I’m going to let you in on a little secret.
“Quantum Leaps” are one of the coaching industry’s biggest marketing myths. I see it all over the place: “I made a quantum leap in my business”; “My income increased 300 percent overnight!”; “I went to one class and my life was radically different afterwards.” “I can make you lose 10lbs in 30-days and keep it off-just follow my proven system!”
Here’s the cold, hard, unsexy truth that no one wants to tell you, and that you likely don’t want to hear:
Transformation takes time.
Quantum leaps are a result of lots of decisions that lead up to a person being ready, internally and externally, to make that one decision that sets a cascade of results in motion that appear to have happened “overnight.”
Technically speaking, a quantum leap means that a subatomic particle moves from one location in space and time to another location without passing through any other locations in between. While it is possible for a person to make this leap from one mindset or belief system to another, where she doesn’t have to go through every step of the process in between (I’ve seen it happen in my office!), the fact is that the experience most often is either preceded by lots of internal work, or the person is just so ready to change that her resistance is low*.
Then the real test comes when she has to go out and actually live from that new truth or new belief and make new choices, have new conversations and keep going when she meets resistance within herself and/or others to this new way of being.
Sustainable change is what we really want, not the flash in the pan, fast-food BS transformation. (“But I do want it to happen fast” you argue, “I’ve been in this shitty place for way too long!” So, you invest again, in the next slick program or system hoping this will be the quantum leap you so longingly desire.)
This internal work (often years in the process) and the external follow-through (also over time) are the reasons a person is finally ready to have that “leap” happen when she is exposed to someone or some experience that causes the internal shift to “stick” in the new paradigm without slipping backwards to the old limiting-belief pattern.
I have attended many trainings, retreats, seminars, and coaching workshops that promised “quantum leaps” and “radical shifts” in mindset and income as a result of attending. I’m sure you have as well. And in some of those, I experienced pretty big changes, as did other people. One could say I made a “leap” in my growth and capacity for receiving more money, clients, and resources than I had previously. However, most of the time, I’d make a series of smaller shifts, one after another. I’d leave feeling badly because I couldn’t understand why other people seemed to be making such huge shifts when I wasn’t. I thought there must be something wrong with me. I felt ashamed and incapable of changing. (Recognize the little voice feelings and thoughts?)
Here’s what I finally realized about transformation that made all the difference:
- Change is a process that happens over time (because we live in the 3rd dimension that includes space and time), I started to see that what really creates a quantum leap (so to speak) is creating an internal and external environment through making decisions that are in alignment with one’s Inner Voice and taking action one step at a time.
Energetically, our whole being needs to catch up as well. Our physical, emotional, and mental systems need to shift and accommodate our bigger reality and paradigm. We have to drop the energetic resistance or blocks (like a detox) to help us adjust to our new reality. Sometimes that’s dropping behaviors or doing new ones; sometimes it’s letting people go, sometimes it’s teaching people how to treat you differently based on your new paradigm. These are all decisions and actions that take time.
- Human beings are organic, complex beings. So is the process of changing your life. There is no one-size-fits-all “system” for transformation that so many coaches come up with (note the plethora of “5-step system for this”, or “7-step system for that”). People don’t change in steps.
Each person is uniquely designed to express spirit or God in their own way. Discover that way and you will know how to transform your life and business, and which experts to listen to, learn from, and invest in.
- Leaps can happen in an instant when you shatter your constructs, conclusions, and habit of comparison about the world, about who you are, and about what is possible*.
In other words, when you release the complexity created in the mind, and get right to the essence of who you are, you literally step into a whole new world of possibility.
What really happens in personal transformation?
Bottom line, it’s the intersection between your readiness to change and the coach’s ability to hold the space for that change that creates “quantum leaps”. That is the magical recipe. Everyone wants you to believe that they are the “one” for you. Only you know that, and I believe you know intuitively who that next person is to help you on your journey and when you are ready, that person appears. You then have to choose to engage….and leap.
How do you speed up this process and prepare yourself to transform more quickly?
Surrender.
- Give up the notion that you are in control or need to be in control. Let go of the need to look good, stay safe, or fit in. Let go of any feeling that you should be anywhere other than where you are right now.
- Learn to discern between the Inner Voice and little voices of fear that can, and usually do, come in and try to scare you back to where you began. They will either keep you from making a clear decision and taking action on it, or have you second-guessing that decision and pulling yourself back like a rubber band to where you were before you were stretched by the decision.
- Stop comparing yourself to everyone else.
- Know yourself and believe in yourself.
- Give yourself a break and allow yourself to be wherever you are in the process.
- Recognize that old habits die hard.
- Use your inner authority to make decisions that are in alignment for you.
- Hire someone who can see your truth when you can’t.
You will get more powerful results all around, including deeper healing, more profound transformation, in your life and business if you surrender to the process.
I think most coaches are doing a grave disservice to the millions of people who want and are asking for transformation, because when they don’t speak about fear and what really happens in the process of change, in an open and honest way, they just perpetuate it and leave people feeling worse than before.
No one sets out to do this intentionally. It’s the marketing and slick copywriting that promises transformation that’s so easy, then leaves you hanging when you don’t “get it” in that coach’s timeline or packaged system. Well, I’m done with it. I call Bullshit.
I say:
Lose the system. Find yourself.
That’s where your leaps of the quantum kind will happen.
Here’s the thing: Once you make the decision and start taking action, it gets easier. It really does. God can’t help you until you make a decision. And when you do decide, all manner of grace, support, and resources can—and will—show up. But if you are always second-guessing yourself and your decisions, you’ll be spinning your wheels and watching others as they become “overnight successes” and wonder when your time will come.
It’s now. Your time is now.
Are you ready for your next quantum leap? If you’ve read this far, I’m guessing “Yes”. You’ll find it in an Inner Authority Alignment Session
From My Heart to Yours,
Kris
* Stay tuned: in next week’s article I’ll be writing about resistance and being ready to change…this will blow your ego – in a good way! 🙂
