Are you an Eagle amongst Chicken?

What if you’re trying to succeed at a game that is too small for you?

In recent coaching sessions, one central theme has come up repeatedly that I feel called to write about, because I can also personally relate with my story.

You know, for many years I’ve been trying to prove myself in the business world. I went to a high school specialized in business, I studied business at one of Germany’s elite universities and became the young CEO of a startup we launched with two professors after my graduation.

What most People see

What most people see on the surface is that we received two innovation awards, entered a partnership with Microsoft and won a big government institution as our first client. We developed a psychological assessment software that supported leadership teams to understand and work together better and with less hierarchy.

What most People don’t see

What most people don’t see is that I left after two years before it had a chance to really become successful. I wasn’t aligned with the values we were living anymore – I didn’t feel that we embodied the underlying ideals of the product ourselves, and couldn’t see a way to change it. And so I left, back then, with a sense of failure and not having made it as an entrepreneur.

I have since then launched several other projects, non-profits and entrepreneurial activities that kept me financially above the surface but never really excelled. I never worked a regular job and failed at every job interview I ever attempted to go to. There were times when I was deeply self-conscious about this and felt shame of not creating the success part of me had hoped to achieve.

With my last company, we didn’t focus on profit and made a huge impact in the lives of thousands of people, supporting them on their leadership journeys. We grew organically and didn’t expand tremendously over the ten years, and for most of the time we just broke even as a non-profit. Yet despite our impact, I still had moments of insecurity and lack of self-esteem when I compared myself to others who had walked the corporate path and build a solid base of wealth and material possessions along the journey, while I, for most of my life, was living a very simple lifestyle.

I never really tried!

Only in recent years it dawned on me: I never really tried to go all in playing the capitalistic business game! I didn’t fully resonate with the context and values of a definition of success that is purely quantified in economic metrics and so even when I tried to engage in the game others presented to me, I wasn’t fully committed – or at least had competing commitments.

And another factor contributed to the subconscious self-sabotage of saying that I want one thing and not doing everything to get it.
You see, somehow my soul knew already that you can never really get enough of what you don’t really need. And so there would have been no amount of material or financial success that could have made me feel truly successful. And maybe my higher guidance was just preventing me from the detour of having to work my way to achieving all of it in order to come to that realization after the fact.

One of my later realizations was, that I didn’t lack the intelligence, determination or creativity to become successful in the definition of the environment I was immersed in. It’s just that I wasn’t willing to pay the price and sacrifice my values or personal needs for it.

Finding your Purpose amongst Chicken

And so what I’ve been sharing with my client last week was the analogy of an eagle raised by a chicken coop. And the eagle may try it’s best to succeed at being a good chicken, but in the end he will have to come to realize that the chicken game wasn’t meant for him in the first place.

Many of my clients come to me with similar stories of feeling like imposters (insecure overachievers as they’re called by the big consulting companies), unclear about their purpose, lacking self-confidence or even feeling shame for where they see themselves in their professional accomplishments. They have been trying to fit in and achieve a definition of success that wasn’t really theirs anyway. Naturally, they long to belong and try their best to fit in with the chicken and compete with them at their rules.

A little Story on improving your Strategy

i.e. finding new ways for getting better results

There was a man who was struggling with his carpentry business, and so he went to a business coach. The business coach gave him a long list of ideas on how to create his funnel, create content, use Instagram to drive organic and paid traffic to his offerings and commit to a marketing plan. After two hours, the carpenter was about to leave, somewhat overwhelmed but ready to do what it takes to become a success story. Before he left, the business coach said: “By the way, I didn’t even ask for your name!” “My name is Jesus”, the carpenter replied.

This business coach in this little story was most likely doing a great job working on the level of strategy. But he missed an essential point. He didn’t see the whole human being and potential in front of him.

I’m not a Business Coach

That’s why I am not a business coach. I am a leadership coach and I work on the level of identity first. When the way you see yourself changes, the way you see the world changes. And when the way you see the world changes, your world changes with it. My clients don’t need a better strategy that gets them faster into burnout and depression, or what Charles Eisenstein calls the “Mutiny of the Soul”. And yet, when I support my clients to live into a bigger identity, then that in turn also results in a new strategy that actually brings them not just the fulfillment in alignment with their values, but also the financial resources required to be in service to life more powerfully.

My clients are pioneers of a world that is yet to come, and therefore inherently play a different game than everyone else. Whatever made them a misfit in the old system will make them a leader in this new world.
I call them “Soul Awakened Leaders”, who live courageous lives that embody a living permission slip for others to be who they truly are in their unique expression.

Many feel called to be of service within the old structures, building bridges, birthing the new and hospicing the dying world at the same time. If we’re trying to get approval and be seen for this by and belong to people who don’t understand we’re playing a different game, this can be a very lonely path to walk.

This is why I’m building a supportive online community of Soul Awakened Leaders, and will also launch the next cohort of my group coaching again soon. The Soul Awakened Leadership Circle is your weekly support structure to align yourself with a group of curated leaders who are bringing deep change into the world and who know that we can’t and wouldn’t want to do it alone.

Learn more and apply to join now →

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