What a four year old and a homemade cane pole taught me about simplicity

On a recent evening fishing trip with my two young sons, my four year old taught me an important lesson about simplicity. As usual, I brought everything and the kitchen sink. One heavy fishing rod for big catfish, a medium sized bait rod and a jigging rod. Each of these fishing rods was set up with nice reels, heavy fishing line and fancy, three way rigs designed to optimize the fishing experience.

My four year old? He had a small stick with a four-foot piece of 8 lb test and a small hook tied to it. An invention inspired by him. During our last outing he told me “make me a fishing pole, daddy!” So I did. I did it just to give him something to play with, not expecting him to catch anything with it. (INSERT picture of pole here)

We arrive at our fishing spot. I get the boys out of the truck and start feverishly working to get my rods working. I untangle them from each other, remove a sinker that’s wrapped up with the other lines, think about picking out the perfect color of swimbait for my jigging rod, bait the hooks, cast them out, set the drag, put them in the rodholders that I’ve rigged to my tackle box. Complicated. Even for a simple type of fishing.

My four year old had a plan too. “Put a worm on my hook, Daddy” he enthusiastically requested. I agreed but told him that I didn’t think that type of rod would be of much use here. This is a big river after all. Before I even got a chance to cast my jigging rod out he yells out, “ooooohhh I got one!” This was the beginning of an hour long frenzy during which his dad, with his three lines in the water caught three fish, and the three year old with the simple homemade cane pole caught TWELVE.

His words to me? “Daddy I’m hammering em! I’m even catching more than you.” I usually don’t appreciate getting outfished, but this was one of the best fishing experiences of my life. My boys had a great time, and I came away with a valuable life lesson. On this day, simplicity beat complexity.

Simplicity is effective because it cuts through the noise. Instead of trying to juggle three different rods at once, we can choose a simple cane pole and outfish even the most experienced.

In health and wellness coaching, we’re often tasked with coaching complicated clients. They have a list of diagnoses a mile long and a worrying prognosis that never lets them rest. As a coach, we have a choice to make. To approach them with complexity like everyone else, or to be a singular force of simplicity.

To carry a little cane pole to the big river, and see what we catch.

If you want to learn more about a simple, cane pole approach to coaching, I’m in the process of creating an NBHWC CEU opportunity. It will be worth 1 CEU and is completely FREE. If you want to be alerted when it goes live, subscribe HERE.