AI came out 2.5 years ago, and I was fascinated by it. I jumped on the train right away, using ChatGPT and Claude to explore what they could do.
Along the way, I learned about their various features, capabilities, and limitations. I learned pretty quickly what AI is good at, and what it’s not.
As a coach, of course I love having help, but the right kind of help.
I’ve also talked to others to see how they use it. Because whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay, and there are real benefits as well as real dangers.
Today, I want to write about this from the perspective of a coach.
My personal example:
When I started coaching, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was optimistically uninformed, thinking things would be easy.
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I didn’t know how much work was needed, what skills I had to learn, or what fears I had to conquer. I was excited about working with people, until I hit a rough patch.
That’s when I realized:
- I didn’t know what I was doing.
- I didn’t know what good work looked like.
- I didn’t know what daily activities would move me forward.
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So I buried myself in busywork. It felt good because it fed my belief (from my parents) that you can only get what you want by working very hard.
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A business coach helped me see that I could work smarter, cut 80% of the work, and focus only on the 20% that was high leverage. Learning that lesson was hard because my mind and body were conditioned to equate hard work with worthiness.
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​AI couldn’t have given me this breakthrough. It didn’t have the perspective of someone who had been there, done that, seen my full context, and the full arc of my journey.
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As the saying goes:
“This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.”
Orson Scott Card, from his novel Speaker for the Dead.