A Coaching Session with your Hero

I have found a way to get free coaching advice and support from some of the famous people, key influences in my life. I can choose anyone I want to give me that support – and they don’t have to still be alive. If they are alive, I can guarantee that I will get help from them.

How do I do this?

I am using a letter writing technique. Take someone who you really admire. It could be someone whose books you have read for example. Write a letter to them that sets out some questions or challenges that you need help with. Don’t send the letter, instead start to write the response as if you are the person. This may sound tricky and a bit bizarre, but if you are familiar with the ideas and approaches taken by the person you will find it relatively easy to adopt their way of seeing things and unpack the problem from their point of view.

When I do this exercise I set a time limit and make sure that the response from the hero / guide is written until the time limit is reached. Write for 15 minutes without stopping. It’s a great way to tap into advice that we have sitting in our sub-conscious and wouldn’t usually manage to bring to the surface.

I have tried this with writers (dead and alive), poets and musicians. This brings really rich results. A good example would be a letter writing exchange with Brian Eno which I produced recently to help me work through some challenges I was facing with a music and words project I am currently working on. I have been a big fan of Eno’s work since the mid-70s. I have also read a lot of things he has written – most notably his book “A Year with swollen appendices” which is a great diary full of ideas (sadly not in print at the moment). He also has a card deck with ideas in it called “Oblique Strategies” which he developed with the artist Peter Schmidt. He has used this card deck many times in the recording studio with musicians. There is an online version of it here.

Using that website gave me the opportunity to generate short aphorisms from Eno, and then use them as a prompt for an imaginary letter from him giving me advice.

So, that’s how you get advice from your heroes and influences – try it and let me know how you get on.