Unleash Your Potential - 3 months in review
- Douglas McCall
- Oct 4, 2024
- 4 min read
Douglas: Welcome to the Unleash Your Potential Blog. We have reached the end.
Just over three months ago (June 26th ), I had an idea. I wanted to use my blog to answer questions from readers and potential coaching clients. However, I had no followers or clients, so what questions would I answer? My solution was to ask ChatGPT to generate 100 unique questions someone might ask as a life coach. I then used a dice-rolling app to select which question I would answer each day randomly. After all, you don't get to choose what question you want to answer, and you have to answer the question presented by the client in front of you.
The results were 100 questions asked and answered. In truth, most of the questions could be the focus of two or three coaching sessions, and I wanted the blog entries to be a three or four-minute reading, so I kept the responses to an overview in roughly 700 words. I hope that each entry gave you a taste and a few tips to try out. If that was all you needed to address any particular challenge you were experiencing, fantastic. But if you find yourself wanting more, I suggest you do your research or reach out and set up a conversation.
I believe that self-reflection is a fundamental part of growth, so I will now take a moment or two to consider what I learned in this process.
Building habits is hard sometimes.
Many days, especially early on, I did not want to write. I decided that to ensure my success, I had to set a specific time each day to write. I lead a fairly busy lifestyle, and it is easy to have the day get away from me, so I chose 5 am as my writing time. Many mornings, the bed was far more interesting than my office chair. However, each day, it got a little easier to get up and write, and by now, even though I may be a bit tired at the start, I look forward to spending some time collecting and sharing my thoughts. I am not sure if it has reached habit status, but I know that at night I often find myself thinking, "I have to go to bed because I have to write in the morning," and when the alarm goes off at 5:05, my first thought is, "I have to go write now." Writing every morning has become so much a part of my identity that two weeks ago, as I approached the end of the 100 days, I began to think about what I would write about next. More on that in a little while.
Little steps add up
My dissertation taught me this lesson, and this process reinforced it. I recently was reminded of the adage, "How do you eat an elephant?... One bite at a time." And the last 100 days have reinforced that. Initially, it was daunting to think, "I am going to write 100 blog entries." However, focusing on one daily made the 100 much more manageable. Thanks to this process, I now have over 70,000 words written. My dissertation (which took me over a year to write) was only 50,000 words. I have used this process to generate a hundred answers to clients' questions. I have researched each of the questions presented. The 100 little steps I have taken over the past three months have led to a significant piece of writing. I couldn't have imagined writing every day for 100 days, but looking back, worrying one day at a time made it so much simpler.
AI can be repetitive, but that's not a bad thing.
Throughout the blog, I answered some version of a question about time management around eight times. ChatGPT worded the question slightly differently each time, but it was still time management. Rather than just reposting a previous answer, I attempted to approach the question differently each time. As I have learned from my decades as an educator, the first way you present something will seldom make sense to everyone, so you have to show it a couple of different ways. AI knew that and decided to make sure I practiced this skill. In truth, I imagine it will be the same with my future clients. Time management is something many people struggle with, and I will likely need multiple approaches. The same is true for many topics I answered more than once.
What's next
I know that tomorrow morning, I will get up and write something, but the big question is, what? In addition to my work as a life coach, I am also developing a profile as a professional speaker. I have been a speaker to large groups for 20+ years. I enjoy presenting, and I believe I have, as TEDTalks are famous for saying, "Ideas worth sharing." This process has given me lots of different speech topics. However, one crucial thing in speechcraft is having personal stories to intermix in the speech. I have decided that for the next 30 days, I will share stories from my life and what they have taught me. Writing stories will prevent a challenge for me. As I think back on my life, my struggles with self-image lead me to believe my stories are not worth sharing. I hope that through this journey, I will learn to appreciate my past and everything it offers, as well as my present and future. I hope you join me on the trip.
The future of the 100-day blog
I have 100 blog entries and over 70,000 words. I could just put that binder away and move on. I believe there is a lot of wisdom shared within those words. Over the next month or two, I will organize and edit the 100 days, and coming soon, there will be a self-published book or set of smaller books on the 100-day blog. I do not know the title, but keep an eye out for it. I may leak a few chapters on my website. We'll see.
Thank you for going on this journey with me. I hope my answers have shed some light on your questions. If you want to dig into anything I talked about further, I encourage you to reach out and set up a conversation. In the meantime, check back tomorrow for the FIRST story of the 30 Lessons I learned from Life Series!
Be Well!
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