Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep

For the first time in several weeks, I had a very good weekend.

Nice weather, fun activities, a good coaching session in a coffee shop, good and healthy food with my family, time for me, time for my family.

The only missing part was a good and uninterrupted sleep.

Not that I am insomniac or too worried to fall asleep, it’s just the story of my life since I decided to have kids. It’s my choice and I’m glad to be sleep deprived for good reasons. Because I know tons of people cannot sleep or find rest.

This week, I will share with you some tips to have a good night’s rest.

The kind of sleep you dream of but you rarely get.

You certainly know how important your sleep is for your health, your efficiency.

Sleep can also be tortuous if you have nightmares or troubles to fall asleep. You wait to be exhausted to go to bed, and even if you are, the moment you slip into your bed, your fully awake and your thoughts are driving your brain crazy.

How can you shut off your brain before bedtime?

How can you create an optimal environment for sleep?

1. Put your phone away.

Far far away, with your friend Shrek.

Your phone is the last thing you need to have before going to bed.

I know it’s your alarm clock and your meditation app.

Friendly advice: Buy an alarm clock.
Not a fancy expensive one with the wake-up light, or the last Google or Amazon trap. A very simple one. And put this alarm clock on the opposite side of your room. Yes, you need to get off your bed to turn off your alarm in the morning, so you will definitely wake up and not snooze 5 times.

According to the MIT Technology Review, Americans spend nearly four months of their lives hitting the snooze button.
4 MONTHS! It’s like 8 years of holidays when you get only 2 weeks per year. And 3 years in France (I know, we are lucky people always protesting for more).

So, please, find a way to stop the habit of snoozing every morning.

If you use your phone to meditate before going to bed to help you sleep that’s a great idea.
Find a place in your home to meditate.
Like your living-room, not your bed, your bed is the sacred area of sleep and rest.

No work at the bed. No movies at the bed. Just rest and sleep.

I know, it’s a lot.

I used to spend a lot of time in my bed. Working, sleeping, reading, calling my friend, watching movies, studying.
Now my bed is free of distraction other than calm activities (reading books and writing in my journal).
To be clear, before going to bed, your phone has to be far far away, preferably in your living room or kitchen (not in the bathroom, I know you).

2. Create a bedtime routine.

As I said before, if you do meditation before going to bed, that’s great.

If you don’t, create a simple routine that will help you clear your mind.

It can be reading a book or a magazine you love, journaling (gratitude journal), knitting, taking care of yourself with your beauty bedtime routine, having a warm drink.

Remember when you were a kid or if you have kids. Kids need at least one hour between their last fun activity and the moment they fall asleep. They brush their teeth, read books, turn off the light, discuss their days, sing songs.

As adults, we are the same.

We need to unplug and disconnect to be ready to sleep.

Create a bedtime routine of at least 15 minutes, the best is one hour.

Remember this routine must be free of technology (phone, tablet, computer, TV).

Blue light before bedtime is bad for sleep.
Scientists have been cautioning against using light-emitting devices before bed. Why? The light from our devices is “short-wavelength-enriched,” meaning it has a higher concentration of blue light than natural light—and blue light affects levels of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin more than any other wavelength. If you want to read more about it, have a look at this article of Scientific American.

3. Set up your wake-up time.

You have your alarm clock close to your bed.

Let’s say your wake-up time is 7.00 AM.

(Don’t forget, we changed time in the US last Sunday and it’s in 3 weeks in France).

There are no real rules about the number of hours you need to sleep to have a good rest. Many people have written books about it. You have your body’s natural clock, it’s called circadian rhythm.

Keep in mind that the key is to have a regular sleep schedule.

What is important is the quality of sleep you get and your mindset before going to bed.
4. Create your bedtime affirmation.

When you go to bed, count the number of hours of sleep.

Decide this number of hours is exactly what you need in order to perform at a peak level tomorrow.
You will energetically spring out your bed tomorrow morning, ready to accomplish your goals and live fully.

Add whatever you want to create the right mindset to have a good night’s rest.

I’m excited to know your bedtime routine and affirmation. You can contact me directly at marie@rainbow-lifecoaching.com to share with me your own routine and what was working for you!

This week, sleep tight, wake up with a smile, laugh, be grateful for what you have.

Enjoy every moment you share with your loved ones.

Marie

Life Coaching full of colors — Rainbow Life Coaching

Energy Leadership

The Energy Leadership Index Assessment

Energy Leadership™ Index Assessment

A Mirror That Reflects Your World

The Energy Leadership™ Index (E.L.I.) is a one-of-a-kind assessment that enables leaders to hold up mirrors to their perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and overall leadership capabilities. The E.L.I. forms the initial launching point for the Energy Leadership Development System, helping give you a baseline for your current performance and situation. Whether you proceed through the full system or not, the realizations that you’ll gain from the Energy Leadership assessment and debrief process alone will change the way you view your world.

Background: An Attitudinal Assessment

There are two main types of assessments: Personality and Attitudinal. Personality-based assessments, such as Myers Briggs and D.I.S.C. are very valuable tools that pinpoint certain personality types so that people can have more of an understanding about what their strengths and weaknesses are. By understanding your personality and how it relates to what you do, you can adapt your behavior to “work with what you have,” to function effectively.

The E.L.I. is an attitudinal assessment, which is based on an energy/action model. This assessment differs from personality assessments as it is not intended to label a person and have them work well within that label. Instead, it measures your level of energy based on your attitude, or perception and perspective of your world. Because attitude is subjective, it can be altered. By working with a coach using the E.L.I., you can alter your attitude and perspective, make a shift in your consciousness, and increase your energy and leadership effectiveness.

There are no limits as to the potential growth that you can achieve. Once you realize that your level of consciousness is directly related to your actions, you can move from functioning effectively, to functioning optimally.

As part of the Energy Leadership Index assessment and debrief process, you’ll learn about the 7 levels of leadership and how much energy you currently have in the catabolic-suppressing range and in the anabolic-inspirational range. You’ll be debriefed on the findings of the assessment, and coached on how to navigate yourself to higher performance.

If you proceed on to the Energy Leadership Development System, you’ll be coached on how to become your ideal image of who you need to be as a leader for your situation, division, team, and/or company.

Energy Leadership

The Energy Leadership Development System

Become The Ideal Leader

The Energy Leadership Development System is firmly rooted in 7 levels of awareness, which will catapult your energy and performance to a level that is perceived by all those around you as the “ideal” for your role.

The Energy Leadership Index (E.L.I.) is a one-of-a-kind assessment that enables leaders to hold up mirrors to their perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and overall leadership capabilities. It is the only assessment of its kind and one that has a complete, clear, customized coaching program associated with it. The coaching program is the Energy Leadership Development System. This system is made of an introduction and twelve developmental segments. The program is completely customized to each leader, and offers a baseline for current level of awareness, performance, and effectiveness. Leaders create their personalized developmental roadmap and quickly progress toward becoming an Ideal Leader.

Your Development Program: Building Your Foundation

The first part of the Energy Leadership™ Development System consists of the foundational segments that help you know where you are, realize where you want to be, and recognize and break through any of the blocks that are in the way of your success.

Assess yourself with the Energy Leadership Index
Undertake a program orientation and plan your roadmap
Learn the 7 levels of leadership
Identify strengths and gaps to achieve your ideal image

The 8 Building Blocks of the Energetic Leader

The next 8 segments in your program provide the accelerated training needed to master the areas necessary to become an ideal leader.

Emotional Intelligence
Dynamic Communication
Influencing and Engaging Others
Problem Solving
Productivity and Decision Making
High Energy Relationships
Health and Wellness
Time Management and Balance

The most successful leaders in the world truly enjoy what they do. In fact, when asked, they consistently say that they feel they rarely ever “work.”

The Result of Energy Leadership?

More production, less effort, with more fulfillment!

Energy Leadership

What Is Energy Leadership?

Energy Leadership^TM is the process that develops a personally effective style of leadership that positively influences and changes not only yourself, but also those with whom you work and interact, as well as your organization as a whole.

Before we explore the rest of what Energy Leadership may have to offer you, let’s define the two key underlined terms above.

Leadership: Leadership is how you interact with everyone, including yourself. Leaders are quite visible within small and large businesses. We tend to think of them as business owners and CEO’s and managers at various levels. Traditionally, leadership also extends into politics and other global affairs. However, parents, therapists and health care providers, solopreneurs, sports coaches, consultants, mentors, partners in relationship, teachers, authors, and others who interact with people on a regular basis are all leaders. EVERYONE is a leader either by choice or default.

If you don’t think of yourself as a leader, then you are limited in your thinking. Leading is the way we help move people, including ourselves, into action. The question is not whether or not we are leaders, but how well we lead.

Organization: Organizations are not limited to business. All of the groups, teams, and people around you are organizations, too. It’s the colleagues you work with and the family you go home to. Your organization includes all those who are grouped within your many circles of influence. Each of us is a part of many organizations.

Web copy used by permission. No reproduction or retransmission is permitted without expressed written consent of Bruce D Schneider and the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC).

Choices

How I made my choices

Sometimes you have opportunities and you can choose to make a turn and change your life. And sometimes life decides for you and you have no choice.

Like everybody, I had to make tons of choices in my life, from the smallest to the biggest. But each one of them was my choice.

I choose to do law school.

I choose to move to Nantes to do my business school.

I choose to work in Tokyo for a summer internship.

I choose to do my semester abroad in Washington DC.

I choose to say YES to my husband.

I choose to buy an apartment and invest in a place for my family.

I choose to change jobs 5 times.

I choose to have kids.

I choose to live in New York and quit my life in Paris to start a new adventure with my husband and our daughter.

I choose to continue this pregnancy and take on my own fears.

I choose to start my own business as a coach.

Each one of these choices was right for me.

I made these choices with all the information I had at this moment. No idea of the consequences and of the future. I did my best. I followed my intuition. And I have no regrets.

Most of these choices changed my life. They are part of my story. They made me the woman I am now.

Some of my choices were made with the help of my family or my friend, but I am the one who lived with them.

That’s why it is important to make your choices according to your values and your life.

No one knows better than you what is best for you.

Pieces of Advice are good to take, Orders are not. When it’s your life you have to choose what is best for you, at this moment of your life.

A woman can decide to say no to her lover (or run away the day of the wedding, it’s still her choice).

A little boy can choose to do a ballet class instead of football.

A little girl can choose rugby instead of gymnastics.

A man can choose to quit his wife and his kids.

A woman can choose to have no kids.

A young man can wear long hair.

A young girl can have short hair.

When choices are right for you, make you feel good, no matter what the society tells you, no matter what your family tells you, no matter what your friend tells you, it is your choice.

But sometimes, you want to have the choice but you cannot because you don’t have this freedom of choice, this courage to go against society, your family, your friends. And it’s completely ok. And it is still a choice to decide not to go in a direction because you cannot do it or it will hurt you or the people you love.

Sometimes your life is in danger because you live in a country where you have no right to speak or choose even the way you dress. You still have the right to think, and the hope that things will change one day.

If you live in a country where you have the right to do what you want, where you can choose your life, it can be scary too. Too many possibilities are around you and you just want to follow the path and don’t think too much. Sometimes it can be easier to stay in the career you choose when you were younger, even if you feel it is not right for you anymore.

Changing is hard, the process is long and we love, as a human being, staying in our comfort zone. Believe me, following your dreams, getting out of your comfort zone, living new experiences, meeting new people is worth it.

It is worth it and it is teamwork because you will need help to change your life. The help of a friend, of a coach, of a family member, your significant other, that will be with you every day, every week to check your progress and keep you motivated.

If you are thinking of changing your life and have no idea where to start, I will help you to set-up a plan with concrete, short and long-term goals and I will be there to support or push you, depending on what you need. You can read the testimonial of Laurène to know more about the benefits of my coaching and contact me for more info.

“Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw

right-way-directions-choices — Read my last article “The Power of Choice” and follow my website Rainbow Life Coaching and my Facebook & Instagram page, to be updated with the next one “How to make the right choice for you”.

Next week, I will talk about how to make a choice that is right for you (and only you!).

Marie Rousselle

Rainbow Life Coaching

monday motivation

Treat yourself

This weekend, it was the kickoff of the holiday season.

Lightening of the Chrismas Tree, a family picture with Santa, holiday market, and the inevitable Advent Calendar (a fabulous marketing tool by the way!).

Here in New York, houses, buildings, and trees are decorated with strings of light, Christmas Wreath, and sometimes big Santa with his sleigh.

Snow is not coming yet, it would be more exciting than the steady fall of rain but the Christmas spirit is there.

It’s an exciting period of time, last month of the year, Christmas is coming and, for most of us, it means a deserved break with family to celebrate.

What is your favorite time of the year?

This week I will talk about some little treats you can make to yourself.

You don’t have to wait for your holiday break to relax and treat yourself!

As the old saying goes – if you don’t love yourself, who else will?

Remind yourself that you deserve to lead a happy life and enjoy yourself on a regular basis with these 10 ways to treat yourself.

1. Have fun and watch your favorite series or talk show.

2. Treat yourself with a chocolate bar or your Madeleine de Proust and allow your mind to relax and wander.

3. Enjoy a delicious massage in your favorite spa or a warm bath in your bathroom.

4. Have a break and take your favorite hot drink after your lunch (and please do not take this lunch on your desk) with a warm hot chocolate, hot tea, hot coffee or hot apple cider. Just you and your hot drink.

5. Give yourself the gift of five minutes of doing nothing.

6. Go for a brief walk outside. 15 minutes and it will refresh your mind and clear your ideas.

7. Pretend to be a tourist in your local area. Open your eyes, walk around the park, shops, museums etc. as though it’s the first time you have ever visited.

8. Give yourself the gift of learning something new.

9. Learn how to cook a new dish that you’ve always wanted to try.

10. Give yourself the gift of taking your dreams seriously. Write down five key life goals that you want to achieve over the next year or so, and the steps needed to achieve them.

It is important to allow time for your brain to “defrag” and create free space, and to Indulge yourself to help manage the Holiday Season stress!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Love yourself. Forgive yourself. Be true to yourself. How you treat yourself sets the standard for how others will treat you.”

― Steve Maraboli

I wish you a lovely week!

Marie Barbezieux Rousselle

Life & Leadership Certified Professional Coach – ELI-MP
rainbow-lifecoaching.com

Mobile: (347) 484 7940 | marie@rainbow-lifecoaching.com

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monday motivation

Not a Cyber Monday offer

Between Thanksgiving on Thursday, a traditional holiday to celebrate the gifts we have, and Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, you can see how difficult it is to not consume, and not to be focused on what you have and what you need to have.

One day you take time with your family and your friends, you enjoy a great meal together and create memories, and the day after you are rushing to the shopping mall to buy products you don’t really need. And today, on Cyber Monday, you will certainly find my email lost between dozens of Cyber Monday offers.

We are in a society of over-consumption and we don’t need to look at the news to see that something is going wrong. We can decide to observe and suffer or to be part of a needed change.

We know that if only 3% of society decide to change, it could change the entire world. Every act counts and you can find many examples of small changes that you can make on your daily life on ON EST PRÊT (We are ready) and “Le Grand Défi pour le climat”.

Here are some examples:

– To reduce your impact and your hyper-consumption, you can create a homemade gift, or offer an experience, to create memories. It helps to give a new meaning to these celebrations (Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas).

Creating something with your hands is very powerful because you really think of what you are doing, you are really enjoying the pleasure to create on purpose and to offer a gift. It is rewarding and if you like to create it is also relaxing. That’s why sewing and knitting are so popular because you feel good when you create, learn and use your hands!

– To reduce your electricity consumption, you can turn off your devices every night before going to sleep.

– To reduce your digital impact, you can unsubscribe from newsletters you are not interested in reading anymore and delete emails from your mailbox.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“You are not the victim of the world, but rather the master of your own destiny. It is your choices and decisions that determine your destiny.”

-Roy T Bennett

This week smile, laugh, create, be grateful for what you have.
Enjoy every moment you share with your loved ones.

I wish you a lovely week!

Marie Barbezieux Rousselle

Life & Leadership Certified Professional Coach I rainbow-lifecoaching.com

Mobile: (347) 484 7940 | marie@rainbow-lifecoaching.com

Follow my Facebook page

Follow my Instagram page

Rainbow Life Coaching_Logo

monday motivation

Monday Motivation: Harvest Moon Partly Cloudy

Fall is a beautiful season, especially in New York City, with the vestiges of the summer and a tease into winter. Great time to visit parks and see autumn leaves.

And tonight, it’s September Harvest Moon!

Even if you’re not in Koh Tao for the Fullmoon Party, you can still enjoy this special evening, take time to reflect on your life and what you really want and make the most of its powerful, healing energies.

Last week, between my snowy and cloudy (but beautiful!) trip to Alberta and my busy days of work in New York City, I remembered a very cute video, Partly Cloudy I watched many years ago.
It’s about clouds and storks, if you don’t know it, please take 5 minutes to watch it.
And if you do, please watch it again because it is a good reminder of the meaning of life, its struggles, and its beauty.
If there weren’t people like the worn stork and the storm cloud, there wouldn’t be a decent world to live in.

This week means a lot to me.
One year ago I was about to live a very special week, a powerful and terrible experience that changed my life forever.
It is a big milestone and I know it is a life-long journey.

So this week, more than never, enjoy every moment you share with your loved ones. Make memories, laugh, relax!

Be grateful for what you have.

I wish you a lovely week!

Marie

Learn more about decluttering and minimalism in my last newsletter Monday Motivation: Love people. Use things. Because the opposite will never work.

Read my last article “The Power of Choice” and follow my website Rainbow Life Coaching and my Facebook page to be updated with the next one “How to make the right choice for you”.

Choices

The Power of Choice

Today and in the following weeks, I will share with you some insights about my vision of coaching around choices.

Our daily life is made up of choices, from the pair of socks you will wear to the dinner you will cook or order back home.

We are making choices every day at every single step.

A choice is neither good nor bad; you make a choice with all the information you have and during a specific moment of your life. And sometimes after a few events, you say that it was a bad choice. But often you made the best choice at this exact moment of your life, and it is important to be sure of this choice when you make it.

But first, what is a choice?

What is a choice?

The definition of a choice in the Oxford dictionary is “an act of choosing between two or more possibilities”; “The right or ability to choose”; “A range of possibilities from which one or more may be chosen.”

Some synonyms are “option, alternative, possibility, a possible course of action”.

It means that choosing is a right, an ability that you, and only you, have in your life. No one can choose for you, because it will not be your choice anymore. When you make a choice it means that you have different possibilities, at least two, and you have to choose one of them in order to move on.

“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” – John C. Maxwell

In your everyday life, what kind of choices do you have to make?

Examples of daily choices

Choices have a big impact on your life.

“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” —Keri Russell

You can choose to snooze one more time and stay in bed and will have to rush to be ready to get to work or school, miss your train at 8.35am and your meeting scheduled at 9.00am. You can also be tired and decide to wake up later because you need this time for you and it is about self-care. Often when you make this choice, you don’t expect this domino effect that will make your day start badly.

The average working adult makes about 12 decisions before 9am and an adult makes about 70 decisions a day.

Some of these choices are so much part of our routine that we do not even stop to think about the choices we make. We make choices about the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the appointments we schedule, the people we meet, the time we turn up to work, which bus we catch, where we sit on the bus, what we do after work, and so on.

It’s part of our natural human behavior to make conscious and subconscious decisions on a daily basis.

Even not choosing to do something is a choice.

Choosing is sometimes a waste of time. Building a routine and habits can save you time and “brain energy” so you can focus on important decisions.

Some famous leaders have a morning routine, same clothes, same time to wake up, same breakfast. It gives them more space to think of essential things in their life and business.

For example, each day Steve Jobs would get up, make his bed, shower, and then look himself in the mirror. He’d lock eyes with himself and ask, “If today was the last day of my life, would I be happy with what I’m about to do today?”

If the answer was “no” too many days in a row, he knew something needed to change.

A bit too dramatic maybe, but it was effective for him.

Have you noticed that he was always wearing the same clothes?

Famous leaders always dress the same.

Steve Jobs wore a black mock turtleneck, blue jeans, and New Balance sneakers.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, wears a grey T-shirt. Albert Einstein, the famous theoretical physicist wore a grey suit, no socks, and unkempt hair. Jean Nouvel (Yes, a famous French leader too!), the French architect wears all black in the fall, winter and spring, and all white in the summer. Karl Lagerfeld, head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel, wears a black suit, white shirt, tie, sunglasses, and accessories (like gloves or jewelry).

Zuckerberg himself has said in an interview “I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community.”

Clearly, having a routine helps us to have a clearer mind when it is time to make tough or important decisions.

Having a clear mind is essential to make a choice, but that alone will not give you the answer.

Again, some of the choices you make in your life will be life-changing, and the choices we make can leave us with more meaningful learning experiences. This is the power of choice.

The Power of Choice

Tony Robbins, entrepreneur, bestselling author, philanthropist and the creator of the #1 personal and professional development program speaks brilliantly about the Power of Choice.

“The one thing we have in this world is we cannot control the events, but we can choose what to focus on, we can choose what things mean and we can choose what to do.”

Think about your life for a second.

How did you end up where you are now?

Think about 3 decisions you made in your life where, if you had made a different decision, you would have a completely different life today.

How is your life better today because of the decisions you made?

Take the time to reflect and think about these 3 decisions.

How do you feel? Do you remember when and how you took them? Do you regret them?

Maybe it was a little decision and it changed your whole life.

By choosing, you can have control of your life. Even a small choice can help you feel better. And if you want a new life, you need to make new choices.

“If you don’t like the way your career or your business is, change it!

If you don’t like your body, change it!

If you don’t like the relationship you’re in, change you first then maybe change it.”

– Tony Robbins

And you, are you happy with the life that you have?

How do you think your choices impacted your life?

What is your process when you make a choice?

Have you ever felt your choice was not yours?

Next week, I will talk about how I made my choices, why I do not regret them.

I will share with you some tips and show you how I can help you to make a choice that is right for you (and only you!) thanks to my coaching.

Marie Rousselle

Rainbow Life Coaching

monday motivation

Monday Motivation: Love people. Use things. Because the opposite will never work

How was your weekend? Busy or lazy?

Every Monday, I will share with you readings, videos, and inspiring quotes to boost your energy and start your week right!

In New York City, we had a fresh and rainy weekend.

It was the perfect weather to begin a total cleanup and start this back-to-school season with a clear mind and more energy!

It reminds me of a book I read 3 years ago The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, from Marie Kondo (La Magie du Rangement in French).

This book is the Decluttering Bible. It helped me to organize my place, clear my mind, and feel good in my apartment.

In a few words, the concept is to be surrounded by things that you love and that make you feel good and get rid of everything else.

Have you ever tried to get rid of useless things?

It is not easy. But when you think of the things you really need and use in your everyday life, you will quickly realize that you don’t need that much.

If it brings you more happiness and peace in your everyday life, it is worth a try!

As I am on “decluttering mode”, yesterday I decided to watch the Minimalists, A Documentary About the Important Things with Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus.

What is Minimalism?

Some of you are certainly familiar with this concept.

Minimalism is to live with only the things you really need.

It is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from it.

Whatever the name you give to this trend, it is in reaction with over-consumption and advertising.

This warning of consumerism was already pointed out by USA president Jimmy Carter in 1979 in its speech “Crisis of Confidence”!

“Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. ”

Finding your purpose and being confident is a journey, especially after a life-changing event.

I am not a perfect example of Minimalism or decluttering, but I know how things in my life are nothing compared to the people I love and the experience I live with them.

Enjoy every moment you share with your loved ones this week.

Think more of what makes you feel good and see how you feel at the end of the week, I’m sure you will feel happier and peaceful.

I wish you a lovely week!

Marie Barbezieux Rousselle

Life & Leadership Coach