I was talking with a prospective client who just lost his C-suite role. He quickly had opportunities to go back into the same role at a bigger organization.

It would have been easy. But it didn’t feel right.

For the first time, this executive really felt no pressure to work. No pressure to perform, to go back to the grind, to measure his self worth by meeting his organization’s KPI’s. His kids were through college. The house was paid off.

For the first time, he was asking the big question–

What do I want?

What would feel meaningful? What would bring joy to me and others?

If I already have enough, if I already AM enough, then what?

The truth is that many of us already fall into that camp. We just have trouble seeing it sometimes.

But when we see that we are already enough, that we’ve always been enough, that our innate state is peace, is joy, is wholeness, then we can ask ourselves, what can we create just because we want to?

When we do create from that perspective, all the other things, the money we thought we needed, the self worth and meaning that we thought was lacking, show up anyway.

My experience is that the universe has always had bigger ideas for me than I have.

How about you?

…is seeing that the maze is made up.

You have an idea of what success means. And then you judge yourself when you don’t meet this definition.

We feel bad because we didn’t meet the test that we created.

It’s crazy. And yet we all do it. Over and over. It’s human nature. And it’s practically invisible to us.

For every story of, “This is what I need to do, this is what Wall Street requires, this is what we have to do to respond to our competition” there is a story of someone succeeding doing exactly the opposite.

Exactly. The. Opposite.

Don’t believe the story in your head. The story you’ve been taught to believe.

Because the story in your heart is a lot more compelling.

The story of your innate wisdom.

Can you hear it?

Half the effort, twice the impact

When I start talking with a leader about coaching, the breathless response that I often get is that things are just fine, and besides, there is no way this busy overachiever has time for coaching, thank you very much!

And then we slow down a bit.

We start by talking about two things.

The first is output versus impact.

A pickup truck is capable of great output. But if you floor it, you’re not going anywhere. It used to be you would spin your tires. Now, you burn out your antilock breaks, which are determined to keep your wheels from spinning (and therefore keep you exactly in place).

Traction is critical. And traction is creating by moving not at maximum speed, but at the right speed. The more people you want to bring along, the bigger impact you want to have, the slower you need to go. At first. It’s only then you can build your speed, and momentum.

The second is effort versus ease.

In swimming, the most important thing is to be able to glide through the water. Efficiency comes first, then effort. This is why the best swimmers barely make a splash.

In leading, the goal is to minimize mental effort.

There is the doing (for you and your team). And there is the thinking that things and people should be different, that you should be able to go faster, that you aren’t doing a good job, that you will get fired if this doesn’t work.

The second type of thinking is a complete waste of effort. Because things are exactly as they are, until you and your team change them.

Imagine how much easier things would be if you didn’t think they should be easier?

If you can put these two simple changes into effect, I guarantee you can have twice the impact with half the effort.

And if you’d like to see how this could work for you, DM me and let’s talk.

“I want to sell my company so that…”

“I want the promotion so that…”

“I want to change my career so that…”

How do you fill in the “so that”?

The end goal is very similar from person to person.

It’s something like “a more enjoyable experience of life.”

We work hard, we suffer now for the promise of ease and joy and love later.

But has it ever worked?

I find that meeting a goal generally leads to a momentary sense of all of those things. But then the next thing shows up.

We think it’s the meeting of the goal that gives the ease and joy and love.

But it was really the momentary pause in our thinking. Our striving.

In that pause, we see how amazing life is.

And sometimes, if we are lucky, life shows us another possibility.

Not just 10 percent more of what we just did. But something totally new.

When that shows up, you begin to see that life is much better at creating your goals than you ever were.

And there is awe in this.

I can tell you this from my own experience. This awe is available anytime. It’s actually your default state. The universe operating through you. As you.

And the universe has bigger ideas for you than you ever did.

Living in the surprise of that IS the more enjoyable experience of life that you thought you were looking for. In fact, it’s way, way better.

And it is always, already here.