“Bring something with you that symbolizes what you want to get out of this,” she said.
‘She’ was my then coach, the very first I ever hired.
‘This’ was the career coaching I hired her for.
I was 30 and stuck in dead-end jobs. More than anything, I wanted to know what would make me want to come out of bed in the morning. (Besides to make coffee and light my first cigarette.)
So … what could symbolize what I wanted to get out of the coaching? I had no idea. Absolutely none.
Five minutes before I had to leave, I still had no clue. I looked around my living room to see if something caught my eye.
Yes!
I grabbed the little statue from my coffee table, stuffed it in my backpack, and ran out the door.
An hour later I put it on my coach’s table.
A round-bellied buddha with a knapsack on his back. My dad brought it from a business trip in Singapore.
“Why did you choose this?”
And out of nowhere, these words flowed from my mouth:
“Because it symbolizes that you already carry everything you need and are looking for with you.”
I had not prepared this answer.
I had not brought the buddha after careful deliberation of what I wanted to get out of the coaching.
The buddha just caught my eye.
And the words just came through.
As I spoke them, I wasn’t even certain what they meant exactly.
Or how they connected to the coaching.
But they felt true.
This was 28 years ago.
It’s crystal clear now what that buddha was telling me then:
You’re not missing anything.
You can stop searching for it.
It’s already here, in the exact spot and the exact situation you’re in now.
All my ideas, solutions, and decisions have come to me like those words that rolled off my tongue back then:
Spontaneously, without effort, at the exact right time.
Like the titles of my books.
Or knowing when it was time to pivot in my business again.
If you look closely enough, you’ll see that the same is true for you:
What you look for is already here.
It was searching for it that made you overlook it.
Love,
P.S. Liked this blog?
There’s more in my exhale mails. No spam, no funnels, no fluff. Just some relief in your inbox. Sign up below.
Get exhale mails — a bit of relief in your inbox: