Information ≠ Transformation

Soon after a friend turned 16, a winter storm hit his town. His dad tossed him the car keys, then sent him to an empty parking lot to learn how to drive in the snow.

We can read about how to handle a car in the snow, and someone can tell us how to do it too. That information is helpful, but it can’t beat the experience of exploring driving in the snow on our own.

Information ≠ Transformation

I’ve been asked what the difference between coaching and therapy is. This is one of them: therapy is focused on information, while coaching is focused on transformation.

This is what schools are missing. We’ve all been trained in the fallacy that information alone leads to transformation. It doesn't.

Year after year in my engineering lab after school, I’d have students come in to work on projects. Most of the students who performed well in classrooms had a challenging time translating classroom learning into practice.

Classrooms are usually focused on information. Presentations are usually focused on information. Professional development is usually focused on information. 

Information ≠ Transformation

We are in the midst of a stress, anxiety, and depression epidemic. You can see it on social media, you can see it in the way people hold and express themselves, you can hear it in the way people talk.

In a culture that prioritizes information over transformation, you can begin to see why. There are so many ways we think we are screwed up, we have screwed up, and the world is screwed up. It’s all so much!

People are stressed and they want freedom!! We carry the weight of information on our shoulders, and more information isn’t much of a way out. 

But transformation is. Transformation is accessing power, freedom, peace of mind, self-expression, love, enjoyment, and soul-alignment. RIGHT NOW.

In the face of all circumstances. 

Here are a few quotes from clients - I share them not to share about me, but to share what transformation sounds like. 

“I knew my conversation with Mick would be valuable, but I'm in awe of just how insightful it was. I feel more free than I have the past two years of my life. I have no idea how he did it, but this is miracle-work.” KF

“I’ve been dealing with a particular issue in my life for the last 13 years that’s caused me to doubt myself, question my worth, and sometimes wonder whether others really wanted me in their life, even some of the people closest to me. I never would’ve thought it could get resolved in a single conversation, and it did. My conversations with Mick truly are a miracle.” GG

“I wasn’t sure how you were going to do it, but you brought us back to a beautiful place.” HG

“You’ve helped me let go of the grip. I feel so much more relaxed, peaceful. I’m certainly going to replace worry with love.” CS

There’s nothing wrong with information - it can be extremely helpful. Let’s just not fool ourselves:

Information ≠ Transformation

P.S. As a transformational coach - a life coach, a soul coach - I help teens, adults, and organizations move beyond their self-imposed limitations to be their best and feel their best. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you or your organization, reach out and let’s talk. 💌

This Is YOUR Curriculum

This life, each moment of it, is your spiritual curriculum.

The boredom, the fear, the excitement, the dreams, the action, the passion, the insecurity.

All of it.

It’s all here to help us grow and learn, expand and elevate.

This life is a mountain without a top, and the only option is to keep hiking up.

So take those rocks out of your backpack - you picked them up, now put them back down. Lighten your load, dear friend.

Appreciate the miracle of your body, mind, and heart as it supports you on this trip. So often we battle inside with these key aspects of our humanity - we judge our body and curse its aches, we blame the mind for distracting us and being conditioned, and we run from and resist the emotions of the heart as if a moment of sadness means death.

The body is for you. The mind is for you. The heart is for you. They are the spirit’s companions on this glorious trip we’re on.

What does it mean that this life is your spiritual curriculum?

It means you’re on a spiritual retreat - always. 

And each interaction matters - our external interactions with others and the world around us, and our internal interactions with each part of ourselves.

Do you get that? Really? That whether you bring love and understanding, or annoyance and frustration, or fear and loathing - each interaction matters. Each interaction is an opportunity to plant a seed intentionally or to plant a seed negligently.

Your life is your spiritual retreat - bloom where you are, my friend.

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When I was a junior in high school I had a powerful moment of insight, like I was seeing the code of the Matrix for the first time. In the middle of class, all of a sudden I saw the world around me more clearly than I’d ever seen it before - the mathematics and physics so perfectly described the physical universe I’d been experiencing my whole life.

Newton’s first law: an object in motion will continue moving exactly the same...unless it’s acted upon by an outside net force.

If you’d like an outside force to help you realign your life, actions, and experience with what really matters to you, reach out and let’s explore working together. Take the spiritual retreat of your life to the next level. The time is Now.

P.S. As a transformational coach - a life coach, a soul coach - I help teens, adults, and organizations move beyond their self-imposed limitations to be their best and feel their best. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you or your organization, reach out and let’s talk. 💌

From Battleground to Harmony

In the Mind Mastery Experience with 12 teens at the beginning of this month, we discussed the power and value of alignment. 

I do this with one-on-one clients too. After laying some solid groundwork, we reflect on misalignment that’s occurring in their lives.

My life and my work are encapsulated in that single word: alignment. 

Alignment at all levels of our being. 

Mind. 

Heart (emotions). 

Body. 

Spirit. 

Relationships.

You know when your car's wheels are misaligned - the car keeps trying to take you off-course. The same is true when we are misaligned - our mind, heart, body, and relationships take us off-course.

I like to think of alignment like this: it’s as if I contain a channel for energy to flow through me. When I’m misaligned, there are kinks in that channel and the energy can’t flow smoothly or cleanly. Some of it gets caught inside and festers, some of it flows out in incorrect locations and in wacky directions.

When I continuously react to my circumstances - to other people, to situations - that’s a sign of misalignment. 

When I'm caught in a lingering and frequent fear of making it, surviving, and disappointing others - that's a sign of misalignment.

For many of us much of the time, we are mostly reacting to the people and world around us. Our senses collect some data about the situations in front of us, and our default mode is a reaction - for safety, for security, for dominance...to get it "right," to avoid looking bad, to avoid responsibility.

When we live a life of reacting, we’re living like robots. Stimulus-response. Stimulus-response. Stimulus-response.

And our bodies might survive, but our alignment is all out of whack. 

This is one way to move through time and life. 

The body, mind, and emotions were so finely tuned by the processes of creation and evolution that they’ll keep us going, but moving somewhere isn’t the same thing as going where we mean to go.

In this top-heavy life we live, we’re mostly only hearing the reasons of the mind, the urges of the body, the sirens of our emotions. We haven’t learned to tune into and act upon the whisper of truth always hovering within us. 

Until we do, there are many battlegrounds in this life. Battlegrounds in our marriage. Battlegrounds in parenting. Battlegrounds at work. 

Battlegrounds within ourselves.

The evolution of the Self isn’t a battle. It’s a dance. 

It's a dance for Love. Fulfillment. Enjoyment. And getting some great work done.

Alignment is our best gauge of whether we're being our best and feeling our best.

And it’s the most inspiring and satisfying dance around.

Alignment is harmony, and it's both the path and the destination.

Thank you for reading. ❤️

P.S. As a transformational coach - a life coach, a soul coach - I help teens, adults, and organizations move beyond their self-imposed limitations to be their best and feel their best. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you or your organization, reach out and let’s talk. 💌