We all know people whose habit, it seems, is to stretch us. They ask us to do things that we do not want to do for one reason or another, and then they expect us to do it. I have been characterized as one of those people. People have described me in my past as someone who takes liberties, someone who asked them to do things that nobody else would ask them to do. In a sense, I guess that's true. When you know the rest of the story, it will start to make sense to you why I sometimes seem as though I am exceeding my authority. If you knew me and the things that I did, perhaps you would find that you're a lot like that yourself. It's hard to get outside of yourself and look at yourself, though.
Recently, a good friend of mine had asked me to borrow some studio lights. One of my companies uses studio lights to produce videos. Now he asked me to do this some time ago, and as it turns out, his event was tomorrow morning from the time I'm recording this. I had just arrived home from, I guess, a busy day. When I drive, I turn my telephone off. I turn my telephone off even though it's not off now because I'm writing this blog as I'm driving. I wasn't able to get his message. I wasn't able to hear from him. Granted, his messages should have come several hours ago, but they were just coming. Here it is, 9:00 at night, and he has an event that starts at 9:00 tomorrow morning, and he needs some lights. The lights are at least 30 minutes away, which means that I would have to put my clothes back on, put my shoes back on, get into my vehicle, and drive down to where the lights were.
The other choice was to get up earlier tomorrow morning and go pick up the lights and make sure that he had them by 9 AM. Now he is a diligent young man and he realizes that if an event starts at 9, he needs to be ready by 6 or 7. I asked him what time did he want the lights, and he said he would at least like to be home by 8. Now I know he wanted to be home before that, but he was trying to be considerate because he knew it was 9 at night. I am sure that he could feel my reluctance to leave home that night.
We're talking about me and how I take liberties by asking people to do things that no ordinary person would ask them to do. That's what this blog is about. It turns out that he is not only my associate; he is one of my mentees. He is not only my mentee, but he is my friend and I like him. Mind you, if I didn't like him, I don't know that my behavior would have been much different, because after all, I am an extraordinary coach. But it didn't take me very long at all, probably 6/10 of a second, for me to tell him, "You know, tomorrow morning is going to be too late. We need to go get those lights tonight."
I sensed that he had something else on his table that he wanted to do that night as well, but he wanted the lights. I get in my vehicle and I drive down to the place, prepared to give him the light. He may not know it, he may not know it at least until he reads this blog, that there may come a time when I will ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do. If this reeks of The Godfather, don't worry about it. I'm not going to shoot him dead. But the Godfather was well known as a man who knew how to repay a favor. I guess I'm a man who knows how to repay a favor as well, but I certainly hope that my friend knows how to repay a favor.
When the time comes, and I don't know when that time is, it may never come, but if and when that time comes and I ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do, when I ask him to do something that means something to me, you had better believe that he's going to remember tonight.
The point of this blog is, if you are an extraordinary coach, you will be stretching your clients. If you will be stretching your clients, you will be asking them to do things that they don't want to do, even though those things are for their own good. It may take them a while to recognize that it's for their own good, and during that time period, the only thing that they're going to see, the only thing that they're going to experience, is you taking liberties with them. Be that as it may, to take them to the next level, to help them get what they want to get, you have got to take them there. In order for you to influence people to do more than what they want just because you asked, you have got to be willing to do more than what you want just because they asked.
I had a man tell me some time ago, when the time comes to do the right thing, you do the right thing whether you like it or not. Make a commitment to be that person that goes the extra mile. When you are the one that goes the extra mile, you can influence others to go the extra mile. At the end of the day, everyone wins. Because going the extra mile can be taking chance on losing, and if you won at everything that you attempted to do, you're not living your whole life.
Hey, if this blog has helped you in any way, shape, form or fashion, I want you to pass it on to somebody. You may end up even passing it on to the person that I'm talking about. If not, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. I end this blog like I end all of my blogs. That is for you to have yourself a good time until the next time.
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