Kindness, Greed and Life Coaching

Time-out to reflect

The much needed time-out gave me an ideal opportunity to reflect – not only on the need to express kindness – but on how fundamental to good life coaching practice the principle of kindness to self and others is.

During my own reflections, I found myself pondering over two important questions:

“What is it that promotes and perpetuates kindness?”
And, if kindness is, indeed, an innate attribute, “What is it that causes people to indulge in acts and behaviours that are patently unkind?”

Much personal introspection and a little high level research convinced me that there was a lot more to this seemingly simple topic than first met the eye.

Kindness driven by contentedness

One conclusion I reached was that the level of kindness expressed towards others correlates highly with the level of contentedness that people feel.

Generally speaking, countries that consistently rank high on the list for the happiest citizens are also high on the list of places where one is likely to experience the most friendliness, generosity, respect and consideration.

It seems entirely intuitive that the more contented you feel about your own life, the more disposed you will be towards helping others feel the same about theirs.

In other words, one’s level of personal contentment or happiness is directly related to one’s propensity to show kindness to others. Contentment drives kindness whereas discontentment or unhappiness suppresses it.

What promotes contentment?

This begs the questions: \”What it is that promotes contentment? And: \”What it is that undermines contentment amongst people\”?

Here’s where I dip very briefly into a little of the philosophy that we, at New Insights, share in our life coach training.

Purpose-driven versus Needs-driven

We believe that a life of inner peace and joy comes from being fulfilled and that fulfilment derives from being ‘purpose-driven’ or consciously living out the unique purpose we are here to carry out.

Unfortunately, humankind, in its ‘wisdom’ (perhaps a better word is stupidity) has done everything possible to promote a life in which the great majority of us are disconnected from our purposes.

In the absence of clear purpose, most of us are needs-driven. We live reactively, trying desperately to cope with whatever this unpredictable life might throw at us.

Purpose-driven people harness their unique gifts and passions to tap into the natural abundance of the planet. Needs-driven people are more likely to buy in to a scarcity mindset (believing that there is only so much to go around and that life is therefore a ‘survival of the fittest’).

Abundance versus Scarcity

At New Insights we believe that the natural order of the earth is one of abundance. By design, nature – or our creator – has provided the means for a comfortable, happy and contented life for all.

Sadly, human greed has distorted and disrupted that natural order.

By way of example, consider our vast and bountiful oceans. If treated with respect, they are more than capable of supplying the entire world with the fish and seafood that we need.

However, human greed and a scarcity mindset has prompted nations to compete to design bigger and more effective marine vacuum cleaners that are capable of stripping great swathes of the ocean in minutes.

A profound wealth gap

Money is, of course, humanity’s chosen currency of exchange. it follows, therefore, that a modest amount of money is required to ensure a basic level of contentment.

But once again, the scarcity mentality and human greed have combined to distort and disrupt the natural order of abundance in a manner that is simply staggering!

Take the distribution of wealth in the US as a prime example.

In 2016, the richest 1% of Americans accounted for 30% of the nation’s wealth. The poorest 90% shared a measly 23% of it.

… And that was five years ago.

Enter the global pandemic. A yawning gap between the rich elites and the rest has become a giant chasm. In just 16 months of lockdowns, the combined wealth of the 700 or so US billionaires rose by an unimaginable $1.8tn (that’s trillion, not billion) or a whopping 60%!

Dots are there to be connected

That wealth didn’t manifest from thin air. It was effectively transferred, or siphoned, primarily from the middle classes, many of whose livelihoods have been decimated by a level of authoritarian heavy handedness that would have been unthinkable two years ago.

It’s worth speculating here … Would we even have had the need for lockdowns and the terrible mental anguish caused, if that $1.8tn had been used to boost the immune systems of people the world over through the provision of basic nutrients?

And what if we could have added the obscene amounts of money spent on developing and distributing vaccines!

I digress a little but it doesn’t take great intellect to start connecting the dots. Nevertheless, that is the subject for another forum!

Life coaching and our future

I think you can see that something dramatic clearly needs to happen if we are to raise the levels of contentedness in our world. I have shown that this is needed if we are to ratchet up levels of kindness, tolerance, caring and gentleness; attributes that are required if humankind is to survive and thrive.

On that note, let me circle back to life coaching.

The purpose of life is to benefit humanity overall by promoting ongoing evolution and growth. Each one of us has a small but important role to play in this collective purpose. The incentive for doing so is to live a life of joy and inner peace – or contentment.

Life coaching is founded on the principle of kindness to self and kindness to others. It promotes an approach to life that is centred on identifying one’s unique individual purpose and then aligning one’s values, beliefs, actions and behaviours with that purpose.

Life coaching helps people make the shift away from a scarcity mentality and reactive, needs-driven lives. Life coaching provides tools and techniques to help people find their purpose, harness their inner power and passion, and enjoy fulfilling, contented lives.

Good life coaches show the utmost respect for their clients\’ individual freedoms, associations, beliefs and values. They promote personal challenge within a kind and caring environment.

Life coaching is an inexpensive, highly effective and natural antidote for many of the self inflicted psychological ills of the turbulent twenty-first century.

Personally, I feel incredibly privileged to work in this industry. I am truly proud of all the wonderful and amazing people that we have had the privilege to train as life coaches.

Perhaps you are one of those special individuals?

If so, may you continue to work to bring enhanced personal freedom, confidence, compassion and unconditional kindness into our troubled, yet very special world.

If not, why not consider joining what is a hugely worthwhile, fulfilling and rewarding cause!