Ted Lasso You're Devastating Me.
I didn’t read this article in McSweeney’s about the greatest show in tv history because it warned of a spoiler for season two.
Ted Lasso is a show of such precise wit, nuance, and bullseye emotional brilliance, I can barely suffer my devastation over having to wait for the next episode. I should not be this undone, but evidently, others are as well. This was the article’s lead.
TED LASSO IS A SHINING EXAMPLE OF KINDNESS AND DECENCY, AND CRITICS WHO DISAGREE SHOULD BURN IN HELL FOREVER
by JONATHAN ZELLER
I’m not a binge-watcher or big fan of tv and even I know that typically, in an ensemble cast, only one or two characters evolve in a season, but all of Ted Lasso’s characters, who’ve become such personal friends that I find myself shouting “Go Richmond” at the top of my lungs over a fictional match in a sport I don’t even care about, EVOLVE IN GORGEOUS AND UNPREDICTABLE WAYS under Ted and Beard’s canny leadership.
If you are a leader, a coach, a therapist, a mother, a CEO, a soccer enthusiast, or just someone like me who appreciates the artful and regular use of the f-bomb and you are not watching this show, your life and your people are poorer for it.
Here are a few more lessons from Ted Lasso that are changing my life. I promise won’t spoil anything if you’re just starting.
Joy is a choice.
Dani Rojas shows us what joy as a primary motivation looks like, especially in contrast to Jaime. This matters because he has the same problems as the rest of the team - maybe more - but his presence reminds us that we all lead, all the time, by choice or default, and we’d be wise to consider what we’re leading with.
Vulnerability is the first thing we want from others and the last thing we want to give.
Brene Brown said that and in one of the show’s 1000 examples of art imitating life, Ted and the cast playfully reference Brown’s work, inventing a gleeful title for her new book. So it makes sense that she would have the writers as guests on her podcast while wearing a Roy Kent jersey.
Just for the record, Roy Kent is kind of not a real person, but is nonetheless adored by approximately 100% of the show’s fans, because he’s so incredibly self-aware he can teach his six-year-old niece Phoebe why she shouldn’t swear at school and tell her to fuck off in the same conversation. (If you’re not a fan of fruity language, you might skip the clip.)
Coaches and therapists need coaches and therapists.
The great trap into which we’ve all fallen to one degree or another is believing that our bootstrapping, rugged individualism, and our love of privacy, exempts us from millennia of human neurobiology. Sorry Charlie. It doesn’t work like that. We all need each other - even coaches and therapists. Ted and the team demonstrate what that looks like without a hint of saccharine. You might grab a tissue.
Lord have mercy….This show.
Anyway, I told you all that to tell you this. I am a coach and a human and with every episode of Ted Lasso, I’m learning to be better at both.
ps. Ted Lasso and the gang are infiltrating every part of the Meaning of Midlife - our flagship, three-month course. If you could use some coaching on how to get unstuck, on purpose, and building a happy second half, you can book a free call and we’ll talk it over.