“You cannot suffer the past or future because these do not exist. What you are suffering is your memory or your imagination”|​Sadhguru 2019

Continued Professional Development (Coaches):

Written & Driven by Wessel Dippenaar 

​When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

​And the going has got very tough, so let’s get going. I see some light at the end of the tunnel and if we are tough our coaching can get going even better than at the beginning of 2020.

​As a dad who has two sports-mad kids we had to be creative in keeping them active, so they didn’t lose their love for being out in the fresh air. Participating in sport with friends is what they missed the most.

​At eta College, we had to adapt but thankfully, through foresight over the last two years, we were able to continue with our programmes quite successfully.

​In the process we have identified many new opportunities within further and online education, eta College staff are working hard to bring many more of these ideas to light in the future.

​One of these is the continued development of sports coaches, we explored what would be exciting, interesting, and suitable programs and workshops for this space in our college.

​We need your help though, as current students and alumni of eta College, please give input on what you would like us to focus on as we prepare to launch this sector within our bigger programme offering. Below you will find a link to a list of online; one (1) to three (3) hour programme ideas we have pre-designed and will bring to market in early March 2021.

Click here to complete the survey

​It will only take a few minutes to complete this research survey, your assistance will be appreciated as we prepare to launch this online, self-paced, capacity building offering under the eta College umbrella.

Recommended reading

Surviving to Thriving – Mental Toughness (Steve Harris)

Chapter 2. SURVIVING TO THRIVING GUIDE

Feeling we have no control over a threat (real or perceived) to our life or livelihood, is a huge stressor, possibly the biggest. This type of threat makes us react instinctively and we either watch to see what others do or we stampede like a herd of wildebeest in the Serengeti. Recall the initial stress reaction to the threat of COVID 19, many wrote it off as a non-event initially, then when reality hit, they panicked and stampeded for toilet paper – among other things. I don’t see a problem with either checking your environment or reacting quickly to protect yourself from harm.

​I, however, advocate that we develop mental resilience skills that improve our ability to sense impending calamity earlier and have better instinctive reactions than panicking and hoarding toilet paper. You will notice that the reaction to this pandemic, over time, has mutated (as the virus will) to conspiracies, arrogance and blaming on the one extreme with fear, distress, and generalized anxiety on the other.  

In Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), he used a model depicting an outer circle, labelled the circle of concern. This circle represents all the things we are concerned about and that we feel affect us. I have called this circle, “what it takes” (WIT).  Inside this circle he drew another circle and this one he labelled the circle of influence. Inside that one he drew a third circle and labelled it the circle of control. The circle of influence and the circle of control collectively I call “what I have got” (WIG).

The fraction WIG / WIT represents the extent to which we believe we can make it in life i.e. thrive. If you believe you have very little of what it takes then life can be very stressful. Much of this belief is underpinned by our mental resilience.

Covey maintained we can influence some things that affect our lives, and there are a few that we control. Of course, there are also many that we have no influence and no control over.

He asserts that as you plan and prepare, you find that you worry less about outcomes because you invested time in understanding them and have devised plans to achieve them. In this way, you worry less about matters that you can neither influence nor control (Covey, 1989).

Excessive worry about the things that could go wrong does not make life any more predictable. It only keeps you busy worrying, when, instead, this energy could be spent enjoying the good things that are also happening in the present. The threat presented by the latest Corona virus has undoubtedly taken away much certainty about our future. Acknowledging this loss of future certainty simultaneously opens us up to new possibilities.

Paradoxically, you can imagine how boring and meaningless life would become if you had certainty over your future. Take athletics for example. Athletes have influence and control over aspects of their competition preparation. They have less over the competitive result, little over the opposition, and none over the weather conditions. Is that why competing is so stimulating?

​Write to us and let us know how you are managing to worry less about the things you can neither control nor influence.

Regards, 

Dr Steve Harris | eta College CEO