When ‘The Client-centred financial adviser‘ was published back in 2015 the core message in the book was that who you are being is massively more significant than what you are doing.
I even wrote a chapter titled, ‘Being is the new doing’.
For many years in my own business, I had focused upon doing with no real thought as to how I was being.
My approach to improvement was to look for better ways of doing things and to a degree this had some success.
But I also noticed I kept running into similar problems again and again. I found many of my clients were finding the same too.
How come?
What I eventually realised through the coaching I was getting was that change happens on the vertical plane, not the horizontal one.
In other words, real change happens and sticks when we have a moment of true understanding.
I wrote in the book:
‘We are so focused upon doing because it can seem as though this is the most efficient way to make progress and yet so much of our ‘doing’ emerges from fear-based states of mind, such as worry, anxiety or neediness. We think that if we are not busy then we are being unproductive.
However, when we sacrifice being present for being frenetic, we so often waste vast amounts of our time and energy as well as bypassing the potential for deep human connection with the people around us, including our clients, our team, and our loved ones.’
The 12 client-centred mind shifts
I have recently shared the first nine of the twelve client-centred mind shifts (first three click here, second three click here, third three click here).
In this article I will share the final three that are fundamental to the impact you can have on your clients, yourself, and your business.
Mind shift 10 – your happiness is a mode of travel, not a destination
We are culturally led to believe that happiness is the result of meeting certain external life conditions.
This could be whatever we believe but money, relationships, materials assets, and life experiences all fall into this category.
I used to be a regular meditator and my teacher made a point that I will always remember when he said:
‘You will never experience a better meditation by really going for it. It just does not work that way.’
Happiness is just the same. The harder you pursue it, the further away it gets.
So, if happiness is not the result of acquiring or experiencing things outside of us, then what is?
The natural default setting of the human mind, beyond all the personal thinking we do, is a space of inner peace, contentment, grace, resilience, perspective, and love – there are many words that we might use to point to what is at the core of each of us.
When we fall into this space it wouldn’t even occur to us to ask ourselves if we are happy or not because we are living it, not thinking about it.
Mind shift 11 – Reactive to proactive
Being reactive takes on the appearance of having a very full life, too much to do, and not enough time to do it.
This is a common theme for a many people.
A client I worked with was always in firefighting mode and always felt like he was chasing his tail. It was a stressful way to live.
Rather than approaching it from the perspective of becoming better organised it was far more helpful to understand the fundamental cause.
Being reactive is almost always the result of an overly busy inner world. So, if your life looks busy in a frenetic way, it is the outward projection of a busy state of mind.
Therefore, the change always begins with an inner shift.
As our mind slows down, we may still have the exact same external conditions but the way we handle them will be completely different.
Once my client’s mind began to get quieter, he found that the firefighting began to stop. Simply because he naturally began to anticipate what was coming up and was not blind-sided when something unexpected occurred.
Mind shift 12 -inspired action
Something that many of us do is try to navigate through life using our intellect.
We set goals, break them down into steps, and approach life in a very linear way.
It all makes sense, right?
Yet this also tends to result in a lot of thinking because we are taking on the job of trying to manage everything, including our own thinking.
It is also an impossible job, and most people eventually find it exhausting. Some burn out.
A far more enjoyable, sustainable, and effective way to live is through inspired action.
Beyond our intellect is what you might call the ‘universal mind’. This offers up a constant flow of ideas, fresh thoughts, and inspiration – if we understand and pay attention to it.
Does this mean you never make plans?
No. For example, if you want to go on a trip somewhere you need to arrange the logistics.
True success – that feels good on the inside as well as what we create externally – comes from learning to listen to and follow our deeper wisdom, beyond our intellect.
Concluding thoughts…
Would you like…
*The ability to make a far greater impact in your clients’ lives and being well rewarded for doing so?
*To enjoy your work and your life more than ever before because you are in alignment with your true self?
*To get better results, in less time and without stress?
Whatever it is for you, I invite you to join us in an environment designed to increase your prosperity in a way that is ethical and aligned with your core values.
Click here for information on the ‘Client-centred Academy‘.
P.S. The opportunity to join the Academy is counting down, so act now to secure your place.
