Welcome to the second installment of “Getting to Did“. Find the first installment here.

Enjoy.

The Trainer: From COULDA to CAN

Sam told Susan he was getting up early to have coffee with Dave and a friend and that he thought Dave was going to help him find a job. He left it at that. He wasn’t sure what all that COULDA, SHOULDA, WOULDA and GETTING TO DID stuff really meant and he did not want to sound like an idiot who had just latched on to some hare-brained scheme even if it did come from Dave. He especially did not want to tell her the whole point of this meeting was to help him get rid of his big BUT. Something told him she might not understand.

However, a few hours later, his excitement had worn off and Sam had trouble getting to sleep—but for different reasons than usual. He mentally argued with himself for several hours before finally sacking out.

This whole GETTING TO DID thing sounded odd. In fact, now that he thought about it, he should have just let Dave talk and then gone back to the classifieds to look for a job. All that CAN, SHALL and WILL stuff may be good for someone like Dave, BUT another call to his recruiter would be more helpful to Sam. Then he thought, “I can’t argue with Dave’s success. BUT it can’t be as easy as Dave was suggesting.”

*****

Since he didn’t drift off to sleep until nearly one o’clock, the alarm came way too early for Sam. His habit of hitting the snooze button took over. Susan, however, nudged him and reminded him of his appointment. He thought briefly about calling Dave and saying he didn’t feel good this morning and maybe they could do it later. However, if he wasn’t all that excited about the meeting, he was at least pushed by his pride on keeping commitments and being punctual. Those were two keys he had taught sales reps for years.

He showered, shaved, dressed and headed out the door. As he walked up Dave’s driveway at 5:44, the garage door slid open and Dave pulled out in what looked like a brand spanking new Mustang convertible with the top down. He stopped long enough to let Sam climb in.

“Midlife crisis?” Sam asked.

“Nope,” Dave said with a mischievous grin. “Second childhood.” Then he gunned it out of the driveway and they headed down the road.

“Ever been to The Early Bird Cafe, Sam?”

“No, what’s that.”

Dave chuckled. “You’re in for a treat. It’s this little breakfast and lunch spot. They roast their own coffee beans every day and they make these awesome sandwiches on Italian bread called paninis. My wife took me there once. I thought it was going to be one of those fru-fru restaurants for women. I was wrong. It’s my favorite morning spot in town.”

The conversation died down for a moment. Sam yawned and said, “I’ve been thinking, Dave. This can’t be nearly as easy as you made it sound last night.”

“Did I make it sound easy?” Dave replied. “Sorry ‘bout that, Sam. You’re right. Nothing you’re going to learn from me or my friends is easy. Yes, it’s easy to talk about. It’s easy to write about. It’s easy to hear and know it will work. In fact, like I said yesterday, most of what you are going to learn from us is stuff you probably learned in sales, you just didn’t know you could apply it to real life. But it’s not easy to do. Well, actually it is easy to do. The real problem is most of us just don’t want to. Therefore it’s extremely hard for most of us to GET TO DID. No, it’s not easy. However, it works; if you will.”

“I don’t know, Dave, what if I can’t do it? What if I’m not like you?”

“Sam, let me assure you, you’re not like me and you don’t have to be. However, you CAN do it.”

“How do you know?”

“Because, GETTING TO DID is not about getting you to do something like everybody else or anybody else. It’s not about getting you to be me. It’s not about getting you to do something you can’t do right now. It’s about you learning to do what you CAN. Look,” Dave pointed at a little café in a shopping strip, “we’re here and there’s my TRAINER’S truck. He’ll explain more once we get inside.”

Dave and Sam walked into the coffee shop. The smell of freshly roasted coffee mixed with eggs and sausage helped brighten Sam’s outlook a little. “Hey, Dave,” the two ladies working the counter said almost simultaneously.

“Hey, Tammy. Hey, Melinda. Two coffees this morning,” Dave said wagging his finger from Sam to himself a couple of times. “We’re meeting my TRAINER.”

“You must come here a lot,” Sam said to Dave as Tammy poured the coffee. He eyed the sausage Melinda was frying and said, “I’ll take one of those sausage and egg paninis you’re making.”

Dave chuckled, winked at the ladies and said, “This place has the best coffee in the world. So I meet my friends here pretty regularly. Like I said, it’s my favorite morning spot.”

From the back corner, a man waved Dave over and they walked toward him. The man stood as they approached, smiled and shook hands with them. He looked like an upside down pyramid—broad shoulders, narrow waist—Sam recognized this man certainly was a TRAINER. He must work for a gym.

“Nice to meet you, Sam. Dave has told me about your trouble and I have no doubt we CAN help.”

“That makes one of us,” Sam replied, trying to fake a smile so he would appear to be joking. Neither of the other two laughed and Sam flopped onto his chair feeling more and more like a failure in the presence of two truly disciplined successes.

They chit-chatted for a while and Sam found out quickly the TRAINER did not work for the nearby gym; he owned it. Sam felt a little self-conscious about his panini after finding that out, but not enough to stop eating while they talked.

Then Dave said, “Well guys, I think it’s time you two got to work. Deborah and I plan to visit her mother today. Sam, I’m going to leave you with my TRAINER. He’ll get you home when he’s done with you.

“Don’t worry, he and I’ll get together next week to deal with my business. Listen well.”

Dave took a final swig from his coffee cup and left Sam sitting there totally nonplussed.

The TRAINER smiled and said, “You better finish yours too, we’re heading out.” Sam drained his cup, asked the barista for a refill in a to-go cup and followed the TRAINER out to his truck asking, “Where’re we going?”

“To my gym. We’re going to start your TRAINING.”

“I didn’t think this was about exercise.”

“It’s not, but if we sit around and talk in there all day, I’ll end up eating more of those paninis and need the exercise like you.”

“Great,” said Sam sardonically, rolling his eyes.

*****

After a short drive to the gym. They walked into the TRAINER’S office. While the TRAINER walked around his desk, Sam sat down and said, “Alright, so what is all this COULDA, SHOULDA, WOULDA stuff? It sounded weird to begin with and the more I’ve thought about it, the more it sounds like gobbledy-gook. Do you really think you can help?”

“You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I’m not going to talk about the SHOULDA and WOULDA ‘stuff,’ as you call it. That’s for Dave’s other friends to discuss. I’m just the TRAINER. My job is getting you from COULDA to CAN. I understand your cynicism. I was just like you once. Dave, however, took me under his wing and passed his inheritance on to me.”

“Dave helped you?” Sam responded. “I thought you helped Dave.”

“We help each other. Dave has seen I’m really good at going from COULDA to CAN. I help him keep doing it even on days when he doesn’t feel like it. That’s my job, getting you to CAN.”

“Well, I guess that’s the problem right now,” Sam mumbled. “I am beginning to think I can’t really do anything. There are so many possibilities out there I COULD follow BUT I don’t know which to choose. And I don’t really know if I CAN actually do any of them.”

Sam was leaning forward in his chair, “I even thought about starting…,” he paused slouched back in his chair and continued, “never mind. What have you got for me?”

“Sam, your statements actually cut right to the heart of what I want to tell you. Listen carefully. I only have one lesson for you. After that, I CAN help keep you going, but it will be up to you to apply the lesson.”

“Alright, give it to me,” Sam said, pulling out a pen and opening his planner to a notes page.

“The lesson is right here,” the TRAINER said, pointing to a plaque above his head on the wall behind him. Sam read:

Sam laughed, “If it’s such an important lesson, you think you could have spelled it right.”

The TRAINER smiled indulgently and went on. “Here is what I had to learn a long time ago, Sam. You can’t do everything. But you CAN do ANYTHINGG.”

“Is that with two Gs?” Sam asked mockingly.

“Yes, it is, and let me show you why.” He handed Sam a card:

“These are the nine keys for getting from COULDA to CAN. Let me explain them.”

————

I hope you enjoyed today’s reading. Come back next week as the TRAINER begins to explain how to do ANYTHINGG.

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