“How can you be a coach or a teacher if you yourself are not being coached or taught?”

That’s a question I heard someone ask someone else recently, and it gave me some assurance that I’m on the right path. I’ve been a teacher for over a decade, but I continue to enter “student mode” at least twice a month. It’s slowed down as my life has changed, but I make sure I see my teacher when I can.

Does your teacher have a teacher? Why or why not?

Lately, I’ve spent time thinking about my blue belt days, when I was teaching the basics. I was a technical practitioner¹, I went through instructor training, and I really cared about my students. So I felt like I was providing the value a student was paying for.²

But as I teach now, I know the difference between a blue belt instructor and a black belt instructor.³

There are concepts I teach now to white belts that I don’t even know if it’s worth talking about because most of them won’t understand. But I’m a better teacher now, and I want my students to get the lessons I didn’t get.

I think it’s working, because my blue belts are giving me a hard time. That’s what I get for sharing everything. ⁴