Episode 22
Creating the Impossible
The desire to have SMART goals instead of dreams is the hallmark of our time. But what happens when we open to what is wanting to move through us, rather than looking at what we think we should do?
Those who truly dare, says transformative coach Michael Neill, dream big. They aim their thinking where it matters, believe in the impossible, and learn how to facilitate a steady stream of insight by tuning into the place within that lies beyond thought.
Aiming our thinking
Most people come to coaching with a big goal – but a goal that is usually reasonably achievable. Often it is not something that particularly lights people up but is something that somehow fits on their timeline of what they feel “should” come next.
So how do we take a client like this and create transformation? Michael speaks about getting “beyond their psychology” – connecting with the part of them that is not personality. Not becoming attached to their ideas but rather focusing on what wants to come through them and what wants to be created through them.
This also shifts the focus from “what needs to change” to making creative energy available and using it. It’s easy to spend a huge amount of energy trying to “fix” our internal struggles but this is a waste of the creative energy that is available to us.
Instead we should be aiming thought intentionally – not at the “problems” but at what we desire. Creative thoughts and insights will come wherever we aim the mind, and this should be our practice.
As coaches our job is to find ways to get people to look at that which is real and constant and true and away from the symptoms of thinking.
Creating the impossible
The only thing that makes something impossible is a thought, and as Michael points out, anything that can’t be put in a wheelbarrow is clearly a thought. And aiming for anything less than what we would love to create but believe to be impossible is avoiding what we are here for.
When you aim the laser of creative potential at anything, it makes it possible. When you aim at the thing you actually would love to do but think is impossible, insight, ideas and possibilities flood in.
Everyone has a dream but they’ve usually given up on it a long time ago and it hurts to think about it so they shut it down and set smart, realistic goals. The key to transformational coaching is to open them back up to the creative flow and give them the courage to dream again.
The whole game is to get what is inside you, out. Playing the game is where you are most alive, most in harmony with the creative life force. There is no guarantee about where you will get to but the point of life is to move this creative energy through you.
Life happens from the inside-out
Consciousness is pure possibility and it’s unaffected by what is created inside it. Your experience is being created moment by moment through thought. We do not control our thoughts but they do not control us either.
There is an aspect of self that doesn’t change, that is constant not variable. This is the solid ground we stand on as we move through life. This part is beyond the reach of our thinking and connected to the creative energy of life.
The main thing that takes us out of connection with that solid ground is our misunderstanding about who we are and the way the world works (believing that it’s outside-in). The more you see the truth, the less hold this misunderstanding has over your behaviour and experience of life.
Resources Mentioned:
Related Interview:
- If you enjoyed this podcast, check out this interview between Michael and Joel where they explore how to coach from the inside-out: Coaching from the Inside-Out