I'm Jamie Smart - welcome to the podcast. You don't need me to tell you that, as I record this, we're living through a time of extreme volatility and uncertainty. One aspect of that is the coronavirus and its health impacts. Another aspect is the societal and economic impacts of our response to the pandemic. But the third, and for many people the most troubling aspect is the psychological and emotional distress that people are dealing with in relation to all this. This week's podcast is a recording of an online masterclass I did recently called "Finding your bearings in turbulent times." As you listen, we’re going to be exploring the things that can help you to… - Navigate these rapidly changing circumstances. - Keep your bearings (and find them again quickly if you should lose them). - Be of real help to the people around you when they start losing their sh*t. You'll also hear me do live Q&A as I deal with the various questions and concerns people (quite naturally) have as they're navigating these strange times. So here's the Masterclass...

This episode is a re-release of an interview from last summer, but as you’ll hear, it’s a conversation with a difference, because rather than me interviewing someone, it’s me *being* interviewed for The Coaching Show, by ICF Master Coach Christopher McAuliffe and his colleague Alex Terranova.    And this was an interesting one. As you’ll hear, it was pretty fast-paced, and I really enjoyed the challenge of making the value and approach involved in principles based coaching explicit to a couple of experienced coaches who were brand new to the subject. We talked about 3-day intensives, and what has to happen before a busy executive is willing to take 3 days out of a packed schedule to do an intensive with you. We also talked a lot about the whole domain of growing a coaching practice.    Speaking of which, back when we released the episode, I announced that I was running my last ever 90-day Coaching Immersion.   One of my business mentors had said that 90 days (12 weeks) was too much - that we should limit the programme to 60 days max, or even just do it as a digital course.   So I decided to do one last 90-day programme, and run all three tracks as a single group.   We had coaches who wanted to get clients, enroll them on coaching packages and make a difference doing the Thriving Coaches Blueprint track… www.JamieSmart.com/thriving   We had people who wanted to change careers to do something more fulfilling and on-purpose doing the Career Transition Blueprint track…  www.JamieSmart.com/escape   We had people who just wanted to see the principles behind clarity more deeply in the most important aspects of their lives doing the Clarity for Personal Transformation track…  www.ClarityAcademy.co/transform12   But they were all doing it in one group, meeting up with me each week for 1:1 coaching in a group context…   It was an experiment.   It was the first time I’d ever combined all three tracks.   I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen.   But you know that feeling, when you try something out and it turns out even *better* than you expected? Yeah, that feeling.   As we were going through the programme, one of the students asked me why this intake of the 12-week programme was the last one. He said (and I'm paraphrasing), "It's a great format - why are you stopping it?"   I explained that we were planning to release these 3 tracks as digital programmes, and experiment with a shorter, 6-8 week format, but it suddenly occurred to me that I should check with the folks on the programme.   So I asked them, “How has 12 weeks been for you, in terms of your levels of engagement / amount of progress / amount of time you could devote to it / how much you've learned / how far you've come etc?”   Basically, for what we've been doing, was 12 weeks too long, too short, or just right?   The vast majority of the people on the programme replied, “Just right.”   And here's the thing. That's how I felt too. I enjoyed the hell out of it!   So I’ve decided to do a 180.   We’re doing the 12-week Coaching Immersion again. I’m going to be doing all 3 tracks, and we’ve got some great coaches and aspiring coaches already signed up and ready to start with the Thriving Coaches Blueprint track.   We’re starting soon - the doors close on 11th march. This is a chance to work closely with me in a small group setting, so if you’ve been thinking about making some changes, now’s a good time!   If you’re a coach and you want to get clients and grow your practice in a way that feels great and fits with who you really are you can find out more about the Thriving Coaches Blueprint at jamiesmart.com/thriving. And here’s today’s episode:

The conversation you’re about to hear is one I had with my dear friend and colleague, Dr Mark Howard just before we recorded an ‘Impact Kit’ for my ClarityPro members.    Mark is a licensed psychologist who's spent *decades* sharing the principles with people to help them recover from addictions. As such, he's probably the most experienced person on the planet when it comes to sharing the principles to help people break free from life-damaging habits and compulsions. Mark and I first met ten years ago in Santa Cruz, when I sat in on a group session he was doing and I was blown away. Behind his gentle demeanour, I could sense a rock solid certainty about what people have going for them. Mark and I became great friends and he’s one of the people I continue to learn from and be impacted by, so I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.    By the way, if you’re a ClarityPro member, you’ll find the Impact Kit I mentioned in the Addiction, Habits & Compulsions module. You’ll hear Mark and I discussing how we work with clients around addictions, and some of the key distinctions and insights that inform that work.   And if you’re not a ClarityPro member, but you want to learn how to share the principles with anybody, on any topic and in any situation, you can find out more about our community and what’s on offer at www.JamieSmart.com/claritypro. On Friday January 3rd at midnight, we’re closing the doors to new members. So after Friday January 3rd, we won’t be accepting any new members until we open the doors briefly at the end of April. So if you’ve been thinking of joining ClarityPro, now’s a good time.    In addition to that, we’ve got the next ClarityLive event coming up on January 11th & 12th, and the theme for this ClarityLive event is the whole domain of goals, results and taking things to a new level, so we thought we’d go with a new year / breakthrough theme. And I’m mentioning that because when you join ClarityPro before January 3rd, you get a free ticket to a ClarityLive event, so you can use it for the January event, or for one later in the year. So you can find out more about ClarityPro and what’s on offer at www.JamieSmart.com/claritypro   And finally, I want to thank you for listening, and wish you a happy, peaceful and relaxing time during the holiday season.

In this episode you’re going to hear a coaching demo I did in front of an audience with a client suffering from what she described as narcissistic abuse. She sometimes felt overwhelming fear of rejection, and wanted to start living with more peace and freedom. The client had trained extensively as a therapist, and was convinced her present-day problems were rooted in her past. And she'd tried lots of things... Telling herself she knew it was just a story (she didn't). Trying to tell herself a better story (she couldn't). Working at accepting the overwhelming feelings (they seemed unacceptable). But what if there's so much *less* than that to do? You may have heard me say that the two most valuable things a person can discover are how experience is created and who they really are. My client thought her overwhelming feelings were telling her about her past (they weren't). My client thought there was something wrong with her (there wasn't. And there isn't.) As the session proceeded, she started waking up to the truth of who she really is. And everything shifted. A few days later, she wrote that everything had changed since our session. She said she feels so much more relaxed in the areas where she'd been struggling. She said that the feeling of lack she'd been experiencing had somehow disappeared. And she hadn't been working at it. It just happened. That's the power of insight and realisation.   As you’ll hear, I move between coaching the client and speaking to the audience. The main coaching session is in the first 20 minutes of the podcast, then I speak to the audience for a while then come back to the coaching client for the last few minutes to check in with her. So I hope you enjoy the session. By the way, if you’re a ClarityPro member, you’ll be receiving a fully unpacked version of this coaching session where I take you behind the scenes and explain what I’m responding to, what’s guiding the questions I’m asking and how I’m making sense of what the client is telling me. So if you’re a ClarityPro Member, you’ll find that in the impact kit for the module called ‘Coaching, Therapy & Changework from the Inside-out’. And if you’re not a ClarityPro member, but you want to learn how to share the principles with anybody, on any topic and in any situation, you can find out more about our community and what’s on offer at www.JamieSmart.com/claritypro    And if you want to learn how to bring an understanding of these principles into every aspect of your work and life, you can join me on the January 2020 intake of the  Clarity Certification Training, you can get one of the last 11 places and save up to £2,000 off the full price when you book your place by Friday, 10th January. Just go to www.JamieSmart.com/coach.

What you’re about to hear is the recording of a talk I did in September at the Richmond NLP group called ‘The Principles Behind Transformational Change’.    I was booked to speak at the Richmond NLP group, and lots of people were curious about how the principles behind clarity would go down with an audience steeped in NLP & Hypnosis, so I promised to record the talk for this podcast.   My idea for the talk came from a simple question that’s at the heart of our field:   “What does it take to create the kind of life-altering transformations that make a profound, meaningful and lasting difference in a person's life?”   Well, I realised while I was driving to this session that the very *first* public talk I’d ever given was to the Richmond NLP group 20 years ago. It was pretty mind-blowing to reflect on how much things have changed in that time. If you enjoy listening to the recording even half as much as I enjoyed giving the talk, you're in for a treat. So here it is…

Do the principles represent the the future of psychology? I’m Jamie Smart, and what you’re about to hear is me being interviewed by the author Amir Karkouti, the creator of the What The F*#$ Are The Principles? group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/299806010361726/   In this conversation I make the case for why the principles behind clarity (as realised & articulated by Syd Banks) represent the future of psychology. We cover quite a lot of ground in this session including:   - What distinguishes the principles from every other psychological and spiritual model   - My take on what Syd Banks meant when he said "Thought is the missing link"   - Why I believe the two most valuable things you can discover are how experience is created and who you really are   The session also includes a Q&A session where I was asked some really great questions, including... - How can you be so certain these principles represent the future of psychology? - Why teach this rather than (for instance) "pure non-duality" or some other spiritual or psychological model? - How to free yourself from the need to convince anyone (and the challenges inherent in that) So with that, here’s my conversation with Amir…

In this episode, you’re going to hear a conversation I had on the subject of happiness and wellbeing with one of my dear friends and colleagues, Rita Shuford. And here’s how I met Rita... In 2011, I kicked off a one-year programme called '3 Principles University'. We had a wonderful group of students, and every month or so, we had a different principles teacher spend the weekend with us, sharing their understanding. My good friend and colleague, Sandy Krot was scheduled to do the November weekend (on Leadership), and when she arrived, she had a friend with her: Rita Shuford. Rita was the person who'd introduced Sandy to the principles, so I was super-curious to hear her story. I recorded an interview with her that weekend, and we've been friends ever since. Rita's one of the people who's mentored me over the years, and she's also mentored some of my students on Clarity programmes. Last week, I was recording a session with Rita for ClarityPro (on working with clients around happiness and wellbeing) and she agreed to record an interview for the podcast. Rita's been sharing the principles with clients for over 40 years, and she has a wealth of knowledge, experience and insight, so I'm really delighted to be able to share our conversation with you.  By the way,  if you want to get access to the members-only session I did with Rita on working with clients around happiness & wellbeing, you get access to that and all the other members-only content when you join the ClarityPro Membership programme. If you want to share the principles like a pro with anybody, on any topic on any situation, head over to jamiesmart.com/claritypro to find out more.

What you’re about to hear is an excerpt from a Masterclass I did a few years back during the Clarity Certification Training. You’re about to discover something mind-blowingly weird: it’s quite literally the strangest fact about your perception, and it blows me away every time i think of it. And it’s going to be particularly useful to you if you’ve ever said, “I know it’s just my thinking but…” - I hear that a lot from people when it’s clear to me that they don’t know it’s got much if anything to do with thinking. You’re also going to find it useful if you want to know the difference between thoughts, thinking and the power of Thought.    By the way, our flagship programme, the Clarity Certification Training is now open for enrolment and you can save up to £3,000 by getting one of the Super-Earlybird places that are available until this Monday, 30th September. A few things worth knowing…   1. Clarity Certification Training is our flagship seven month programme for anyone interested in bringing an understanding of the principles behind Clarity into their life or work.   2. I’m going to be delivering all 7 modules on the Clarity Certification Training myself, so you’re going to be working directly with me.   3. We’re limiting the number of places on the programme to 36 people, so it’s going to fill up fast.   4. There’s an early booking price which means you can save up to £3,000 when you book your place by this Monday, 30th September 2019   >>> You can find out more and book your place at www.JamieSmart.com/coach   And if you have questions about the programme, you’ll find a button on the page that lets you schedule a call with Deb on my team to answer your questions. You’ll find all of that at www.JamieSmart.com/coach

This episode is a brief coaching demo. In fact it got turned around in under 7 minutes. Basically, a few weeks ago I did a coaching demo with one of my clients, Mary, around what she described as ‘impostor syndrome’.   She told me that whenever she started to make progress, she’d get to a certain point, then fall back.   She wanted to be able to ‘put herself out there’…   She wanted to be able to charge fees that would be rewarding…   She wanted to be excited about what she was doing, and feel unstoppable…   But she felt like an impostor, and it kept stopping her.   We did the coaching demo, and in less than 7 minutes, it had shifted for her.   How?     She had an insight - a realisation - and everything started to change.   By the way, Mary is one of the students on my 12-week, 90-day coaching immersion which is starting this month, and it’s all about having a breakthrough this year. And this is the very LAST time I’m ever running my 12-week programme. So the question I’ve been asking people is this:    What's the number 1 breakthrough you could have by the end of this year that you believe would have the biggest positive impact in your life / work / practice (whatever aspect of your world makes sense to you to focus on)?   Maybe it's a goal you want to achieve, or a change you want to make. Perhaps it's a problem you want to solve, or something you want to start doing (or even stop doing)...   So examples of tangible breakthroughs might include doing a principles-based presentation / enrolling a client on a ‘high-value package’ / creating your career transition plan / handing in your notice / running your first intensive / starting a new job / getting clients for your coaching or consulting practice / running principles workshops / moving from employment to doing your own thing, but could also include breakthroughs in health / relationships / wellbeing etc)   So you might like to ponder on that question for yourself: What's the number 1 breakthrough you could have by the end of this year that you believe would have the biggest positive impact in your life / work / practice?   So because this is the last time I’m running it, we’re doing something a little different: We’re running our 3 most popular courses in their original 12-week format for one last time…   … three programme tracks … one group of like-minded people … and a whole set of massive transformational breakthroughs by the end of the year   Now the 3 programme tracks are the thriving coaches blueprint, the career transition blueprint, and clarity for personal transformation.   I’ve recorded a short, 3-minute video explaining how it’s going to work and what to do if you think it might be a good fit for you. You can watch that video at www.ClarityAcademy.co/immersion    I’d love to help you answer the ‘number 1 breakthrough’ for yourself, and see you make it into a reality.

So that’s what I did. I started with a question: “What is body image?” And we took it from there. The talk ranged from puppies to epistemology… from toddlers to your true identity… And at one point it occurred to me to ask a question that had never occurred to me before (this is the brain-teaser)… "If you were to wake up tomorrow morning and discover that your body image had improved, like it was 2x or 5x or 100 times as good… how would you know?" I spoke for 18 minutes, and then we spent the next 40 minutes doing coaching demos. The coaching demos are private and confidential, but Charli kindly gave me permission to share this 18-minute body-image talk with my community. Would you like to see / hear the session?