The 1-2-3-4 Approach

Hello again, it's time for another blog post - this one makes number 3, and for those that know me well… who would have thought. So in the first 2 posts I wanted to shed a bit of light on who I am and why I’m starting this whole blogging process, along with giving some context for my frame of thought when it comes to health and coaching.

With this third post my plan is to finish off setting the context of who I am, the way I view health and the way that effects how I coach and why I’m starting this blog. For the later question I’d have to say that more than anything I want this blog to be beneficial, practically applicable and empowering to you the reader. For the former part of the question I’ll get into that now.

In the last post I talked a bit about the 4 Pillars of health that I use in assessing and addressing the health of myself or others that I’m working with. Those would be Happiness, (mental/emotional health), Diet (what we bring into ourselves for energy), Quiet (circadian rhythm and personal space), and Movement (the movement of our physical and emotional bodies). Today I would like to expand on the framework or process that I coach others through.

That would be the 1-2-3-4 Approach as taught through the C.H.E.K. Institute. If you haven’t checked out the C.H.E.K Institute I would highly recommend going to their website and having a look.

So here is not only what I use when working with clients but it is also the framework that I use in my own life at every level. We will start with 1, our One Love or the Dream that we have for ourselves. However, unfortunately in my experience when asked point blank ‘what’s your Dream for your life?’ Or ‘Whats your purpose?’ most folks don’t have an answer. Not having a purpose or not following your passion is like a boat at sea without a compass, but having a Dream for ourselves gives us our own unique North Star to follow.

This is why our One Love or Dream comes first, it directs all other decisions that we make. I believe that each one of us human beings has a soul within that has a unique set of skills and traits that can be manifest perfectly in the physical body that we are given. By making space to listen to this truth from within we can start to get clear on what we want our life to look and feel like. So by clearly defining our Dream we are really giving direction and purpose with passion to our life.

Next we have 2, the Two Forces that are at play in every aspect of our reality. They can be known as Yin and Yang, the masculine and feminine. To know and recognize anything we need polarities or complimentary opposites. You can’t know cold unless you know hot and our existence and experience is made up of all the many degrees in-between. So when it comes to our health we are going to always look to find balance in all aspects of life.

Even when we are pursuing our passion we can find ourselves being shifted off our center and in turn this causes us more stress in other areas. By becoming more present in each moment we can more often remember to ask ourselves ‘Where might I be getting out of balance?’ and that awareness is the start of Dream affirmative re-calibration in our life.

On to number 3. All day every day, we are either consciously or unconsciously making choices or decisions and with any one of these from the largest to the smallest and most routine, we have but only Three Choices that can really be made - the Optimal, the Sub-Optimal or to Do Nothing.

So now I’ll break the Three Choices down a bit more. First is the Optimal Choice. In any situation where even the smallest autopilot choices are made the Optimal Choice is one that is in alignment with your Values and is Dream affirmative. The Optimal Choice keeps our momentum flowing in the right direction and supports not only us but those in our lives that we love the most.

On the flip side of that we have the Sub-Optimal Choice. Here the decisions that we make are not in line with our Dream and don’t necessarily support those around you that you love. I typically see these as instant gratification choices. However, I see these as learning opportunities that can bring us more awareness, and hopefully the pain teacher doesn't have to speak too loudly to us get the point across.

Then lastly the third choice that we can make at any point would be to Do Nothing. When this occurs because of apathy or indifference it is not Dream supportive to ourselves or those we love. The opposite of love isn’t hate its indifference and from that state of being we simply cannot pursue our Dream.

However there are times where doing nothing has its proper place. If you find yourself getting into a heated conversation with someone where you are feeling disconnected from the heart, or if you are feeling pressured to make a decision where you don’t have enough information, these would both be good times to take a step back, reevaluate and find the next optimal step to take.

That leaves us with number 4, our Four Doctors. I mentioned them at the beginning of this thing and spoke in more depth on the Four Doctors in the previous post, so I won’t go into more detail here. I will suffice it to say that the first 3 steps here fully apply to each of these four pillars of our health and wellbeing.

I’m going to call these first three posts good as for laying the ground work for the direction of where I intend this blog to go. Again, I hope that this is beneficial to you, and I would love to hear any feedback that you have.

Till next time..

Chris G.