Nobody Can Do It for You: What Whitewater Rafting Can Teach You About Success in Your Coaching Business
Last month when I was in Durango with my mastermind group, we went whitewater rafting. It was an absolute blast! Not only that, but it also provided me with an epiphany about business (bonus!).
When you go whitewater rafting, there’s always a safety briefing beforehand.
Let me tell you about ours:
There we were, standing on the edge of the river, all suited up in our life vests and helmets. Our guide started giving us an overview of what the trip was going to be like, and of course, she went over the fact that there’s always the potential of someone falling out of the raft.
She explained that there’s a lot of danger underwater … danger we can’t see from the surface: rocks, fallen trees, and branches.
If you fall out of the river raft, our guide said, there is a certain procedure to follow to help ensure your safety.
And if you didn’t follow it, you could very well end up floating down the river, getting snagged on branches and stuck, or even getting caught in the rocks, face down, which could of course cause drowning.
But if you follow the procedure, then survival is very likely.
Our guide then went on to outline the procedure (and there’s one element that really stood out to me—more on that in a minute).
She said that once you make sure you’re not in immediate danger, you should swim toward the raft, grab onto the rope, and wait for another member of your party to grab your life vest. Your “helper” will then dip you down into the water just slightly, and then pull you into the raft.
Meanwhile, you will kick as hard as you can to get yourself out of the water.
Here’s what she said that really hit me:
“You’ve got to participate in your own rescue.”
And that’s when it hit me: it’s exactly the same in business. In business, when you fall out of the raft (when you encounter obstacles and challenges, when you hit pitfalls), you’ve GOT to participate in rescuing yourself. Nobody can do it for you.
When you’re on a rafting trip, you have the tools and the guide and the team and the supplies you need, but even so, when things get rough, you must participate in your own rescue.
I’ve seen real-life examples of this time and time again: coaches in the process of building their dream businesses have everything they need to succeed: they have the tools, the support, the coaching, the community, and the structure.
Inevitably, life happens! These coaches experience setbacks, or personal challenges, that threaten to slow or halt their progress.
Entrepreneurs typically respond in one of two ways:
They just stop trying. They bob along in the water, hoping for rescue. They’re wet and cold and definitely NOT having fun. Yet they don’t do anything to participate in their own rescue.
They ask for help. They get advice from their coaches, they take action, and they use the resources we provide.
They hold true to their intentions. Their actions say, “I want to have a great ride and enjoy this!”
They participate in their own rescues, and they thrive.
When you have a coach and a community and the tools and materials you need, it’s up to you to participate—to create your own success. You can’t sit back and just hope for things to work out … for your business to magically emerge intact and shining on the other side of a rough patch.
So I’d like to ask you: what are YOU doing, every day, to participate in your own rescue … in your own success? How are you using the resources that are available to you to stay in the raft (or get back into it), and to enjoy the rapids—the best parts of the business-building experience?
