The power of context

C: "Yes, I would like to get 500k from the bank!"

M: "But you aren't being that."

C: "What do you mean?"

M. "What I mean is you aren't coming from a place where you get the money from the bank. All I hear is that it would be nice, but..."

As I was saying this, I could see how the CEO in front of me was looking for justification, a reason why they wouldn't need to be responsible for causing the result.

C: "But what if I fail? What if I have to find a different way?"

M: "All I hear you saying are the reasons why you don't commit to creating it, but I don't hear you being who you said you would be."

"What I hear is that you're someone who fails and has failed in the past and that, therefore, you can't trust yourself. How can someone trust you if you can't trust yourself? You're being, 'Let’s see' and `Don't trust me!` For what you say you want to cause as a CEO, I don’t think that will do."

I was provoking them.

C: "No, that's not who I am. I really want to create what I said! And I want it to work, but..."

M: "All I hear are more reasons why you aren’t powerful, why you won’t be able to say what it is and make it so."

M: "What do you think is the difference between Elon Musk and you?"

C: "Elon has no fear."

M: "You really think so?"

C: "No, I think he has fear... Maybe it's experience and all the success he’s already had."

M: "Like many failed rockets?"

They smiled.

C: "You're right... It probably isn't only that; he has a vision."

M: "Try that on. He isn’t busy undermining himself. He is the one who shoots a rocket into the sky, and that is where he operates from. He didn’t have any proof; all he had was his word that that’s what was going to happen. From the interviews I’ve seen, I wouldn't say he has no fear—he couldn’t sleep for months, and in the videos of the rocket launches, he looked terrified. But he did it anyway."

C: "He was courageous. He just did it."

M: "Yes."

"What’s required for you to let go of that conversation that you aren’t going to make it work?"

C: "Nothing!"  

They looked puzzled.  

"I let it go right now."

I could see how their body language changed.

M: "What’s here now?"

C: "Possibility."

M: "For what?"

C: "That the money is there and we will start the project at the end of November."

M: "What will you do?"

C: "Finish the contract."

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This conversation (slightly changed) happened recently between a client and me. When talking to them, I realized that the context they landed on (who they were being) had caused them to sabotage their own success.

We can run around in circles when we don’t address the blind spots that lie beneath our ineffective actions.

What happened after that session was a boost of movement and absolute clarity in the client. It didn’t happen because I told them something they didn’t know; they changed where they were looking from.

They said the following during and after the session: "It is as if I just woke up from a bad dream." Rediscovered power.

Whenever you think you have no power, you are full of BS...

You can always choose from where you meet life, and in my world, that makes you the ultimate creator.

What’s the context you are looking for? And how might it limit your performance?