If you have coached with me, you know that I coach from an authentic and vulnerable space. I write this letter from the same space within me. I want you to read this not for an intellectual understanding, but for a deeper insight. An intellectual understanding is when you take new information and try to compare it with what you already know, and decide whether it fits in or whether you need to discard it. Insight on the other hand is when you read something to see if it evokes something inside of you. Insight has nothing to do with the information I’m giving you in this letter. By its very nature, it has to do with you looking inside and finding something that appears true to you. Read for insight. As you are reading, reflect and acknowledge what comes up for you from within. That is what matters.

You might be thinking that there are some things that are absolutely core to you. These are beliefs that have shaped you in the past as you were becoming who you are today. These might be things that you think you can never compromise on. They evoke a deep emotional response in you. They are your truth. They are part of you. But are they really your truth? Or are they somebody else’s truth that you have unconsciously adopted? It could be your parents, your friends, the movies, or the intangible culturescape that you lived in. As your personal coach, I help you speak your truth to power. It implicitly means that part of what we do together is discovering what your truth is.

We all have an inner knowing of what’s right. However, we often confuse this inner knowing with the noise of our thinking that took shape as a result of years of conditioning. The silent truth of our inner knowing is buried under the endless appeals for attention the noise demands. Subash Chandra Bose once met Adolf Hitler during the Indian struggle for independence. It is said that Hitler employed lookalikes and Bose was approached by one of them. It was a test that Hitler often played – sending in his decoys to meet his guests and tricking them into believing that they met Hitler. Bose, however, did not fall for this trick. Intrigued, Hitler called for Bose and asked him how he knew that it was his lookalike. Bose replied, ‘A fake Hitler needs to play the part. The real Hitler just doesn’t care.’

The noise of our thinking shouts and screams and claims that it is the truth. The inner knowing just sits still, knowing that it holds the truth. We are conscious beings. As we take charge of our experience of living, it becomes important that we become conscious of distinctions regarding what’s true for us and what appears true. The more distinctions we know, the more empowered we are. A good psychiatrist knows the distinctions between several mental disorders. An effective storyteller knows the distinctions between various narrative forms. A surgeon knows the distinctions between different types of incisions. As a transformative coach, part of my job is to help you recognize the distinctions that are important for you to know about your life and your work. One of the key distinctions that have the potential to be life changing is the distinction between thought and wisdom. Wisdom is what I call the inner knowing. Thought is everything else in your mind that clouds your wisdom.