In the UK at the height of the petrol crisis of 2021, a cyclist smirks as a motorist panic buys petrol. Later on that day, our motorist laughs as an ex SAS soldier mocks a recruit for failing to overcome their fear on reality TV.
We see other people’s fear. Rarely our own. Welcome to the absurdity of the panic room.
In my world as a physical coach, one panic is very quickly replaced by another. People rarely stick things out. Instead, they pick up and drop off ideas quicker than Uber Eats.
Just like my clients, I take on challenges, overcome difficult situations and I don’t always see my fear. So here is a 2 x 2 grid I use to coach people (and myself) out of the panic room and into rational long term decision making:
Stuck in the panic room using short-term emotional thinking. The simple advice would be to cut down your tasks to free up your time. And then use that time to manage what you measure.
In Greek mythology, Procrustes attacked people by cutting off their legs or stretching them to fit an iron bed.
To avoid cutting and measuring what feels urgent or important now. Each quarter of the 2 x 2 grid has a different lens. A different set of questions. Providing us with new perspectives.
To have control over how you show up. To slow down long enough to make considered decisions that reflect who you are, and what is important to you. The work is in showing up, sharing what matters to you, and not panicking, as it collides with your environment.
Athletic development is for the long term (LTAD). The Olympic cycle is 4 years. A planning cycle is typically 90 days. 16 cycles to get it right. Plenty of time to create, through trial and error, a performance environment that works for you.
The pitfall comes when a good intention doesn’t work out. As it inevitably won’t, at least not yet. The default is the panic room and its short-term emotional cycle. The active choice is the work of the long haul.
The panic room is where your personal transparency becomes murky. You let go of creating and shaping the environment in which you do your best work, and you do what’s necessary. Repeated decisions based on panic take you out of alignment with your environment. Threatened and no longer trusting your own instincts.
Rather than feel threatened the whole time. What if we could flip the thinking. To find overlaps where new possibilities exist. Turning a threat into an opportunity? Cyclists and motorists constantly clash about the use of our roads. Yet they share the same intention. Movement from A to B.
The Ministry for Transport would become the Ministry for Movement. The intention. To move people based on what they value and what they feel is important to them. Not on what feels urgent, and pressing now.
The issue right now for the Health and Fitness industry is that it serves not one, but two clear client intentions. Feel better and do better.
Feeling better is not doing better. A company built on purpose is very different from a company built on profit. Of course, a company built on purpose can still turn a profit, but the starting point is very different.
And we can’t wait for our clients, or our industry to go first. It is on you as a coach to get your starting point crystal clear. Your intention, what you value, and what is important to you. The moment you panic, feel threatened because clients won’t stick. Get perspective, share your challenges. Do. As you would ask of your clients.
Coaching is a mirror. Engage through entertainment if you want your clients to feel better. Lead through alignment if your clients want to do better. But don’t confuse entertainment with the work of personal leadership.
P.S While we are on the subject of aligning what we say with what we do. The health of our nation is deteriorating which makes me think the health and fitness industry is wearing the wrong label. The physical arts and entertainment industry would be a more inspiring and accurate fit, don’t you think? So too Personal Leadership and Sports Performance each requiring their own schools of mastery.