More and more people are coming to understand that it is necessary to change, transform, and reach new levels of consciousness and life. But not everyone is ready for this process — not because they don’t want to, but because they are at different stages of inner maturity.
In this article, we will analyze the three main categories of people on the path of personal and spiritual transformation. If you are a transformational trainer, coach, run your own projects, or engage in any kind of teaching, you will understand which of the three categories allows for real work.
Background
Many years ago, I studied with American coaches. Some of them, Mike Simon, Susan Evans, made the greatest impression on me. From them, I adopted much of how to connect the spiritual and the material.
One of them explained a concept that resonated deeply with me, and which I later implemented within the “Keys of Mastery” project.
Most specialists who work with people try to offer their services and courses to absolutely everyone, and as a result, they expend a great deal of energy, vibrationally, and resource-wise.
This corresponds to what the transtheoretical model of change (Prochaska and DiClemente) describes as stages of readiness: working without considering the client’s stage is ineffective for both parties.
But in reality, you need to work with a specific group of people. That’s when they proposed this classification.
Three types of people on the path of transformation
First group: Unconscious carriers of problems
These are people who have a problem, but they don’t know about it. They live in a state of inner discomfort; they may be irritated, tired, dissatisfied with life, but they do not entertain the thought that the issue lies within themselves.
How does this manifest in life?
Their subconscious seeks to draw attention to their pain, so they begin actively giving advice to others, “healing” everyone around, criticizing, and teaching others how to live.
As you understand, in the former Soviet space — a land of advice — this manifests most vividly. Who has encountered such people?
They themselves do nothing to address their own problem, yet they tell everyone how to live.
The subconscious tries to reach them from all sides. They keep encountering people facing the same situation, but since they are not ready to solve their own problem or even consider that it exists — despite receiving hints from the Universe — they start dispensing advice to everyone and anyone without resolving the issue.
This is an unconscious attempt to draw attention to their pain by projecting it outward.
Such people are incapable of deep inner work because they refuse to admit that something is wrong with them. They are not the ones with whom productive work is possible.
See also: Forcing Good or The Danger of the Rescuer Role
Second Group: Those Who Have Realized but Are Not Ready to Act
The next group of people are those who already know they have a problem — something unfinished, something left undone. They feel the need to change relationships, work, or their approach to life, but do nothing about it. They are not yet ready to take any action.
A common story seen in relationships: you truly know and understand that this person is not your path, but because there is a home, family, children, finances, and so on, people — especially women — get stuck at a crossroads for a long time.
It weighs on you, yet you are not ready to take a decisive step to part ways, especially to initiate it yourself.
Then I usually say that you need to give yourself time, build fallback options: how you will live, what you will live on, how you will earn money, how you will feed your children. And not immediately dive headfirst into the abyss.
Third group: Ready for transformation
These are those who not only recognize their problems but are also ready to work with them.
They do not need to have courses or practices imposed on them, or be lured by some marketing tricks, convincing them that they need it.
This suited me very well, because the task was not to convince, as they used to say in infobusiness and taught from every corner, but simply to find these people and show them that I have a solution.
At that time, we were just structuring the work on “Keys of Mastery,” and a lot changed.
According to the American coaches I studied with, this was the first step to start with — precisely with this group of people, because they have an internal request, a burning “I want!” — not for information, but for a change in the state of life.
See also: Two ways of transformation. Which one do you choose more often
Why it is important to understand this
We discussed this from the perspective of specialists, regarding which audience to work with.
But everyone must determine for themselves which group they are currently in. It all starts from the point — “something is wrong” and “I want, am I ready to do something about it.”
Spiritual practices do not work on the principle of “for everyone and anyone.” Energy invested in an unprepared person simply drains into nothing.
I do not even consider the first two groups; I do not work with them, they are not interesting to me, which is precisely why we have no advertising. We have never specifically lured people from outside. They find us and come on their own.
We have a huge number of free introductory courses, all sorts of quests, and trackers that you can use to get results, understand how it works, and see if we are a good fit for each other or not.
Then we invite you to paid courses.
Thanks to the fact that many years ago my perspective changed, I stopped listening to what the great money-making experts in the Russian internet were saying, and instead went to this intersection of spirituality and marketing. I managed to make it align with my own values, rather than, as they say, just for the money.
What does readiness for transformation mean to you, and how do you know that this moment has arrived? And a question for specialists: which people do you find easiest to work or interact with — and why specifically with them?