Every once in awhile I like to share with you one of the newsletters that I send to my team of coaches because it contains a universal truth. Today’s is just such an example:
I was running last night before doing ChaLEAN Extreme and I was thinking about what drives me and what there was about being a Team Beachbody Coach that would benefit you. Well, many of the answers are obvious and if you don’t know them by now, then we need to talk. But maybe instead of focusing on what’s in it for you or me or how much it costs, we need to focus on how what we do benefits others.
Thanks to the brilliance of Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, we can find information quickly. My first search was for the Me Generation and it took me to a Wikipedia article as well as this one. I then somehow got to an article on human reciprocity which would be in many ways the opposite of “me first”. I clicked on a link to a blog with an article about a book entitled, “A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and its Evolution” by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis. There, I found this quote, “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it” (Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments).
Ironically, all of this research stemmed from seeing that Dean had joined the Facebook group “TEAM BEACH BODY -South Florida Chapter” which I now realize confirms one of the tenets in the Cooperative Species book – “People cooperate and punish those who fail to cooperate not only for self-interested reasons but because they are genuinely concerned about the well being of others, care about social norms, and wish to act ethically. Contributing to the success of a joint project for the benefit of one’s group, even at a personal cost, evokes feelings of satisfaction, pride, even elation. Failing to do so is often a source of shame or guilt. Second, we came to have these “moral sentiments†because our ancestors lived in environments, both natural and socially constructed, such that groups in which most individuals were predisposed
to cooperate and uphold ethical norms tended to survive and expand relative to other groups, thereby proliferating these pro-social motivations.”
So what’s the point? It comes from the quote above, “Groups in which most individuals were predisposed to cooperate and uphold ethical norms tended to survive and expand relative to other groups”. When we work together as a team, promoting health and fitness, leading by example, telling people about the benefits of Beachbody products and simply helping others, we ourselves will flourish. Let me finish with a quote from the founder of the South Florida Team Beachbody Chapter. “My name is Fernando David and I’m a former Marine that lives by the Marine Corps core values: HONOR, COURAGE, COMMITMENT. Those three very important core values have helped me succeed both in my professional and business life. As your coach, I promise to honor my profession by always being truthful, respectful, and by providing you with the latest, most up to date coaching advice available. I promise to have the courage to always do what is right. And lastly, I promise to be 100% committed to your success and to provide you with the best support possible.”
Be 100% committed to the success of others and success will come back to us…
Rich
