WHERE THE LIGHT GETS IN: SIMPLE, PLAYFUL AND PROFOUND PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE by Ben Crowe
The only life coach I have ever really liked brings his A-game to the page at last
I have to start with transparency: I am a big fan of Ben Crowe. The former Nike exec turned ‘leadership coach and mentor’ of elite athletes (and others) is possibly the only one of his kind who I actually listen to, utilise the advice of and admire. So I have looked for him to write a book like this for years, and when it was announced, I pre-ordered it.
Where the Light Gets in does not disappoint.
I know a lot of people are cynical about the kind of work people like Crowe do. Frankly, I agree with some of it. However, the thing I like about Ben Crowe is the lack of ‘woo-woo’. I don’t know if it’s his Australian-ness, the big family dynamic he grew up in or working for a company who changed the rules on branding, but it always seems to me that he authentic, has integrity and while he takes the work he does seriously, he does not take himself too seriously. I like people like that.
I also have seen the change in some of the big name athletes Crowe has worked with. They’ve gone from very talented but lacking the capacity to finish the job and achieve sporting success, to being respected and achieving sporting glory - all while keeping a close relationship with the person they are, rather than defining themselves by the accolades and trophies. Think Ash Barty, the grand-slam winning tennis player from Queensland who conquered the tennis world with a constant smile, then walked away at 25 because she wanted something more from life.
Think Trent Cotchin, the captain of the Richmond Tigers AFL club, who started working with Crowe when the club was not performing well and Cotchin, a Brownlow Medallist, was questioning whether the hard work was worth it. He and his coach worked with Crowe, expanding what they learned across the playing group. In 2017, they won their first premiership in more than 40 years and they followed up in 2019 and 2020.
Crowe is sought after as a speaker and coach globally - not just with athletes. It’s not hard to understand why.
Where the Light Gets In is the long awaited book, which details Crowe’s life but also the key lessons he has learned and teaches to people around the world. Specifically, Crowe believes that changing one’s perspective is the key to happiness and fulfillment, whatever that looks like for the reader. It’s an easy thing to say, and far more difficult to achieve - let’s be honest about that. And yet, the way Crowe frames it and the examples of ways (big and small) that it can be facilitated is where the real value of his work is.
I did not only buy the book - I listened to the audiobook and listening to Crowe narrate brought so much of his advice to life. So much of what he talks about, he lives. He knows it is not easy and, frankly, life is not supposed to be easy, is it?
Topics include
‘From Pressure to Freedom’ (and I have to say straight up, this one hit hard for me and I have been working for the last month to really embrace this one)
‘Person versus Persona’
‘Agency, Acceptance, Appreciation’
and more.
This isn’t a book that tells you that you have to be grateful every day to be a better person. Crowe knows that there are days there is very little to be grateful for. He reshapes that philosophy, and in a way that is digestable and practical, with far less pressure placed on it. He also has some wonderful thoughts about the ownership we have to take of our own stories. It was that topic that first drew me to his work several years ago and it has been part of my evolution as a person since.
I am not a huge fan of self-help books or guru’s who tell their followers to do as they say to win in life. I don’t believe there’s a single person on earth who completely has their life fully together, who has achieved perfection or who knows something more than the other eight billion people on the planet. Crowe doesn’t pretend to be any of these things. This is not a preacher-man.
This is one that I think, even if you are in a good place in life, people can get something from and take steps towards their personal goal for a contented life. After all, it is not money or property or material things that brings contentedness: it’s the person we are, the people we surround ourselves with and our individual integrity that is the legacy we leave.