I once read a book called “Utopia For Realists” (by Rutger Bregman) that
talked about the negative impacts of poverty, and how it can drop a person’s IQ.
The author wasn’t saying that poor people are stupid, but that they have to use up more of their mental bandwidth worrying about things that others don’t have to worry about (ie: how they’ll pay the heat bill or the rent, how they’ll manage to buy groceries, etc).
Just as a computer only has so much processing power and will go slower with more programs running, the human brain will be affected by money worries. These distractions can drop an IQ by 13 or 14 points – comparable to losing a night’s sleep or the effects of alcoholism.
Money struggles can have a big impact on coaches as well:
If a coach is getting calls from bill collectors all day long, they aren’t going to be 100% tuned into the needs of their clients.
Their minds will be drawn back to those money worries, and they won’t be on their “A-Game”. Their clients won’t get good results, so they won’t give them repeat business, referrals, or testimonials, and the negative impact ripples out.
I often remind coaches of a quote from Michael Beckwith: “You can’t light up the world if you can’t pay your light bill”.
Or another one that I coined: “You can’t coach on an empty stomach”.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of coaches that have messed up beliefs about money, and think that making a lot of it makes them “greedy” or “in it for the wrong reasons” …
I’d encourage those coaches to flip their thinking around, and realize how damaging a lack of money can be for their businesses, their health, their families, and their clients.
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Marc Mawhinney