Here’s to your success!

By Coach Howard Bass

As the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

It’s certainly true that accomplishing great things requires great patience.

As we strive to achieve our goals we have to pace ourselves, especially in those seasons when the going is painstakingly slow and progress seems imperceptible. This is especially true when we desperately crave momentum but it seems to be ever so elusive.

Whether you’re building a business, organization, or team, or pursuing personal goals, patience is not just a virtue, it’s an essential skill. Patience and persistence are central to achieving our desired outcomes.

“Is it patience or passivity?”

As coaches, we must strike the right balance with our clients when it comes to practicing patience as they work toward accomplishing their goals while at the same time not allowing passivity to creep in and spoil their progress.

Experienced coaches know that it requires great patience to help bring their clients to the place where they experience game-changing “Ah Ha!” moments that catapult them toward success.

As coaches, we must balance the tension between appropriately challenging our clients to grow and move forward while practicing the patience our clients need to gain clarity, develop their desired paths forward, and overcome obstacles that stand in their way.

Furthermore, we must also proactively look for areas where our clients are being passive without their realizing it.

Did I mention there’s a tension between being patient with our clients while also challenging them so that passivity doesn’t defy their progress?

You see, if we’re not proactive about guarding against passivity, we can mistake it passivity for patience, especially if the coach-client partnership develops rhythms and routines that become second nature.

So what’s the difference?

Patience is consistent, diligent progress toward a goal or desired outcome. It’s a healthy mindset that produces healthy external behaviors.

In coaching, practicing patience is the art of the coach giving their client the right amount of space they need to grow toward their goal by creating the right pace that’s conducive for growth and success.

Patience is about moving forward with realistic expectations because we recognize the pace that’s needed for the phase or season our client is in.

“Patience serves our goals, passivity undermines them.”

“Patience sets us up for success, passivity deters us from it.”

Great coaches intentionally cultivate a consistent awareness of the pace at which their clients are moving and are continually looking for areas where their clients are thinking or behaving passively.

The definition of passivity partially means “not acting or operating; lacking energy or will.”

Passivity is a lack of assertiveness and accountability. It’s an internal attitude that negatively impacts external actions. Ultimately, passivity is about a person not taking action.

One thing we know as coaches is that nothing happens until someone takes action!

“What patience is to the life of a dream, passivity is to the death of a dream.”

Passivity is a dream-killing, goal-defying negative disposition!

Some people are passive by nature while others have adopted a passive disposition for a variety of reasons. From being overwhelmed by the demands of a busy life, to a fear of confrontation, a fear of failure or a whole host of other reasons, passivity can enter a person’s life from a lot of different avenues. Once it does, it sets them up to fail.

People often become passive without realizing it. Passivity becomes a routine, both mentally and behaviorally. If not identified and dealt with, passive routines become pathways to frustration, mediocrity, and inaction.

Passivity causes people to retreat, to settle, to give in, and ultimately, to give up. Passivity eventually causes people to surrender their goals, dreams, and outcomes to others.

Passivity leads to excuse-making. It cultivates the outcome of one not taking ownership of their actions. Passivity can become a goal or dream’s biggest enemy.

“One of the greatest ways we can serve our clients is to help them identity and break passivity out of their lives.”

If we’re going to serve our clients with excellence and help them achieve their desired outcomes, we must be proactive about guarding against allowing them to become passive. This is especially important when progress is slow and the sledding gets tough.

Learning to balance the tension between patience and passivity is both an art and a skill. Like everything else in the coach-client partnership, this requires great intentionality and focus.

We must be on the lookout for any areas where our clients are thinking or behaving passively.

Remember, passivity is a dream-killer. We must help our clients identify it and uproot it out of their lives.

As you consider the importance of asking the question “Is it patience or passivity?” I want to leave you with three powerful questions to add to your coaching toolkit:

- On a scale of 1 to 10, how am I currently doing at helping my clients identify and overcome areas where they’re thinking or behaving passively?

- What skills do I need to develop so I can master the art of identifying passivity in myself and in others?

- When I recognize that my client is thinking or behaving passively, what are the most powerful questions I can ask to help them identify and overcome it?

Here’s to your success!

Coach Howard Bass