Know yourself

I read this recently from the Pastor's Coach Newsletter and it really resonants with me. Steve and I recently had a discussion about knowing what you are good at and knowing what you are not gifted at - and being OK with both.

"The heart of a good coach is honest about personal strengths and weaknesses.
Maturely embracing the phrase “know thyself” is core to good coaching. A good coach is self-aware but not self-absorbed. There is a huge difference between the two. When you are self-aware, you know what you are good at and what you are not good at, and you are comfortable with that. When you are self-absorbed, you obsess over what you are not good at and seek attention for what you are good at. When you are self-aware you have a solid appreciation of yourself as you are. When you are self-absorbed, you have a selfish (or even narcissistic) love of self. This is often a false love based on personal insecurities.

John Maxwell has coached me for many years. And though John is highly gifted he will quickly admit what he is not good at. For a general example, when it comes to coaching someone in something that is very intuitive to him, something that comes as natural as breathing, he doesn't coach others in that very well. For a specific example, he knows that counseling or therapy is not his gift! So, he's comfortable saying he's not able to coach you in that skill. Far too often people attempt to coach in an area they know very little about and therefore the coaching is ineffective."