Some people will ask me whether a client needs to be ready to change before any transformation takes place.
There’s an old adage that says
“When the student is ready the master will appear.”
There is some truth in that, but it’s also not a fact. I’ve seen people drastically shift and change not because they thought they were ready, but because something gets through to them – often an insight.
A few years ago I had the privilege of attending a Three Principles-based training within a prison in the UK and I’ll be frank with you, I was sitting in a room with a bunch of people who I felt uncomfortable with. There were drug dealers, there were burglars and there was even a man who had killed someone. Part of me was judging them and part of me was really scared to be there. The man sitting next to me had biceps bigger than my thighs!
I would not have thought these people were ready to change. They hadn’t paid a lot of money to be there, they were incarcerated. Clearly, some of them (maybe most) were in the room because it’d give them privileges within the prison or a chance at early release. Yet, what I witnessed was people having deep insights, transformations and shifts. I will never forget when one of the men in the room stood up and said he’d found freedom in prison. It was a freedom of the mind.
Was he ready to change? I don’t know. But one of the things I learned was seeing the possibility for change in every single human.
If you are interested to learn more about how this understanding of The 3 Principles has been transforming inmates’ lives in prisons, check out https://beyond-recovery.co.uk/
One of my students from AJC coaching school, Jacquie Moses, has also worked extensively in prisons with great success. You can find her at https://www.facebook.com/jacquie.moses.9.
With love and appreciation,
Ankush
Coach and Author of Sweet Sharing – Rediscovering the REAL You
