David Novak & Jason Goldsmith2022Five steps to coaching yourself
The best coach you will ever have walks every hole with you. Learn to talk to yourself the way a great coach would, and then play the next shot.
The course
David Novak, the retired chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, and performance coach Jason Goldsmith argue that you do not need a hired coach to keep growing: you can learn to coach yourself. The book works through five steps, from an honest self-coaching conversation and a 'not yet' mindset to a plan, daily action toward your single biggest growth goal, and a habit kept alive by an accountability partner.
The pairing is the point. Novak co-founded Yum! Brands and ran it as chairman and CEO; Goldsmith is a performance coach who works with elite athletes, including champion golfers. Between them they bring the boardroom and the practice range to one idea: the people who keep improving have learned to run the coaching conversation in their own heads.
So the book treats coaching as a skill you can learn, in five steps you play in order and then keep replaying, like holes on a course you know well.
Talk to yourself like a good coach would. Start with joy: what is in the way of it, and what would grow it. Then name your one biggest growth goal.
Turn each “not” into a “not yet”. Stay neutral and don't prejudge what is going to happen.
Know your purpose, stay humble enough to be coached, and ask other people what they see.
Insight only counts once it becomes action. Choose the step you will take today.
Keep it going with an accountability partner who checks on your progress at regular intervals.
Interactive · Play your own hole
Five tees, one for each step in the book. As you answer, your yardage book draws the hole: your goal becomes the green, what gets in the way becomes the bunkers, your "nots" become water you can carry, and each step you commit to lands as a shot on the fairway. It stays in this browser only.
Start where the book starts: with joy. Be honest; nobody else reads this.
Write the "nots" you tell yourself about this goal. Watch each one become a "not yet".
A plan with purpose, humility, and other people's eyes on it.
Turn insight into shots. The first one is today's; it lands right off the tee.
The putt that holes it: someone who checks on you at regular intervals.
Caddie: Start at tee 1. Name what gives you joy.
Caddie notes
The coach who can help you most is the one who is with you every hour of the day: you.
Novak and Goldsmith's premise is that coaching is a skill, not a job title. Great coaches ask good questions, notice patterns and hold people to their word, and you can learn to do each of those for yourself. The rest of the book teaches how.
Start the conversation with joy: what is getting in the way of it, and what would grow it?
The first self-coaching conversation is not about productivity. It asks where joy is missing and what blocks it, which gets past a list of things you don't want and don't like. Answers to that question tend to point at the goal that matters.
Name one biggest growth goal, and say plainly what reaching it would mean to you.
A list of ten goals is a wish list; one goal is a direction. Writing what it would mean makes the goal personal enough to survive a bad week. If the meaning is thin, the goal probably belongs to someone else.
Turn every 'not' into a 'not yet'.
'I am not a good speaker' is a verdict; 'I am not a good speaker yet' is a starting point. The reframe is small, but it changes what you do next, because a 'yet' invites practice. Catch your nots out loud and add the word.
Stay neutral: don't prejudge what is going to happen.
The authors warn against preconceived notions about how a situation will go. Expecting failure shapes how you prepare and how you read the result. Neutrality keeps you open to the outcome you have not imagined yet.
Humility makes you coachable, so ask others what they see.
Self-coaching is not coaching alone. Other people see habits and blind spots you cannot, and asking them for input is part of the method. The skill is hearing it without defending yourself.
Insight only counts when it becomes a step you take today.
The journey step is where reflection turns into action: list the steps toward your goal, then choose the one for today. A brilliant plan with no step today is just a better-organized wish.
The habit lasts when someone checks on your progress at regular intervals.
Novak and Goldsmith close with strengthening the habit, and an accountability partner is their main tool. Knowing a check-in is coming keeps the goal alive between bursts of motivation. Pick someone who will actually ask.
Scorecard
Set aside thirty quiet minutes and write answers to two questions: what is getting in the way of my joy, and what would grow it?
Choose one goal, write it in a single sentence, and add a second sentence on what reaching it would mean to you.
Write down three things you say you are not. Add 'yet' to each, then write the first practice that would start changing it.
Pick three people who know your work and ask each one question: what is one thing I could do better? Write the answers down without replying.
Ask one person to check on your biggest growth goal at a set interval, and agree the date of the first check-in.
Before opening messages, write the one step you will take today toward your biggest growth goal. Make it small enough to finish.
Every two weeks, tell your accountability partner what you did, what you learned and what comes next. Keep it under ten minutes.
Each Sunday, ask yourself the questions a good coach would: what went well, what got in the way, and what will I try differently?
On the last green
Nobody is coming to coach you. The good news is that the best candidate for the job is already here.— HourLife note after David Novak & Jason Goldsmith Back to the library
Pick setup actions and daily habits from Take Charge of You, choose a start date, and download a printable checklist with real calendar pages.
David Novak, the retired chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, and performance coach Jason Goldsmith argue that you do not need a hired coach to keep growing: you can learn to coach yourself. The book works through five steps, from an honest self-coaching conversation and a 'not yet' mindset to a plan, daily action toward your single biggest growth goal, and a habit kept alive by an accountability partner.
Readers on HourLife most often highlight ideas such as: “The coach who can help you most is the one who is with you every hour of the day: you.” “Start the conversation with joy: what is getting in the way of it, and what would grow it?.” “Name one biggest growth goal, and say plainly what reaching it would mean to you.”
It's a strong pick for readers exploring Build a Career You're Proud Of, Confidence, and High Performance. HourLife distills its core idea into community-voted insights and one practical action worth trying.
Hold your first self-coaching conversation — Set aside thirty quiet minutes and write answers to two questions: what is getting in the way of my joy, and what would grow it?
About five minutes. The HourLife summary distills Take Charge of You into its core idea, 8 community insights, and 8 practical actions you can apply right away.
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The core idea, key takeaways, and how to apply Take Charge of You, as one clean, readable page.
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