It’s an epiphany. It takes place at least once, sometimes multiple times, during each of my coaching sessions as I work with my clients to help them Be Good at Doing Good! for themselves and their businesses.
Elise Ballard, in Psychology Today, wrote that these vital “aha moments” are “different and unique in how they come to people. No two people’s stories are the same … but the core of these epiphanies always boils down to a universal wisdom or truth.” Surgeon, journalist, and talk show host Dr. Oz sums up the desired outcome of epiphanies: “The goal is to move from just knowledge, which is information, to understanding, which is awareness.”
Case Study
I remember when it happened for Adam Colwell, president of a then five-year-old writing and editing business. I was helping Adam with a process that combines strategic thinking, leadership development, business and people building, and personalized action steps into a compelling strategic living action plan.
The first step I took with Adam was defining his business’ purpose. Although Adam had launched and grown his business into a viable entity without ever having established this purpose with full clarity, he had come to me because he realized he had taken his business as far as he could and desired to take it to the next level.
We sat in a coffee shop, and over the next forty-five minutes I helped Adam list all of his goals and dreams, products and services, and delineate exactly what he does, who he does it for, and what it achieves for those customers. It was a dynamic, fluid discussion. I could almost see the synapses firing in Adam’s brain as he thought and wrote out his ideas. As we’d talk, he’d erase, and he’d write again, drilling down his purpose to something even better and truer.
Then, with five minutes remaining in our session, it happened! He hit on the specific purpose for his business, a sentence that was not just semantics, but a defining statement that will stand the test of time. It was succinct, clear, and powerful—an epiphany where Adam saw an old thing in a new way. His “aha moment” of defining why his business is here was birthed out of mining deep into an inner truth about who he was as a human being, which then defined who he is as a writer and editor, and what his business exists to achieve.
Adam reached an epiphany, which allowed him to move forward from information to awareness, and from knowledge to understanding. He left smiling and with a spring in his step. Together, we found renewed life for his business and embarked on a fresh destiny for his life’s work.Â
My greatest desire is for you to do good for yourself, your business, and your causes—and to be awesome and have fun while you’re doing it. This is realized as you tap into your passion, purpose, and talents to accelerate your achievement and help others.
My greatest desire is for you to do good for yourself, your business, and your causes—and to be awesome and have fun while you're doing it.
