“In the attention economy, winning means getting as many people as possible to spend as much time and attention as possible with one’s product or service. Although, as it’s often said, in the attention economy, the user is the product.”

– James Williams, Stand Out of Our Light

The following is a letter to the coaching team at Oak Park and any other coach willing to take on a big issue with meaningful action.

We are coaches, so our duty is to lead people to fitness, health, and wellness. We do this with high touch, human-to-human coaching. Along the path, we support the sustainable growth of our athletes and clients. This is hard and requires effort on both sides to do the work of growing. Intentional, sustainable growth takes time, attention, intentionality, free will, self-regulation, self reflection, purpose, human connection and positive emotions. As the longer version of this article shows, ALL of these essential resources are depleted and often negated completely and thus, when we post to Facebook, IG, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube with the dual purpose of “building our brands,” and “helping” those we lead, we’re simultaneously hurting the people we care about.