Know what you’re supposed to be doing and what you’re not supposed to be doing. And then also think about, is it in your client’s best interest?

When we came back from the trip, I didn’t pay that much attention to jet lag. Obviously, I heard about it, but I kind of thought it was a bit of sleep deprivation. I thought it was just if you didn’t get enough sleep, you’d be tired and then that would work. But since coming back and having a major dose of jet lag, I’ve done a lot more research.

And what I’ve found is quite different, and it does actually make you quite sick. And the reason it makes you quite sick is it messes up your body rhythms, your natural rhythms. Because when you’re traveling that large amount of distance, so from Australia to Europe, it’s about 24 hours traveling time. Our longest flight was 11 hours. And we also had a five-hour flight with a bit of a gap in between.

But it’s basically a whole day, and you start in one time zone and you end up in a completely different one. So you’ve lost a whole day or gained a whole day, depending on which way you’re traveling, and you’ve added or subtracted sleep. But not only that, your body is used to a certain time of waking up, a certain time of eating, etc. And that all gets messed up as well.

Now, I thought it was just about the time differences, but when we went to New Zealand, which is a six-hour time difference, we didn’t have nearly the problems. Europe is also a six-hour time difference but it’s not. It’s the other way around. So it’s actually 24 hours minus the six hours, not just six hours. So it makes a huge difference.

So what did I learn about jet lag that could help you and your clients?

Well, the first thing is that when you’re on a plane, they do it so that it’s easy for them. They do it so that they have a plane full of sleeping passengers or dozing passengers because that makes the 11 hours much easier to manage. They do a couple of food services so you can have meals if you want, and then they dim all the lights and they make it dark. So you think, oh, it’s nighttime, I’ll go to sleep. But in actual fact, in most cases, it’s actually daytime . 

So, to sum up the entire trip, the airlines didn’t inform us about jetlag.

Even having a little card that told us how to manage jetlag or they bombarded us with emails before we left. So maybe even something on that. Just linking to something about jetlag, telling us about it, saying, have you done a bit of research or something like that might have been very useful. But in your coaching practice, what are you doing that is not helping your clients? Are there things that you’re doing because it’s easy and convenient? You may be running your coaching sessions back to back with little time in between. Is that working for you? And is it working for them? Are you running them in timezones that maybe aren’t the best for them? And just because they want to work with you, they’re trying to fit around it.

They’re trying to do the best that they can and get that busy. But is it actually working for them? So what kind of things are you doing that is maybe not working the best for your clients? You might be tailoring a one-size-fits-all approach. You might have goal setting as one of your major metrics, and you’re noticing that some of your clients are consistently not making those goals. Yes, I’ll do it. Yes, I’ll do it for the next session and you find time after time.

They’re not doing it. Is that something that maybe goal setting isn’t their best metric? Is it something you’ve discussed with them? Do you maybe need to adjust your strategy for them to make it better? Are you asking for their feedback? Are you checking what their preferences are? Are you making sure that your coaching is working for them as well as for you?

Because as we know, the clients that do really well, they’re the ones that are going to be repeat clients and they’re going to continue on with you. And they’re also going to be your best referrals.