“Follow your bliss …
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn’t know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”
– Joseph Campbell
Today I realized just why so many folks aren’t living the life they are capable of, making the difference in the world they can, or realizing the rewards that comes with being aligned with their bliss.
In my brain dump of what happened this morning for me and a friend over breakfast and a cup of coffee (or two) I’ll reveal what I realized and give you the structure I used to discover it, share some of the tools that helped me get there, and tell about how you can uncover your own bliss and begin living the life of your dreams in about the time it takes to share a leisurely cup of coffee with a friend.
I was having breakfast with a long-time client of mine who’s become a colleague and friend, Mike. We were at a nice little place near where I live about 2 miles west of the Delaware River on the Pennsylvania side. Nothing fancy, just clean good food, in a clean modern, small eatery.
We were chatting about this and that, when the conversation turned to how he is going about making a living today. That’s when things got interesting.
He’s got a classic problem that limits him from making the living he should be making in my opinion. From all accounts, using standard measures and looking from the outside in he’s doing everything right. However, I don’t use those measures and I always work from the inside out.
In some ways, all but actually having what he wants and deserves, he’s living the American dream. He runs his own business, doing work he’s really good at, calling the shots with what he does with his time and when he does it.
He makes a decent living, and the potential to grow his business much larger and more profitably is fantastic too. But, he’s still lost from my point of view.
Without going into deep details to protect Mike’s privacy I can simply say that he’s currently running a consulting practice. Within that practice his attention is divided at least three ways.
First, he consults with business clients helping them to grow their businesses, and he’s quite good at it.
Secondly, he works with individuals coaching them to improve their focus and personal performance as professionals.
Finally, he runs a small business where he uses all the skills he sells to others as a consultant helping them to grow their businesses.
It’s the first two pieces of his business that are causing all the issues he has as far as I’m concerned, even though those two pieces represent seventy percent of his income.
The third piece, the small business he runs outside of his consulting practice is where all the opportunity is, but he treats it like a hobby instead of a real business.
Yes, it’s true that he makes the lion’s share of his income from his consulting practice, and the lion’s share of that income comes from working on other people’s businesses.
Yet, the most consistent income he has, the income he can count on year in and year out, is the income from the small business he’s running – the business he runs like a hobby.
So we chatted a bit more. I drew out of him some critical details that you must know if you want to organize yourself and your life to do what you do best, to follow your bliss, and to get all the juice and sweetness that you’re capable of squeezing out of your life … in fact I’d say this is the only way to find out where the low hanging fruit is that makes what most folks call “work” effortless and joy for those who discover their secret calling …
Here’s some what I drew out of him …
- His preferred way of working
- His preferred way of relating to others
- His default profile of dealing with authority
- How he creates value and where he contributes most
- What he wants to give to those he cares most deeply about
- What his long term personal goals and dreams actually are
- What would be possible if he consolidated all his efforts in one focused, singular, strong direction …
Of course there was more to it than just asking a few questions, like uncovering his personal mythology and autobiographical narrative that drove his behavior up until now … what’s prevented him not just from being all he can be someday, but who he actually already is right now.
After about a thirty minute conversation, where I used virtually all the skills I’ve developed over 25 years of working with clients of all kinds, of every age and background, including some who are struggling to figure out their first tentative steps and those who are stretching themselves beyond established positions as elite, high performers, he suddenly got it!
It became crystal clear to him where the opportunity in his life should be, where he had to focus his attention in the upcoming weeks and months, and when he does not only what’s possible, but also what his life will be like when he does.
He was excited about what felt like the scales falling from his eyes … and I was excited for him too.
We had completely discovered his real calling, how he can focus himself to align himself completely with his natural talents, skills and proclivities, and create the life he’s been trying to get to with all of the rewards that will come with living into it.
We then spent another ten minutes of so discussing the specifics of what to be doing, we uncovered the next three or four specific things to be doing immediately that will put the plan into action, and allow him to put all his eggs in one basket like he should have been doing all along.
I’ve literally had this conversation with dozens of clients, and I realized today how potent and powerful this specific protocol of discovery is for someone. You see in the past I’d only done this kind of thing for clients who had engaged me to work with them on an intensive or long-term basis.
This is just so important if you want to be having the experience of your life … the one that is uniquely your own!!!
There are just really two things that stop people from achieving everything they are capable of depending on how they are organized …
1) You don’t have the ability to have enough flexibility in the way you think about things and the choice about how to do things to make the impact in the world you’re capable of making … to, “put a dent in the Universe” as Steve Jobs said.
2) You don’t have the clarity to choose where to place your attention fully to focus your energy to create the kind of massive difference that you will once you have direction … “When you stand in that sliver of space that is completely and utterly you, then will you be truly awesome, wonderful, magnificent.” – one of my personal quotes.
The conversation I had with Mike this morning allowed me to help him get both outcomes, more choices and ways to think about how he could work on his “hobby” full time, and the ability to put all of his attention in one direction consolidating his energy with laser-like focus to achieve maximum results.
After our short chat he had both the ideas he needed to make a huge difference in his life and the specific ways to begin taking action that would make that difference possible and present for him too. This is the key to what makes this process of potent and powerful, moving past indecision and, linking together intention and action.
This is fundamental key to all success … taking meaninful, directed action!
Yet, what stops so many people isn’t that they aren’t willing to do what it takes actually, but that they get stuck because they don’t know where to put their attention, or what to do about it once they figure that out for themselves.
I’ve built a bit of a reputation for making dramatic changes in people’s lives over a cup of coffee at a breakfast table, driving around showing folks the local sites, smoking a cigar in my “other office,” or having a quiet drink and a chat together. The “trick” in the process is the intensity of attention I bring to our chat, my decades of skill and the converational quality of how I work with clients to help them discover the deepest, most natural part of themselves.
Today I realized that I can run this process with anyone who ready to discover their true passion, their true calling, their natural gifts and the direction for uncovering the life of their dreams … what we might call the ability to find and follow one’s bliss.
I hadn’t thought of it this way before, but I decided this morning to make this “Breakfast Discovery Process” available to anyone who’s ready to find and follow their bliss as a stand-alone service.
I realize that very few folks can afford to pay for a full-day or two of Intensive Private Work with me, that comes with six months to a year of follow-up access that some of my most elite clients fly in from around the world to spend with me at $25,000 to $45,000.
Even though my client thought what we did was probably worth at least $10,000 to hiim, I realized that it couldn’t even be the normal $2500 I charge for remote, virtual coaching by telephone or Skype if I wanted it to be within reach of just about anyone.
Maybe if it were just half of the $2500 I charge for normal remote, virtual coaching, $1250, it would be fair. Or, I thought maybe I could cut even that amount in half again … $625. That when it started to feel just about right to me.
But, I wanted to make it a no brainer!!!
How much would it have to be so that anyone who was really ready to get their personal formula for finding and following their bliss wouldn’t really have to think much about it???
Although, I think that I could easily charge many of my clients $625 and they’d jump all over it, or even $1250 and many would be signing up for it … I wanted to keep my promise to myself to make it affordable for just about anyone who was really, deeply ready to change their life and discover the path and direction to being living into their dreams.
So I decided tonight to make the “Breakfast Discovery Process” available for less than than even the number I’d come to earlier today, $625, and make personal, one-to-one “Breakfast Discovery Process” coaching with me available at just $447.
Here’s my ten step outline of how it will work if you’ve read this far and are still interested in joining me:
1) You’ll register and pay to block the time for private coaching via telephone or Skype with me.
2) I’ll give you access to my private client’s only, coaching platform.
3) Once you’re a registered coaching client you’ll get my detailed client “Discovery” questionaire and fill them out right there on my private client site and indicate they’re ready for me to look over.
4) When I get the notification that you’ve completed the client “Discovery” questionaire I’ll go in and review it completely to get ready for our session together.
5) You’ll schedule a convenient, private time to speak with me on my online private client appointment scheduler right there on my private client’s only, coaching platform.
6) At the appointed time we’ll speak for about 45 minutes and I’ll do the entire “Breakfast Discovery Process” with you (it can be anytime, like those 24 hour New Jersey diners that serve breakfast all day long).
7) During our call together I’ll be building a MindMap of what we discuss and give you access to it as well.
8)Then you’ll go in over the next week or two, review it, change it, add to it and fill in what’s missing based on what we discuss during our call.
9) When you’re done with that part of the process, you’ll notifiy me on the private client’s only, coachign platform and I’ll take another look at what you’ve done, make my notes and comments to what’s there … and,
10) Once you’ve reviewed the refinements I’ve made alongside your own notes you’ll be on your way, ready to re-start your life perfectly aligned with your following your bliss.
This is a powerful and potent way to get your life on track and to give yourself the boost you need to get going, and to know your going in the proper directon for you … living your life and not a life that was chosen and decided for you by someone else, regardless of where you find yourself today.
For the time being I’m running this program in a limited way to make sure I have time to schedule everyone who signs up in a timely manner, therefore I’ll only be scheduling a maximum of 4 people a week at first.
Once I have a better sense of the interest and time I need to invest to deliver what I know this process is capable of delivering properly I may expand the program, and expect I may need to adust what I charge for it as well. Anyone who signs up as long as the registration page is open will be guaranteed a spot in the program at the current investment level, and I will do my best to get you in as soon as possible on a first come, first serve basis.
If anything about my “Breakfast Discovery Process” resonated with you, and you’d like to experience and replicate what happened this morning when I had a chat over breakfast with my colleague, click on the link below, be one of the first to register for some private time with me, and we’ll get started figuring out the formula for you to begin following your bliss …
Get all the details and register here:
The Breakfast Discovery Process
https://josephriggiointernational.securechkout.net/2016-BDP-Coaching
All the Best,
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
New Hope, PA
P.S. – If you’re ready to fly, check out the details of the “Breakfast Discovery Process” and find out what we can do in about the time it would take for us to have a chat over a leisurely cup of coffee together:
The Breakfast Discovery Process (https://josephriggiointernational.securechkout.net/2016-BDP-Coaching)
