The frustration of being a Teacher

It’s funny how most of us believe that we can change the world. If not the whole world, then at least we can change that one person we have maximum influence over. Most of the time our pet project to improve is either our partner or our child. We love to control other people’s lives and suggest time and again “ what is good for them “ with fairly “ good intentions “. This is a very frustrating process because they rarely change and mostly blame us for patronizing them.

The truth is it is just impossible to teach something to someone, when they are not ready to learn. Even if they are ready to learn, the max that you can do is expose them to the ideas and constructs.

Post that, it’s on the receiver to first register the idea and then build an understanding around it. Acting on it is a far third.

When we are trying to change someone what we are trying to do is to actually change their mindset. This mindset is created over the person’s lifetime and consists of very strong biases. The only way for someone to change their mindset from point A to point B is when they reach point B with their own self reflection. Nobody can make themselves self-reflect.

So being a coach, what can you really do then ?

What you can do is:

1. Introduce them to the idea

2. Make it reflect in your own actions repeatedly.

3. Then have a lot of patience for them to get inspired and adapt to it.

Changing someone’s mindset is a long term game which requires a lot of patience. You may not be able to teach someone who is not ready to learn, you can still inspire.