The new design better reflects the services I offer:

• Individual Coaching for Sports People

• Small Group coaching in weightlifting and athletics

• Sports Injury Rehabilitation

• Coach/Teacher education.

I am fortunate to be working in all areas at the moment, with some great people of all ages and from different countries.

While most young coaches focus on the techniques or theories, I strongly believe that connections with people are more important. So many young people were abandoned by policymakers during COVID that they are still struggling to interact with others or engage in new situations.

When so much in the world seems out of our control, I always try to focus on what I can do, rather than what I can’t do. Here are three things that seem to help my day go well:

If I think of times when I have been the best version of myself, it is when I have been able to use these qualities in great environments: London Welsh RFC, British Fencing Camps with the late James Williams, Adult Gymnastics at Orchard Gym, Weightlifting at Crystal Palace (more recently Oxford Power Sports), the GAIN conferences.

According to James Clear, these three qualities “have nothing to do with talent or intelligence (luckily for me) but can make a dramatic impact on your results.”

• Cheerful. You are pleasant to work with and generally raise the level of energy in the room.

• Accountable. You feel personally responsible for what you want to accomplish. It is not someone else’s job. It’s your job.

• Adaptable. You can find alternate paths to success. You don’t need things to be a certain way to be happy.”

Of course, this is difficult to do in some environments. I have been in some environments which were inherently bad and most people (including the children) were miserable, such as…(clue: very expensive).

In other environments, with many good people, it has only taken one or two empire-building, toxic individuals to ruin a good thing.

At the time, these situations were extremely distressing for me and sometimes affected my health. No matter how prestigious the job title or flashy the tracksuit, it simply wasn’t worth it.

Now, I focus on either spending time with great people (who happen to be very good at what they do) or trying to create a similar environment where local people can be the best versions of themselves.

What key attribute do you think is most important in life?