CHEF© Ideology in 4Domain Coaching
Posted on January 18, 2019 by Jorge Cortijo, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
This article explores the CHEF methodology of coaching created by Coach Jorge Cortijo. The approach focuses on Career, Health, Education, and Family.
High-level performers often share the idea of staying hungry. The idea is that in order to be successful and remain relevant one must remain hungry. The paradox lies in the fact that success in American culture is often defined by being incredibly busy. High-achievers often complain about their plate being full and use this excuse to rebuff someone who is vying for their time. “Sorry, I can’t right now. My plate is too full.” However, how can we (as high-achievers) complain about our plates being full if we live by the mantra of staying hungry? After all, we should expect for our plate to be filled when we ask to eat! The problem is that the plate is not always filled with the most important or most meaningful foods. This is because we often lack a clarity on how all the ingredients and tools that we have can be used in concert to craft the best “meals.”Many of us approach life reactively instead of proactively. Let’s imagine that you have no idea how to cook, or maybe you do but you are mediocre at best. Now imagine you are thrown into a state-of-the-art kitchen with all the tools, gadgets and trinkets that a Chef’s heart could desire. This kitchen is also stocked with the best ingredients that money can buy. The fridge contains the most coveted proteins on the market and the most luscious produce. The condiments and seasonings come from all parts of the world where only the best of the best can be found. Now you are told to get cooking because we have people to serve. Daunting? Talk about anxiety! Chances are that even with the best of intentions and motivation, you would still fall short of producing the type of meal expected from a world-class chef. You have great ingredients, great tools and a great setting but you lack the skills.
Now imagine that an actual world-class chef is at your house right now. It is possible that your kitchen is missing some of the tools that high-performing chefs expect to have? Maybe your produce is not the freshest and your proteins might be frozen. Your condiments and seasonings were purchased at bargain prices off of the shelf. However, if Gordon Ramsey was the man in your kitchen, we could expect an amazing meal nevertheless. We could anticipate him crafting a meal that would have us all wondering at the table “how in the hell did he do that? So, what is the common denominator? It all comes down to skill. SKILL.
The same holds true for our plate of responsibility in life. We each carry around a plate that is filled at different capacities. This plate is often filled with food that doesn’t fit our nutritional wellbeing. Of course, not everything on that plate is important and, out of those things that are, not everything is equally important. Some of those items are placed there by other people and we might just be eating food that others choose for us to eat. Ultimately, we may lose sight of what is on our plate and things start falling from it. We feel out of control and, while there may be abundance on the plate, there is no clear not apparent benefit or forward progression.
If we become skilled CHEFs, we are now able to make the best out of our ingredients and can account for every item on the plate, keeping only what’s important and in hierarchic order. In our lives, this comes in the form of highly-developed, values-based time management skills that can be applied to the 4Domains of life. Once the client has a clear sense of how time can be treated as currency and accounted for realistically, the coach can begin assisting the individual in the achievement of goals. Consider the following example:
There are 168 hours in a week. Depending on the range of healthy sleeping habits, we can subtract anywhere from 42-56 hours to account for sleep (based on 6-8 hours of sleep per night for 7 nights). This leaves us with 112-126 waking hours for productivity. This represents the maximum amount of time that we can be effective stewards of our time. Considering that the life of a high-achiever is often associated with little sleep, we can choose 6 hours of sleep per night as a guide. This leaves us with 18 waking hours per day. On the higher end of rest, we can get 16 waking hours out of a day. If we study the theory of mastery, it takes approximately 10 years (or 10,000 hours) to become a master at anything when working at it for 4 hours per day, 5 days per week. If we divide our 16 waking hours into the four domains, we could technically dedicate 4 hours to each domain and expect to reach mastery after 10 years of application. We can then apply time blocking to dedicate these hours to completing the most important tasks that will turn into goal accomplishment on a consistent basis over an extended period.
Therefore, the idea of celebrating a fulfilled life is not beyond grasp when one deliberately and intentionally applies action to values-based dreams. These dreams come alive in the realm of reality when we bring them into the realm of time, treat them as recipes for success and only use the ingredients necessary to succeed. Becoming a skilled CHEF in one’s own life is then not about “cooking” with abandon, but about enjoying the zest and variance that life has to offer.
Jorge Cortijo
