How To Achieve Exponential Results As A Nurse Coach

Alright so I want to take some time diving into something that’s perhaps one of the most difficult elements of change to guide our clients through. This element can literally make or break a nurse coaching relationship and is the difference between successful patient outcomes and ones that simply fall flat.

I want to talk about the science behind why it takes time to achieve success and results. Like why is time such an important factor in the process of successful, sustainable change? And how can you, as a Nurse Coach, keep your clients actively engaged and motivated during the inevitable ups and downs of the process of change?

Alright, so let’s dive in. We all know that there is literally no such thing as an overnight success. And if anyone tells you there is, they are either a total fluke or a complete liar. If you look at any person who has achieved any degree of transformation, however big or small, underneath their outward appearance of success are countless hours of work, effort, self-doubt, pain, and Netflix binges. They made choice after choice to go against the natural human tendency to take the path of least resistance. Choice after choice to go against their natural human desire to stay in a state of homeostasis. They continually make a choice to uproot the status quo in their life.

Most of us tend to chronically underestimate the effort it takes to achieve a certain state, and we’re insanely quick to blame anything and anyone else for why we don’t have what it is that we want. We blame the entire world and complain about why we don’t have success and results.

As an example, I love to play guitar and sing – and at this stage of my musicianship, I’m pretty good at it. But something that blows my mind is this: invariably every single time that I perform someone will say, “Ohhh, I wish I had some musical talent… I always wanted to play guitar but I’m just not any good. I guess I’m just not a musician.”

And the first thing that always pops into my head is this – “Do you think I became this good at guitar by natural talent?” Perhaps I have an affinity and love of music. But I have quite literally played until my fingers bled to achieve this level of mastery… And along the way, there were thousands of opportunities for me to say, “I’m not good at this. I’m not a musician. I just don’t have the talent or what it takes.”

Now I love this example because it really demonstrates how easy it is to undermine the amount of action and time it takes to get something that you want. By dehumanizing successful people and making them out to be something you could never be – a prodigy, a natural talent, gifted person – it let’s you off the hook because it means that you won’t even have to try. You’ll never have to take the first step and put in the massive action required to get what you want.

Now, while helping our clients take action is a huge part of our practice as Nurse Coaches, I recently dove into the other part of the equation – Time.

And I asked: Why do we have to wait to get the thing we want even when we are taking consistent action? Why is time such a necessary component of success and results?

Well, it all comes down to something that we all learned about in 5th grade: compound interest. Just like when you put a $100 into your 401K every week, when you put energy and action into something, 99% of the time the results aren’t immediate. $100 doesn’t become a nest egg capable of sustaining you for your entire retirement overnight. It takes time for things to compound exponentially.

People don’t become obese and chronically ill overnight. The vast majority of the of the time, it is because they made poor lifestyle choices day in and day out for years and years and then poof – here they are. They appear confused, wondering how they got to this present state of obesity and/or demonstrating an acute manifestation of a chronic illness.

To end up in this exponential state of illness is the result of compounding of all of the poor lifestyle choices over time. All of those tiny little decisions over the course of many years have snowballed into this one moment.

And, interestingly, what is so often the first question people ask when they wind up in the hospital presenting this acute manifestation of a chronic illness?

They ask, “Why me? How did this happen to me? How did I get here?”

This is a fantastic example of one of the most dangerously fallible components of our humanity – our poor memory and our inability to associate cause with effect. By the time the effect catches up with this particular person – by the time they’ve wound up in the hospital and are acutely sick – they’ve forgotten how they ended up there in the first place. They’ve forgotten the myriad of choices, actions – causes – that have landed them in this state of exponential illness.

And on the flip side, when this now chronically sick individual is discharged and they decide to try eating more plants and crush it at the gym for hours a day, what happens after the first week?  What happens when they see no results – or even negative results such as muscle soreness. What do they do? They give up, and they see no effect. They didn’t invest enough action and let time do it’s magic to see exponential results in their health and wellbeing.

If they had continued taking positive action over time, they would lose the weight and become successful, because time compounds their actions exponentially. Eventually, they might even end up in a state of vibrant health and vitality, because most chronic illnesses are at least partially reversible through lifestyle changes alone.

So, to bring it around, the person that you are today – literally down to the cells in your body – is the result of choices that you’ve made which have compounded over time. The present state you are in – your happiness, health, fulfillment – the vast majority of your state is related to millions of tiny choices that have been exposed to the miracle to time – they’ve been allowed to compound.

And maybe you’re asking, do genetics play a role? Yup, but that role is much, much smaller than we’ve been led to believe. It’s genetic predisposition, not genetic pre-destiny.

So, what’s a Nurse Coach to do with all this knowledge of compound interest and exponential success?

Well, first off, never underestimate the tiniest step – you have absolutely no idea how huge of an impact that can have in your future. Whether your client is waking up early to hit the gym or staying up late watching game of thrones and eating ice cream, every single cause has an effect in their future.

Do we encourage them to totally live in the moment and enjoy life? Yes, of course. If it’s game of Thrones night, enjoy it like crazy. But don’t neglect the fact that what you do now exponentially impacts your future.

Second – elicit commitment from your clients to take action – help them connect with the purpose of why they are doing what they are doing so that when they are in the thick of it – when their alarm goes off at 530AM and they haul themselves out of their comfy bed to go sweat it out at the gym – when their palate is acclimating to green smoothies and they are having sugar cravings – when they are joining a new club even though they are terrified of meeting new people and have forgotten how to make new friends – they need to have a deep understanding in their bones for why they are doing what they are doing, or else they risk giving up before time exponentially compounds their actions. And keep in mind that this exponential success is seductive, it can be almost imperceptibly small at first until it explodes at an unexpected rate.

Third – celebrate the heck out of tiny achievements – because those tiny wins are exactly what propels continued action and momentum forward until your client reaches a state of exponential success that continues to snowball at a faster and faster rate.

And lastly – keep in mind that everything can happen so much faster than we think. A year goes by in the blink of an eye, and within that year is the opportunity to make a million tiny choices for betterment and health. Hold fast to your clients’ vision of who they can become and be their champion until time is able to work its magic.