I had a client coaching session late yesterday afternoon. The first of many sessions to come with a young, executive who is driven, ambitious…a rising star in his corporate environment.

I asked, “Why did you come to me as your personal coach?”

“I need balance in my life,” he answered without hesitation.

I thought, “Don’t we all.”

“I’m driven,” he explained.

Obviously.

“I just left an interview, for example,” he continue, “just before coming to meet you and, even although I have been with this company only a few months, I’m being promoted already.”

“Congratulations.”

“It’s no small promotion either,” he said. “It actually puts me in line to be the next CEO.”

“Wow,” I thought. And, only in his mid-twenties. So young and, yet, so smart. Articulate. Winsome. Likable. He’ll make it. Heck, he’s making it already. His mind reminds me of a hamster in a ferris wheel…spinning…away from something…or, maybe toward something…I’m not certain yet…I’ll need an other session or two…but I cannot help but wonder wonder if the progress he’s making is the kind he really wants to make.

It must not be. Not entirely, anyway. Otherwise, why seek a coach?

I like him. I’ll be able to help him. As long as he remains teachable, and, for some reason, I think he is; then, I am sure he’ll advance in this corporate world…heck, he has already. But, more importantly, he’ll advance in his inner world…where now he feels a bit out-of-kilter, he will soon and then always feel what now he misses. In spite all of his exterior togetherness…and, he does come across as together…this young executive who knows himself well enough to know something valuable is missing…something isn’t quite working inside…something is out-of-balance…this executive wants to fix it.

What is it?

It is the same thing you want fixed in you. He is no different than you or me or anyone else. It’s that in you that brings you back time and again to read this stuff I write. It has nothing I know to do with my ability to write. There are writers in this world. I’m hardly one of them. What I do write, however, resonates deeply within you because I write about the stuff that matters most. And, nobody has to explain to you what that is. You know this innately. Something in you connects with it and you find yourself saying, even if you don’t say it out loud…”That’s right…that’s me…he’s speaking to me…writing about me…what he’s desribing is the very think I want…I need…I must have.”

And, what is it that you want…that I want…that this young, executive needs more than all the trophies that are already gathering dust on the display shelf of his ambitions?

It is to feel connected to Life itself…it is to know what Paul Tillich called “the Ground of our Being.” It is to feel grounded in Presence itself so that, no matter what rages around you, there is peace within you…a quiet, enriching calmness…a joy unspeakable…indescribable…permanent even.

My friend, what you want…what I want…what the young executive wants is no trophy you could ever compete for and then win…no summit you’ll have to climb in order to reach…no reward you’ll ever get for making all the right decisions…no accomplishment you could ever achieve…and, certainly no promotion you’ll one day get but only after impressing the Board or pleasing the shareholders.

You, my friend, are already at that very place you seek. You’re atop the summit already. You have arrived at the destination you seek. You are already one with Life itself.

This is why Christians call it Grace. You really had to do nothing to get it. Why? Because you cannot arrive where you are already. You cannot become who you are by grace.

YOU ARE yourself the natural state of felt oneness with God. Why would you seek what you are already? Who you are…now? Do you feel this? The very Essence you are? Live from this place my friend and you’ll never ever…I repeat…you’ll never ever wonder whether you’ve lived a successful life…

You have succeeded already!