[00:00] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddhart here aka the focus b. And on this show, I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.
[00:37] You all. Personal development leads to spirituality. This is something I've discovered over the years and I've seen time and time and time again. A lot of coaches I speak to, they're into spirituality, meditation, energy, work. And this happens so often that I started to wonder, what is it about personal development that then leads to spirituality? Of course, you can have any definition you wish about spirituality. The way I look at it is having a deeper connection with something greater than ourselves. And some people talk about the universe, nature and spirituality can be religious, but not necessarily. Not all religious people are spiritual. Some just do it out of habits. And not all spiritual people are religious either. So there's a link, but they're not exactly the same. And this is also something that was part of my own personal journey. I found myself going from goal setting and values and all that coaching stuff to something a bit deeper and a bit more spiritual around energy, around meditation, looking into Buddhism and all these types of philosophies, spiritual practice and different type of currents in terms of the spiritual realm. And this was definitely not something I was as interested in when I first began my own personal development journey. So why does one lead to the other? From what I can tell, coaching and personal development is a lot related to transformational work. The first thing they tell you when you join Coaching Academy or Coaching School is that coaching is to take you from where you are to where you want to be. And that's the definition of transformation. That's the definition of change. You're in a place you're stuck, maybe you're unfulfilled in your work or your relationship or something in your life, and a coach will support you in creating this change and transformation to get the job you wish to have, a relationship that fulfills you, to live somewhere that you want to live. And this is the personal development journey also because coaching can be with something quite tangible, quite goal oriented. But the personal development could be around transforming your habits, building that morning routine, increasing self awareness, mastering self leadership, developing mindful, self discipline. All of these are also a journey from A to B, going from a 15 minutes quick morning routine to a two hour morning routine that includes meditation and breath work and cold showers and exercise. That's also a transformation. Going from total lack of self awareness to really understanding yourself and your personality type and the way you function. That's also a transformational journey. And what happens when you're going through this personal development, personal growth journey is at one point you realize that all this progress and growth, it's fun, but somewhere it leads you with this lack of fulfillment, frustration, never feeling you quite there yet because that can be the downside of personal development junkies like I was still am. It's that feeling of constant frustration that you're not already at that next part. You're working on your morning routine, but you're not quite where you'd like it to be. You're working on your self awareness, but you still feel that there's so much you don't see and understand. You're working on this goal, but you're still not at the next step where you'd like to be. And so as you're going in this personal development journey, at one point it starts to feel like the personal development and growth is actually contributing to what you wanted it to help you evade, which is this frustration, this feeling of not enough. Because this is the irony, right? At first you feel you're not enough. You're frustrated, your life's not going how you want. You discover self improvement, personal development. You learn all these tools, you get coached. It's amazing. And then at another stage you think, wait a minute, I'm right where I used to be. I'm again feeling this frustration with my life, lack of progress, et cetera. Because even though you've changed and transformed so much, it still feels now at this pillar, you've got so much more awareness of what is possible. You see so much more the human potential inside of you that you feel this lack in spite of having all these personal development tools. And I definitely went through a phase where I was just fed up with personal development and growth and all this constant progress because it was fueling in me this feeling of not enough. I'm so curious to know how many of you resonate with this. And this is where spirituality kicks in. Because spirituality isn't about constant improvement. Spirituality is about being more present, being more grounded, tapping into that sort of energetic field within yourself, understanding the connection between yourself and others and nature and universe as a whole being receptive to what is being sent your way. And you start to shift from almost rat race grinding of improvement, improvement, monitoring everything on your fitbit watch or garment watch and then actually pausing and being like, wait a minute. Let me just be let me be very still. Let me connect. Because for me at least, spirituality is all about connection. Connection with yourself, connection with others, connection with nature, connection with the universe. And as you do this, that rat race of self improvement calms down. And the funny side is you'll improve a lot faster. This is what's super amusing, is that once you grow and develop spiritual practices, this ability to meditate, be more present, practicing gratitude can also be seen as a form of spirituality, certain changes and transformation will happen even on a neurological perspective. And this will make you better in your work, this will make you have happier relationships. This will impact the way you show up and talk to clients and you'll see growth both on business perspective or in your life so much faster. And yet at that very moment you're no longer chasing growth because you realize that this whole personal improvement go, go, never enough, wasn't satisfying. So you get both the feeling of wow, this is what it's like to be present, to be calm, to be grounded, to be spiritually connected with others and myself. Oh, and I'm still seeing the transformation I was longing for. So it really is a win win. And this is why I feel that so many coaches and so many people in the field of personal development go down the spiritual road because A, it solves on the moment, this feeling of not enough, this feeling of frustration. But also as they go deeper down this route, they realize that the past transformations that they wanted, the goals, the things they were longing for is easier once they have this greater spiritual awareness. Because so many of our habits, so many of our triggers and reactions, so many of our impulses come from lack of presence, come from lack of connecting with ourselves, with others, again with nature and the universe around us. Once you do this, things get easier, there's more synchronicity, there's more flow in your life, there's less forcing. This is why I'm also passionate about mindful self discipline, because you have the self discipline aspect, which is still that self improvement, constant improvement perspective. But then you've got the mindful aspect, which is having self awareness first, understanding yourself first, being connected and grounded, knowing what your values are, what's important for you. And from that point then having self discipline. So it's not just forcing yourself. Another way of looking at this is that at first when you're in the personal development field, there can be a lot of pushing energy, just pushing yourself to improve, to do more, to build these habits, to have a great morning routine. And then as you incorporate a greater spiritual awareness, a greater spiritual practices, then suddenly it comes from a place of connection, a place of alignment, a place of coherence. And then it makes it so much easier for you to still get your goals. So I'm not against personal development anymore. This is still the field I'm working in. I still think that constant improvement and progress are what makes us fulfilled in life because it helps us to get out of our comfort zone, to constantly learn new things and develop. I still think all of this is amazing. But to be perfectly frank, I feel that if you're able to have this greater spiritual awareness or practice, then you can have both. That out of comfort zone growth, but also that acceptance, present moment and gratitude. Because the danger is that if you're constantly just chasing this self improvement self improvement, it will lead or it will come from a place of I'm not enough. This is not enough. What I have achieved isn't enough. And energetically, this isn't very healthy. Whereas you can still grow because you want to contribute to the world, because you love learning, because it's fun, and yet still feel that you're here, that you're present, that it's all enough, and that even if you weren't to achieve those goals, it's still all fine because you're here. So it's really finding this balance, this balance of thriving and striving for more because of wanting to grow and contribute and yet remembering to be present and grateful and accept what you already have. This is why I feel that all personal development journeys and personal improvement and coaching go down the spiritual route because they're such a beautiful alliance, they go so well together, and it's just such a powerful reminder to both strive, accept, strive, accept, connect. And I think it's beautiful. I feel that it was really an essential piece of my own journey to incorporate spirituality in the way that I live, in the way that I work. And just always there this notion and importance of presence and connection so deep, so much to be said about this, but really so little to be said in many ways, because spirituality is something that you live, not that you just talk about. And so it's more interesting for you to see what are some things that help you to feel this deep connection and how you can both have this self improvement journey and this spiritual journey together. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope this was useful for you. Please leave a comment or review if you found this insightful. Would love to know your thoughts on this topic. Thank you so much.
[13:29] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Bee Show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you. And feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.
[13:58] You close.