When I read The Fifth Agreement on the plane en route to New Mexico recently for a coaching conference where I knew I’d be meeting its authors, I must admit one person that didn’t pop into my mind was Ozzy Osbourne.

And yet it was a story author Don Jose Ruiz told about the addled rock star that captivated me as I sat in a roomful of coaches and listened to him and his father, Don Miguel Ruiz, at this spirited annual gathering called Conversation Among Masters [CAM].

Don Jose Ruiz, a vivacious and passionate speaker, described an experience of lying down while a healer chanted “ohm” over him again and again. He said she was taken aback when he said it reminded him of an Ozzy Osbourne concert he had attended. Osbourne had been singing “Mama, I’m Coming Home” and in the repetition of the lyrics -- I’m coming home, I’m coming home -- that Ruiz heard in this large venue was 60,000 people “ohm-ing.”

His face glowed with sheer delight in the telling.

“Spirit is everywhere,” he said.

Not just in the church, temple, mosque or pyramid, but at a rock concert. It comes from within us, wherever we are.

As a life coach, opening myself up -- to others’ experiences, to new ways of thinking, to possibility -- is a form of walking my talk. How wonderful to think of all its applications, from the professional to the personal to the spiritual. A typical conference would primarily stimulate the professional, but as coaches we know that ideally we are working with the whole person; CAM taps into that by bringing us to a swirling place where all the lines are blurred. Better to serve our clients, methinks.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, a now-classic published in 1997, fits nicely into that idea of blending our often compartmentalized worlds. The agreements are brilliant in their stated simplicity, yet not so simple in practice:

~ Be impeccable with your word.

~ Don’t take anything personally.

~ Don’t make assumptions.

~ Always do your best.

Try that for one whole day in the office or at your kid’s Little League game. Those four are challenging enough in our daily dealings with spouses, co-workers and even the grocery store clerk. Now, more than a decade later, in The Fifth Agreement, Don Miguel Ruiz partners with his son, Don Jose, to bring us another:

~ Be skeptical, but learn to listen.

I recommend reading the book, but the gist can be found in this passage:

Wherever you go around the world, you will hear all kinds of opinions and stories from other people. You will find great storytellers wanting to tell you what you should do with your life: “You should do this, you should do that, you should do whatever.” Don’t believe them. Be skeptical but learn to listen and then make your choices. Be responsible for every choice you make in your life. This is your life; it’s nobody else’s life, and you will find that it’s nobody else’s business what you do with your life.

As coaches, we can guide and encourage, shepherd things along. Hold up a mirror, perhaps, so clients can see what reflects back. We can be one of those storytellers in hopes that there is a message or a lesson to impart.

In another of his stories, Don Jose talked about a parent stuck in traffic and being cut off while his 5-year-old is in the back seat taking it all in. The child is watching how the parent reacts. If the adult rants and raves, the child learns to rant and rave. If the adult stays calm and slips “Let It Be” into the CD player, in 20 years when that child gets cut off in traffic he will model that behavior.

And, as Don Jose was quick to point out with a laugh, it keeps the Beatles’ legacy alive.

Spirit is everywhere. By all means, let it be.

Source:
foxbusiness.com
By Nancy Colasurdo, Life Coach