The Life Coach School Podcast · Brooke Castillo

#528: When Your Best Isn't

October 3, 2024·33 min·3 clips

Brooke explains why the grind of pursuing huge dreams is actually the best part of life.

This episode features Brooke Castillo exploring the emotional and strategic challenges of pursuing ambitious goals when initial efforts fall short. She draws from her recent experience caddying for her son Christian during his debut professional golf tour in Canada. Castillo connects Christian's athletic journey to the entrepreneurial struggles faced by her coaching clients. She identifies a common frustration where individuals commit fully yet see others achieve more with seemingly less effort. Castillo structures the discussion around three core questions for anyone in this position. The first question asks you to define your current "best" across four areas: skill, attitude, commitment, and resilience. The second question challenges you to contemplate whether your best is ultimately good enough to reach your desired result, advising against quitting solely from self-doubt. The third question focuses on diagnosing why your best isn't good enough *yet*, using Christian's golf performance as a concrete example—his drives weren't hitting enough fairways and putts weren't dropping. Castillo argues the solution is to create a specific plan to "close the gap" between current and required performance levels. She contrasts merely tolerating the arduous journey of improvement with learning to genuinely enjoy it. A key insight is that the "grind" phase of pursuing a huge goal is often more fulfilling than the accomplishment itself. Castillo references emails from successful students and the experience of professional golfer Brooks Koepka, noting that achievement often just leads to wanting the next goal. She posits that impossible goals force personal transformation, not just incremental change. Castillo cites the book *The Last Word on Power* as a key influence on her thinking about declaring an "impossible future." She concludes that power comes from letting failures "create" you by defining them from the perspective of your future success, rather than letting them "define" you based on present evidence. The tone is motivational and instructional, blending personal anecdote with structured coaching frameworks. It is conversational yet direct, as Castillo speaks from her own experiences as a mother, coach, and former entrepreneur. Listeners who are in the early or difficult stages of building a business, mastering a skill, or pursuing a major life goal would find this episode highly relevant. Those who prefer purely tactical advice or are skeptical of motivational life coaching perspectives might choose to skip it.

As heard by us

A direct framework for staying committed without mistaking a current limit for a final verdict.

Brooke Castillo returns after three months on the road with Christian and builds the episode around a blunt coaching question: what happens when your best still is not enough? The clearest part is the framework that follows.

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Why you'd press play

When your best still isnt enough, Brooke gives you a way to keep going.

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