As you may know, I’m passionate about subtractive psychology (aka 3 principles).
I started having insights into these principles in 2009 and it made an immediate difference…
First, my priorities shifted and my life started changing…
Second, the way I worked with my clients shifted, and their lives started changing…
Third, I realised that this understanding represents the future of psychology, and I had a vision of everybody on the planet being aware of their innate capacity for clarity, resilience & wellbeing. My sense of purpose shifted, and my business started changing…
I’ve shared the story of that journey thousands of times.
Over the years, I’ve grown more and more happy and grateful for the beautiful feeling we share with our clients, and the impact this work has in people’s lives…
I’ve grown more peaceful, and experienced greater wellbeing in almost every aspect of my own life…
And I have more love and connection in the average day than I used to in the average year…
I’m passionate about the work I do with individuals, groups and organisations…
But there’s this ONE thing…
While I’m certain of the 100% inside-out nature of our experience, there’s one place where I still lose sight of it regularly.
In my twenties and early thirties, I worked as a programme manager, running large IT and organisational change programmes.
I found it super stressful, and pretty unfulfilling. But I discovered a way to deal with the stress.
Alcohol was medication for what looked like a work-problem to me (it was actually a ‘paradigm-problem’ but I didn’t know that at the time).
When I stopped drinking in the 1990s, I found that I could no longer do the stressful, soul-less work I’d been doing until then.
I discovered I was passionate about coaching, training and teaching, and I started a business doing that work.
Then after my first year in business, I had a huge shock.
I’d somehow managed to recreate the ‘project management’ role I thought I’d left behind!
I’d created a business to do the work I was passionate about, then I’d populated it with the very things that had left me feeling so constrained in my previous role. Things like…
… Stress and pressure
… Urgent deadlines
… Toxic goals
… Busy-ness and overwhelm
That’s NOT the guilty secret.
Since then, I’ve made plenty more mistakes, learned tons of lessons and made lots of changes.
The heart of my work today is more soulful than I ever dreamt possible.
I love connecting with people and sharing the principles behind clarity in 1:1 coaching, groupwork, enrolment conversations, supervision, talks, webinars, facebook lives etc.
It’s the work I was born to do, and it speaks to my soul.
But I still find the ‘business’ aspect of my work challenging.
What do I mean by the ‘business’ aspect of my work?
Planning, organising, admin, marketing, logistics, meetings, etc.
Now I’m very fortunate. I have a great team who help me with that stuff.
But there’s still a challenge, and it’s this;
I once heard something profound…
“The feeling you’re living in is all you get.”
The feeling you’re doing BUSINESS in is all you get.
And I feel very fortunate to have found the principles, because the feeling I’m doing business in is *so* much better than it was when I was a project manager…
And it keeps getting better, but here’s the guilty secret…
While the feeling I’m doing business keeps getting incrementally better over the years, it’s still like night and day when I compare it to…
The feeling I’m in when I’m coaching, teaching or public speaking…
The feeling I’m in when I’m doing groupwork, masterclasses or facebook lives…
The feeling I’m in when I’m hanging out with my friends, my family or my beloved Emma McDevitt…
The guilty secret is the fact that I’ve been carrying x amount of that stress and pressure with me on this journey, even with the benefit of the principles understanding that’s made such a difference to me.
If the feeling you’re doing business in is all you get, I’m no longer willing to do any aspect of my business in a feeling of stress, pressure or urgency.
Not for me. Not for my team. Not for this community.
When I was in my twenties, I had a plan to retire by the time I was 55 years old. Then I discovered that a huge percentage of men die within two years of retiring, so I revised my plan…
I turned 55 last year, but I have no plans to retire… ever…
I love my work… it’s what I was “born to do”, as they say…
But I’m retiring from the feeling of self-imposed pressure that I’ve associated with ‘the business aspect of work’ for so much of my life.
So that was the guilty secret… and here’s the biggest experiment I’ve done in years:
I’m going to find out what happens when I introduce a zero-tolerance policy for stress, pressure and urgency with my team, and in my business as a whole.
And why is that such a momentous experiment?
Because I don’t know what’s going to happen…
The shape of my business may change. It may grow larger, smaller or just different.
The ways I communicate may shift. More social media, less social media or different.
How I work may alter. I may become more organised, more spontaneous or something I haven’t imagined yet.
This is a journey into the unknown; an adventure into a world of possibility.
Well, we’re getting ready to start our free Thriving Coaches Business Masterclass series, in preparation for the launch of our Thriving Coaches Blueprint programme in a few weeks.
Now, of all the things we do as a company, launches have historically been the things that carried the most stress, pressure and urgency behind the scenes.
This time it’s going to be different.
My aim for this masterclass series is to bring the beautiful feeling of our trainings and masterclasses into every aspect of the launch *behind* the scenes.
I want to find out what happens when we make “the feeling we’re doing business in” our number one priority.
I’m going to be documenting this as I go, and finding out what happens.
Specifically, I’m going to discover the answer to this question…
What happens when you commit to doing business in a beautiful feeling, letting life lead the way and taking it as it comes…
Q: Does what I’m pointing to in this article speak to you?
You can let me know on Facebook HERE (and read the over 80 replies already there), and if you want to join me on this adventure, you can find all the details and register for the free masterclass series here: https://www.jamiesmart.com/TCBMasterclass.
If you want to share this understanding with others in some way (for example to become a successful coach, therapist or trainer) and want to learn how to do this in a way that’s natural, authentic and impactful then this is the ideal opportunity to join CCT.
1. Clarity Certification Training (CCT) is our flagship seven-month programme for people who want to bring an understanding of the principles behind clarity into their life and their work.
2. I will be delivering all 7 modules on CCT, so you’re going to be working closely with me personally. This means you’ll have the chance to get 1:1 coaching with me in a group context.
3. We’re limiting the number of places on the programme to 36 people. This year’s programme sold out, so we’re expecting CCT 2022 to be fully booked too (the first 21 places are already gone, so there are 15 left as I write. This programme will sell out).
5. CCT is accredited by the ICF as a Continuous Coaching Education (CCE) provider. If you’re already certified as an ICF coach, you’ll earn ICF CCE units when you do CCT. If you’re not already a certified ICF coach, you can take part in CCT with full confidence that the programme is fully accredited by the ICF as a Continuous Coaching Education provider.
6. You can join from the comfort of your own home using our state-of-the-art live-streaming facility, and…
7. You can save up to £2,000 when you book your place by midnight Pacific time on 29th November 2021.
And if you have any questions, you can schedule a call with Deb on my team. Deb was one of the first graduates of Clarity Certification Training (she didn’t join our company until after the training had finished) so she’s got in-depth personal experience of the programme.
Whatever questions you may have – from payment plans to personal matters – Deb will be happy to discuss them with you in complete confidentiality. Just book a call in her diary here.
