This morning I worked with a coaching client for about an hour. He made a breakthrough today, something to be proud of, because breakthroughs are hard. They take real, honest self-evaluation (DIfferent than self-judgment, but that’s another essay) and the willingness to change,

“You’re a genius!” he told me at the end of our session.

I am not of course. Not even close. I am a reasonably smart guy who’s read a zillion books (You should see the self-help section of my library), took a lot of courses, and is old enough to have made pretty much every mistake there is to make. You come through all of that with a little insight, or you just give up. I suck at giving up.

“You’re a genius!” He said. “You should write a book!”

I have thought about that before. I actually have published a few volumes of poetry and one book on depression. I have a novel circulating agents right now. But a self-help book?  That’s been done before. I know because I bought most of them.

I have been bouncing around that very idea for a long time. It’s all pretty much been done. Whatever you want in your life – success, creativity, love, a four-color giraffe, there’s been a dozen and more books written about them.

And most of them say the same things. Different terms perhaps, slightly different takes, but mostly the same thing.

Why? Because we know what works. And a lot of people far wiser than e have already learned it, written about it and been (in some cases) best sellers. I don’t do a lot of re-inventing the week. None of my thoughts are particularly new or creative. In my coaching, my pastoral work, my spiritual counseling work, I follow the path others have blazed.

Maybe, I have been thinking, it is time for someone to point this out. Rhonda Byrne began that path in her best selling book, The Secret a decade or more ago. But the whole law of attraction thing worked for some people and put others off as impractical.

What if, I have wondered, someone laid out the same steps to success, and point out that this is not some hocus pocus mumbo jumbo but was practical wisdom that many, many people have followed and taught already. Me? I’m nobody. I am a coach and consultant with some real successes with my clients, but it really doesn’t matter what I am. What matters is that all these really smart people have been there before me and laid down the path.

And it works.

So that is what I have decided to do. Go through my myriad of books that I have read over three decades, and document their commonalities and write a book that draws on the wisdom of all these bright souls into something clear and coherent and most importantly, proven.

I am hoping some fo you will take the journey with me. I’ll be documenting the process and thoughts and such here. You’ll get to see the book unfold. I’ll even ask you questions because I find the people who read this column are a pretty together bunch with good ideas themselves.

I’m not the only one who reads, after all.

Be well. Travel Wisely

Tom

PS: interested in a coach or consultant for yourself or your business? Click here and let’s set something up – a call or a video call. Everything great starts with a conversation.