Need a (cheap) life coach? Try Pythagoras

The self-help shelves at the book store are overflowing. Demand for "life coaches" is at record levels.

Save your money. Take some free advice from a guy who was in his prime about 2500 years ago, Pythagoras.

We all know the name. And depending on your attitude toward math you probably either love him or hate him. No one can avoid A² + B² = C² . That fact alone should tell us that Pythagoras was a man we should listen to. The Greek philosopher and mathematician came up with this truth almost three millennia ago and we're still teaching it in school.

I don't think that will be true for any of the self-help authors who are pumping out today's bestsellers.

Last night I was reading a general interest book on math and the author spent a few pages outlining some biographical information on Pythagoras. Pythagoras took on students. He impressed upon them a few simple disciplines. You can fire your life coach if you adopt these for yourself.

First he made them establish a strict routine for going to bed at night and getting up in the morning. That's simple enough, although it's often hard to do.

But, when you combine this with two little rhymes Pythagoras had his students memorize and obey, it can be life changing.

Commit this to memory:

As soon as you awake, in order lay

the actions to be done in the coming day.

Don't hit the snooze button. Don't lie in bed day dreaming. Lay out what you need to accomplish. If you're an iPhone person, get yourself an app and enter all "the actions to be done in the coming day."

Pythagoras then had his students "close the loop"—if I can borrow a phrase from the days when I worked as a quality control engineer in the electronics industry—with another short rhyme they were required to memorize and recite at the end of the day:

Allow not sleep to close your eyes

Before three times reflecting on

Your actions of the day. What deeds

Done well, what not, what left undone?

Before you nod off at night, make an honest evaluation of what you were able to accomplish from the list of actions you laid out for yourself in the morning. Note the qualitative aspect of this evaluation. What did you do well? What did you do, but perhaps poorly? Then, of course, what did you fail to do?

For many of us, our days look more like this flow chart than the disciplined approach to life that Pythagoras instilled in his students.

I don't expect my legacy to last nearly as long, or have any impact like A² + B² = C² , but maybe if I start my days with a clear understanding of the actions I need to take, and spend a few moments at night to honestly reflect on my day, I will be a better person and have more to offer my family and friends.

I don't suppose they had business cards back in the days of Pythagoras. But if they did, he could have listed "life coach" along with mathematician and philosopher. And, I think his rules to guide our relationship to the tasks of our daily life are just as enduring as his formula that defines the relationship of the sides of a right triangle.