Souls, Operating Systems and Meat Suits: Coaching For Lasting Change

What is it that makes one coach’s work “transformational” and another’s a short-lived high? Taz Thornton explores transactional versus transformative.

WE ARE souls, loaded with operating systems, wearing meat suits. That’s what we need to remember, in that order, if we want to create lasting change in our lives.

Wondering what on earth I’m going on about? Stick with me. All will become clear. I’m about to take you on a whistle-stop tour of coaching that works, coaching that works a bit, and coaching that doesn’t work at all.

For those of you who prefer to be a little more logical and left-brain about it, you might prefer this statement: “We are mindsets, connected to brains, inside human bodies.”

Make more sense now?

I’ve been self-employed, working as a coach and trainer, since 2010. Even before then, I’d long been fascinated by psychology, spirituality, beliefs and the human condition.

I’ve taken myself through more training programmes, and read more books related to these areas, than I care to count, and my fascination has never waned.

What drove my desire to understand even more was the lasting change that seemed to happen for people who came to my events.

At other seminars, though so many enjoyed that ‘buzz’ that only comes with a live event, there were plenty who noted that nothing much changed once the excitement wore down.

With the events I ran, this didn’t seem to happen in the same way.

Sure, that adrenaline and excitement is going to calm down after a while, but the intentions people set, and the transformations they experienced beyond the day (or longer, depending on the programme), seemed to carry on indefinitely.

Why was this happening? Why were people experiencing real, long-lasting mindset shifts after one of my events, but only a short-lived thrill after so many others.