We are happy to feature this guest post contributed by Coach Daniel Heller, a new regular contributor here at coachdjtaylor.com. We’re excited to introduce you to him and share his knowledge and skills with our readers! Please read more about Coach Daniel below. You can also connect with him on Instagram at @coach_danielh.

I’ve benefitted in many ways from creative thinking. Being curious and open to innovation has helped me develop new ways to coach athletes, run a business, and form a non-profit. This post includes some habits that have nurtured my creativity. I hope they do the same for you!

As a coach, a business owner, and a founder of a new nonprofit, I’ve experienced all kinds of setbacks and obstacles that required me to have a whole lot of grit. Life isn’t perfect. Things will never go 100% smoothly. So when we face difficulty while trying to reach our coaching, athletic, and other work goals, we need to remind ourselves that this is another opportunity to grow and persevere.

One thing I do that really helps keep my week on track is preparing my food at the beginning of every week. Preparing my food for the week not only keeps my nutrition in line, but also helps me remain more consistent in other parts of my day-to-day rhythms and routine. I’ve tried a few meal prep options over the years and here are a few things I’ve discovered:

In this post, I more details about how this goals and purposes exercise unfolded in case other coaches want to do a similar exercise. If you decide use any of the prompts or reminders included here, let me know how it goes!

If you don’t have a purpose, there’s no common goal. If you don’t agree on your common goal, there’s not going be a purpose. So for me to really help these athletes continue to grow, I need them to discover their purpose with regard to their training goals.

I’m currently taking The Mental Performance Mastery (MPM) Certification course (more on why soon!). And taking Brian’s course, listening to his podcasts, and having conversations with him have all reminded me of the importance of controlling what I can control. So, rather than leave my day to chance, I’ve returned to keeping a better, more defined schedule.

Strength and conditioning coaches have many roles outside of strength and conditioning. At any given moment, we can be a nutritionist, sports psychologist, instructor, demonstrator, mentor or friend. It’s up to us to be competent in these areas in order to help develop our athletes to the best of our abilities.