Written By Jody Kubo | 2min read

Known as Coach Kubo by his clients, Jody works as a Life Coach, specialising in leadership and workplace training. You can learn more about Coach Kubo’s coaching here.

Every day I walk our dog, Boba. Our kids named him after Boba Fett, a minor character in Star Wars who has risen in popularity. I personally don’t get why this character is popular and neither does Boba.

We take different routes but sometimes walk past a correctional centre in the area. Over a year ago a thought came to me that inmates or the correctional staff there might need or want coaching from someone like myself. From that time thoughts would come to me, especially when walking past with Boba.

The thoughts start

I wonder what it would be like to do pro bono sessions with inmates to help them get re-established? What kind of inmates would want coaching? What kind of people would they be? Would they accept me? What’s it like inside the facility? And what about the institution? What kind of coaching would be helpful for them? Would they want team workshops? Maybe they already had internal coaching? But might they want someone with my skill set? Should I just go to the office and ask? How to get something started?

And we would continue walking. The next day maybe I would think about it or maybe I would think about something else.

Last week, right when this recurring thought came into my head, Boba looked at me with THAT look. Instinctively, I knew what he was getting at. His eyes said, “Dude, stop thinking already and do something about it!”

OK, maybe he didn’t say, “dude,” and maybe his eyes didn’t actually speak, and maybe I’m making this up for dramatic effect, but what is true is, at that point of intuitive man-dog eye contact, I realised I was thinking about a lot of nothing--for nothing--which led to the most positive thought that came out of my mental hamster wheel.

We both knew what needed to be done.

Action

We went home, I looked up the centre, found the email of the HR department and briefly told them that I was a life coach who lived in the area and I would be happy to serve their inmates or staff. If they had any interest, please contact me. SEND!

Since sending that my mind has realised that it doesn’t have to think those thoughts anymore. That thought and those string of thoughts are now totally gone because of a simple action of asking directly in order to bring clarity to my mind.

I’ve been thinking those thoughts for over a year!

The takeaway- Coaching Tips

• Identify ruminating background thoughts and think of them as sabotaging software bloat that sucks precious computing space

• Take action to do something definitive

• List and clear hindering thoughts regularly

Now that I don’t have to think about those thoughts anymore I can think of other things that bring me peace and move me forward.

What habits help you clear your head? Let us know below!