The announcement below pops up in my inbox this morning. John Whitmore passed away. Immediately I am transported back in time… some 15 years ago when I was a starting coach. “Coaching for performance” was the first coaching book in my library; I studied it;

Admired it for its straightforwardness and criticized it… sport metaphors were never really my thing. And then Chantal and I heard John Whitmore speak during a coaching conference a few years ago. All of a sudden I really “understood” it. One of his most known quotes is:

“I am able to control only that which I am aware of. That which I am unaware of controls me. Awareness empowers me.”

Whether in sports or anywhere else, awareness is key. Since that talk, I pay more attention to what I do, what I say and how I say it, raising my awareness for the things that are happening in my life.

RIP Sir John, your book stays prominently on my coaching shelf.