I’ve turned into a scribbler to get my thoughts out.
Despite the chicken scratch, the visuals have landed with clients.
Here’s the story behind this 👆 one.
The heart-wrenching moment enters stage right
I don’t have agendas or a curriculum with clients.
They are the curriculum.
My job is to listen, ask a ton of uncomfortable questions, and pull on the most reliable thread.
So, while everyone I serve has a business, it’s common that we don’t talk about business at all.
This is the power of creating space for ambitious people.
When they have the space and courage to tell the truth, they know exactly what to do next.
But an analogy helps.
When my client said they were struggling telling the truth in a relationship they had…it wasn’t my role to tell them what to do next.
So I relied on Billy Shakespeare to break it down:
- All life is tragedy
- But the only person you can turn from the tragic figure to the hero is you
- You can’t transform another tragic figure into a hero…that person has to want to transform (most are too afraid to do that)
The villain
“It sounds like the person we’re dealing with believes ‘it is what it is,’” I said.
“Oh my gosh! They say that all the time!” my client replied.
Those who believe they can’t change anything are rarely in alignment with an ambitious person—the person who sees the impossible and says, “Let me go for that.”
A beautifully delusional person trying to empty the ocean with a ladle every morning.
The endless scene
I wanted them to have tactical use as they left the session. It was powerful, but how could one moment in life be leveraged to make future moments feel better?
Simple.
I call it the Opportunity Filter.
Everything from the smallest task to a big idea, to a difficult relationship can run through it.
It’s two questions:
- Does it bring me joy?
- Does it move the needle?
If it does neither, there’s no point in keeping it. Life’s short, and it’s gotta go.
If it brings you joy but doesn’t move the needle, never feel guilty for it. Have some fun.
If it moves the needle but doesn’t bring you joy, put a timetable on it [IE: I’ll do this for 30 days and decide what to do next after that].
But if it does both…That’s what you double down on.
Commit your life to.
Obsess over.
It’s rare. Infrequent. Precious.
These little beauties should be treated like turning air into gold.
Whether you’ve found this gold or not, the filter cleans up your decisions regardless.
Everything you do can run through it.
And a life lived with intent like this is far simpler than what you’ve got going right now.
This was a lot. Here’s the bottom line.
Content experts would say the reader (that’s you) will get confused with too many payoffs and to focus on one thing.
But I don’t care.
Because I wanted to put you into a real room.
So you can see how important this work is.
I think you're smart enough to get the whole enchilada, but if you must walk away with one thing, it’s this:
Only you can turn yourself into a hero.
To do that, you’re gonna have some hard choices.
And in that case, I hope the Opportunity Filter makes the tough stuff a bit easier.
Until next time,
Colby
P.S. Need help making space so you can think cleaner and trust yourself?
When you’re ready, give this a read.
