Tao Te Ching, Verse 41:
When a superior man hears of the Tao,
he immediately begins to embody it.
When an average man hears of the Tao,
he half believes it, half doubts it.
When a foolish man hears of the Tao,
he laughs out loud.
If he didn’t laugh,
it wouldn’t be the Tao.Thus it is said:
The path into the light seems dark,
the path forward seems to go back,
the direct path seems long,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true steadfastness seems changeable,
true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest art seems unsophisticated,
the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish.The Tao is nowhere to be found.
Yet it nourishes and completes all things.
You can think of the Tao as the highest truth, God or the universal mind that runs the show… For this teaching, I’d like to to think ‘truth’ when you read ‘Tao’.
When a superior leader hears a new truth, they implement it right away.
When a midwit leader hears a new truth, they half believe it.
When a foolish leader hears a new truth, they laugh out loud at it.
A Force Coach will never believe what an In-Powered Coach believes. People are laughing at these teachings I share with you, that I’m certain.
My question for you is, how strongly held are your opinions? How attached are you to the way ‘you’ do things?
Do you think you have it figured out?
When you hear something new, experiment with it, try it on. See if you like it, if you can remix it, if you can build on it further… But laughing out loud at it proves you’re less ‘open-minded’ than you tell your players you are… And your lack of integrity stinks…
Some coaches don’t believe their spiritual bucket even exists let alone needs to be filled. My guess is they haven’t tried any of this work yet… They don’t know what they don’t know and they’ll judge because they haven’t closed the distance enough to unite with the teaching for a day or 6 months.
That’s not the point though…
The point is there are truths out there that you are resisting. That everyone is resisting. Like this one from the middle section of verse 41:
True power seems weak
Mark Bennett says the number one goal of a coach should be ‘to make himself redundant.’ To be the master leader from verse 17:
That’s a hard truth for a ‘coach’. You don’t want to ‘not exist',you want to be seen, heard, respected, needed and appreciated
You want to know that your ‘actions’ matter.
You want to be seen with the whiteboard in the last minute of the game.
You want to be seen conducting the orchestra from the bench with your arms waving about.
You’re so afraid of non-action because the ‘coach’ has to ‘step in and lead’.
Notice as you read this, you start to get a bit defensive…
Notice the resistance to what I’m saying…
Notice the resistance. Calibrate the level of truth in the idea you’re resisting. It might be true, it might be a better path, but you’ll never know if you don’t attempt to flow with it. You’re actively paddling against a current that might take your coaching game to the next level.
Try a high truth.
Try one that you know you ‘don’t like’.
Reminder: Useful or not useful is the only useful filter.
Your opinions don’t matter in the reality of Truth.