No Purpose Survives Contact With a Business Coach

We (okay, I) have to talk about energy.

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Hi friend,

If you only met me recently, you might not know this about me: when I first started out after leaving my legal career, I was an energy healer. Or tried to be one.

After a few months of struggling to get my business off the ground (while adjusting to living on another continent with my husband that I had never lived with before), I looked for help.

Smart choice.

As Helmuth von Moltke, the Prussian military genius, once famously said: no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Well, no purpose survives contact with a business coach: my business coach suggested coaching as a more straightforward path to build a sustainable business.

So, I started Work You Love Coach (a bit on the nose, right?).

Back then, focusing on coaching over energy work seemed like a solid choice. Coaching still felt somewhat fresh, and when you offered free coaching on Facebook to get more experience, people actually were excited about it. Imagine that!

Fast-forward almost 10 years: finding someone who isn't a coach is the real challenge these days and I haven't been on Facebook in ages (though a reliable source tells me it does, in fact, still exist).

And, even though it’s been almost 10 years, I still don’t love calling myself a coach.

Recently, I discussed this with my trusty AI. Together, we came up with the title “Clarity Catalyst and Purpose Pathfinder” for what I’m doing. I like how this title doesn’t make it sound like I’m coaching the high school football team (especially because I don’t understand the rules at all, nor do I want to).

Speaking of AI: Whatever your profession, you might have thought about the impact AI will have on it. For me, it’s weird how some professions went from the hottest thing in town (anything involving coding, I think?) to the first on the chopping block.

It’s a good reminder that nothing in this world is certain, except death (Jesus and Mark Twain excluded) and taxes (billionaires excluded).

How the weird became a safe haven

Anyway, back to coaching. After having gotten coached by Summit AI for 2 months (Summit was an AI Life Coach that no longer exists… I’ll share a screenshot below), I’m not convinced that coaches can be entirely replaced by code.

Take, for instance, accountability: with a human coach, I don’t feel good just ignoring their messages and advice. Ignoring an AI coach? That’s a lot easier.

(Side note: if you want affordable human accountability, check out my Soulful Productivity Club. Your first meeting with us is on the house!

That said, I think there’s an area that’s more “AI-proof” than coaching: the weird woo-woo stuff. Around 10 years ago, someone at the law firm I was working at told us junior lawyers that in a decade, none of us would be with them anymore. That was a prescient prediction… but maybe not a very surprising one.

In contrast, if someone had told me 10 years ago that energy healing might be a more future-proof skill than coding, I would have laughed them off. I’m not laughing now.

I mean, what are they going to do to train an AI in energy healing—force-feed it Reiki instruction manuals, place crystals all around it, and hope for the best?

Maybe us weird kids are finally getting our revenge. (See, Mom, all those hours reading esoteric stuff were, in fact, professional development!)

After all, I have read stories about AI helping doctors with medical diagnoses or lawyers with contracts—but I haven’t yet heard of an AI successfully summoning Hekate (or any other spirit, for that matter). Clearly, we haven’t reached AGI (Artificial General Intelligence, which is basically the AI becoming sentient stage) if you still have to do your own spirit-summoning.

🤔 Speaking of AI and spirituality: 

Would you be interested in exploring the intersection of AI and spirituality, including how spiritual and intuitive practices might help us approach AI in more wholesome ways?

In addition to article, I'm also playing with the idea of offering 'AI for spiritual people' in a deeper dive (perhaps a course or workshop).

➡️ If the idea of exploring AI from a spiritual or intuitive perspective intrigues you (even if you're entirely new to AI and want a gentle introduction), please reply to this email or comment below. Your feedback helps me decide if this idea is worth exploring further, including in future articles. 

The illusion of security—and a Centering Meditation

It’s wild that suddenly, lawyers and doctors—who probably got told as young adults that theirs is a safe profession—might feel more job insecurity than plumbers and hairdressers.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere but I don’t think I can put it into words. Or perhaps the lesson is that security is an illusion. (Just ask all the federal employees in the US who thought they had a safe job, until the current administration came along.)

Well, if security is an illusion, I might as well do what I want. And while I still like to coach (I mean, “clarity catalyze”) people, I also like to do energy stuff. So, why not do it, right?

Let’s start with Throwback Thursday (it’s Thursday somewhere, right? Australia, please don’t let me down!): Here’s a short Centering Meditation I recorded many years ago that references different lines of energy.

I like to do this at the start of a coaching session but you can listen to this any time you could use some centering. (Unless you’re driving or doing something that requires your attention, of course!)

Maybe I’ll call myself an energy healer going forward. Or an energy coach. Here’s what clear to me, though: we (okay, I) have to talk about energy.

But what exactly do I mean by that? Let's break it down a little…

What is energy?

When I talk about energy, I mean everything that our energy bodies can perceive. We don’t just have a physical body, we also have a mental body and an energy body (and other bodies but that’s a story for another day).

• Our physical body can sense smells, see things, and hears noises.

• Our mental body can reason and use logic.

• Our energy body can read energy—the energy body of things.

These bodies often interact with each other and can come to different conclusions. For instance, you might find someone attractive based on what your physical senses perceive—but be repulsed by their energy.

The energy of something tells us if it is aligned, or not aligned. For instance, here’s an experience I once had: I came across an expensive course that sounded great on paper (to my mental body) but something felt off (to my energy body). My mental body talked me into signing up for the course—only for me to realize I should have listened to my energy body. Grrr.

There is, of course, much more to energy but that is yet another story for another day.

Takeaways

• No plan survives contact with the enemy… but life ain’t a war and there are no enemies.

• Sometimes, we let well-meaning advice steer us away from our path—but we can always get back on it.

• Security is an illusion—or rather, your true security is found within yourself, not in external circumstances.

• It's okay to pivot (and to pivot again).

• In times of rapid change, the unconventional path might provide more safety than the conventional one.

Questions:
1. Do you have dreams or passions that haven't survived contact with a teacher, business coach, or responsible adult? Have you ever received advice that steered you away from something you felt called to do? 
2. If yes, do you still felt called to do the thing? 
3. If yes, what's stopping you from doing it now? 

If you're ready to dive deeper into your own path of growth, I'd love for you to join our free journey starting June 16. Sign up here today.

Warmly,
Louise

Fun facts

• Helmuth von Moltke is the only human from the 18th century whose voice is preserved.

• Not sure if this counts as a fact but here’s a screenshot of my AI Coach before the platform got shut down (I created a custom coach called Buddha… similarities with living or dead people are entirely non-coincidental):

🌼 Feeling called to explore your path? Join our free growth journey! 🌼 Sign up HERE today.