Certification Level 1 

Chapter 2: Your learning plan 

Learning is an important part of change.  

This, along with other principles we’ll explore throughout the program, is a core part of our Precision 
Nutrition coaching approach.  

Whether coach or client, student or teacher, we all need to be, in some way, responsible for our own 
learning and growth process.  

And, learning, like anything else, is a skill.  

In this lecture, and in your textbook chapter, we’ll give you some ways to practice those skills.  

And you might notice -- they look a lot like the tools and techniques we use in our PN Coaching and 
ProCoach programs to help coach clients.  

That’s because, in many ways, we as coaches are the same as our clients.  

For instance, we’re all busy.  

We all set unrealistic expectations sometimes.  

We all struggle or have setbacks.  

We all sometimes feel unmotivated or distracted. 

So, many of the same tools and techniques that we can use to help clients, you can also use to help 
yourself as you move through your Certification process. 

The first concept you’ll see throughout your program is what we call a “Learner’s Manual”.  

Now, this isn’t a real book. Instead, it’s a practice of gathering data about yourself by observing, 
reflecting, and analyzing your own experiences. 

We do the same with clients, asking them to answer questions, experiment, and discover knowledge 
about themselves so that they’re more empowered and informed about making changes on their 
own behalf.  

You’ll notice that the more you put clients in charge of collecting their own data, the more motivated 
they are, and the better ideas they have about what to do next. 

The same will be true for you. 

Throughout the program, we’ll give you specific questions or exercises to reflect on.  

You’ll record your observations and answers, and use those data to choose or refine what you do 
next. 

Precision Nutrition L1 Certification: Chapter 2 Video Transcript | 1 

Sort of like creating an instruction manual for yourself and your coaching practice. 

We encourage you to get in the habit of noticing: what works best for you—and what doesn’t.  

Now, here’s something that surprises many of our coaching clients when they start our Precision 
Nutrition Coaching or ProCoach programs: We don’t start off talking about food, or going gung-ho 
on big changes. 

Instead, we ask them to do one of two tasks as their daily practice: 

● Make time in their schedule to read their lessons, do a small daily action, get some 
movement, and otherwise do what needs to be done.  
● Or, take a 5-minute action. In other words, do a very small action, about five minutes or 
less, that moves them towards their goals.  

As they practice these two core tasks, they start to see: 

These are the tasks that make everything else possible. 

And that’s why we’re suggesting YOU start with these tasks too, before you get to learning about 
nutritional science or coaching. 

Making time is a commitment to YOU and YOUR values, priorities, and goals. 

And, it’s a crucial “survival habit”—if we don’t make time, time will be taken from us.  

We’ll be pushed and pulled by all kinds of other demands and obligations. Something will always 
come up, and there’s never a “perfect time”. 

Taking a 5-minute action helps you get moving and beat procrastination.  

That can be something as small as reading a paragraph in your textbook, reviewing the materials on 
your home page, or checking your calendar to plan ahead for the week. 

As we tell our coaching clients, action often comes before motivation, not the other way around.  

Often, all we need to do is push through the first few minutes of inertia and resistance, and we’re 
rolling.  

A 5-minute action might sound small. And it is.  

But just like clients, we need to set reasonable and realistic expectations. In other words, we 
often need to adjust our goals and hopes to match our real life, and our own capacity.  

After all, just like your clients, you might be busy, juggling other demands, working long hours, 
caring for family, feeling stressed, trying to manage a business, and so on.  

That’s OK. That’s normal. 

You never have to put in a “perfect”, 100% effort. Data from our coaching programs shows that even 
a 10% effort can get results.  

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So, we encourage people to look for ways to be just a tiny bit better. 

We also encourage people to think like a beginner.  

Having “beginner’s mind” means that no matter what you already know, or how much experience 
you have, you “show up” with an open mind, pretending that you don’t know anything.  

In fact, we hope that no matter how much you learn, you’ll keep some aspect of “beginner’s mind” 
forever. 

As a coach, this open, curious mindset will help you: 

● learn more effectively and quickly; 

● connect better with your clients; 
● see opportunities, solutions, and possibilities more readily; 
● feel calm, comfortable, and aware, even in difficult or uncertain situations (rather than 
anxious, embarrassed, or frustrated); and  
● accurately assess what is unfolding here and now. 

Another important concept in coaching and learning is making your environment, or your 
surroundings, support your goals. 

How can you make it easier and more convenient to make the right choices, and harder or 
inconvenient to make the wrong choices? 

Research on the brain and cognition shows that despite what we believe, most of us can’t multitask.  

Instead, we perform much better when we single-task—when we focus on doing one thing at a 
time, and eliminate distractions as much as possible. 

So for instance, this might involve keeping your PN materials close at hand, convenient, and readily 
available. 

It might mean that you define a dedicated study space—somewhere quiet, distraction-free, and all 
yours for focusing on your work. 

It might mean that you have a conversation with other people, such as your family or coworkers, 
about what you need to succeed with your PN Certification studies, and how they might help 
support you. 

Another key principle in PN Coaching is having a growth mindset. 

Just like your clients, at some point in your PN Certification studies, you will probably: 

● Get off track or lost. 

● Have a setback. 
● Feel confused, frustrated, or stuck. 
● Have other demands on your time and attention. 

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This is normal. Treat the situation as “feedback” that gives you valuable information about what to 
do next, rather than “failure”. 

In other words, how can you stay on the path and grow, rather than giving up or treating setbacks as 
a commentary about you as a person? 

By now, you’re probably getting the idea that just like your clients, in order to succeed, you want to 
focus more on the process and less on the outcome.  

Of course, we encourage you to set exciting and inspiring goals.  

But just like your clients, you need to know how you’re going to get there. 

● To get to a certain goal, you need to build certain skills. 

● To build those skills, you need to do certain practices regularly. 
● To make those practices manageable and consistent, you need to break them down into 
small actions. 

Even if you aren’t quite sure exactly what all the learning skills are, think about what little actions you 
might do regularly to stay on track with your PN Certification program. 

Each person learns a little differently, and you’re here for your own reasons. 

As you go along, explore ways to help yourself learn.  

For instance, you can practice “testing” yourself on what you know.  

You can teach someone else what you’re learning, or simply talk to them about it. 

You can write notes right in your textbook.   

You can draw mind maps or other pictures of what you’re learning. 

And so on. 

One good way to learn and remember things is to connect them to what you already know. 

For instance, you may already have other degrees, another line of work, and/or existing skills and 
interests. Make this material relevant by connecting to those things you already have, do, or know. 

At first, you may not know what you need in order to learn best. That’s OK.  

As you go along,  

1. notice what works best for you,  

2. try the exercises we recommend, and  
3. keep writing your Learner’s Manual.  

And remember… sometimes all it takes to keep moving forward is 5 minutes a day. 

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