Psychology coaching tells us that life is all about the art of fulfillment. The whole point of everything you do is to feel happy and fulfilled. Sport psychology coaching focuses upon the science of achievement. Do you have the ability to achieve a measurable result? The whole point of sport psychology coaching is not to FEEL good, but to DO good.

Although some sport psychology coaching enthusiasts would say that only when you’ve done good, you can feel good… and still other psychology coaching experts would say that only when you feel good, can you do good. Both are holding a limited viewpoint.

The truth is that even when you achieve, you may not be fulfilled.

The truth is that even when truly fulfilled, you may not have achieved squat.

The art of fulfillment and the science of achievement are two totally different domains of life.

But that doesn’t mean that the skills needed to achieve in one domain don’t have anything to do with the skills you need to achieve in the other domain. Personal psychology coaching models teach skills and abilities that, when applied to more achievement oriented areas, work like a charm.

You know why?

Because psychology coaching models are the same as sport psychology coaching strategies.

Let’s take a look at some examples of each and how they are so similar.

Sport Psychology Coaching: The Science of Achievement

Sport psychology coaching is partly about pushing an athlete past their old perceived boundaries. I once worked with a high performance sprinter. He couldn’t get past a certain time in the 100 yard dash. Every day I would take him out to the track and have him run the distance. Something very funny occurred. Every day he ran the dash a little slower… his times were getting worse.

On the tenth day however, his beat his time by an astronomical amount.

He was astounded. Why did his time suddenly improve?

It was time to spill the beans to him.

I Used Sport Psychology Coaching Tactics: I Had Lied to My Client

Every day I secretly set up the track so that the hundred yard dash was a few extra yards. On Monday it was 102 yards. On Tuesday it was actually 105 yards. By Saturday, my client was actually running a 120 yard dash! As this continued, my client got pretty furious about the worsening times, and pushed even harder. By the following week, when I reset the track to the proper 100 yards, my client was actually running a lot faster.

Personal Psychology Coaching: The Art of Fulfillment

When I work with life coaching clients, if they are unfulfilled, it’s usually because they’re running a 150 yard race and expecting to do it in the time it should take to run only 50 yards.

Their track is totally mis-marked.

Part of my job as their psychology coach is to help them revise their ‘track length’ to a reasonable amount without loosing the drive to achieve more each day. The truth is that they wouldn’t feel fulfilled if they only tried to run 100 yard dash in their life every day, with no challenges, but there is a happy medium. The art of psychology coaching is about finding fulfillment without loosing the drive to achieve… the drive to fill the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Once you are on a reasonably fast growth path, suffering and frustration doesn’t have to be a part of achieving. Although my tactics with my track star client worked, it’s not a very sustainable psychology coaching model for every area of life simultaneously. These types of sport psychology coaching tactics need to be used sparingly for sustainable results.

Jeffrey T. Sooey
CEO, JTS Advisors
Founder, Coaches Training Blog community