THE CLEARING

Reflections on Being and Becoming

Growth Doesn’t Look the Way You Think
Coaching, Self-care David Perry Coaching, Self-care David Perry

Growth Doesn’t Look the Way You Think

When you think about your future and all the things you want it to include, you likely forget about all the peaks and valleys involved in growth. It’s easy to see where we are now and the destination, and then draw a straight line. Growth is not linear. But even more than that, growth itself is not a destination: it’s a process (and a practice).

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The Things You Can Control & Change: The Circles That Determine Highly Effective People
Coaching, Self-care David Perry Coaching, Self-care David Perry

The Things You Can Control & Change: The Circles That Determine Highly Effective People

How much time do you spend trying to control things you cannot control? Maybe it’s your child, the speed of the washing machine, or the rush hour traffic.

There’s an idea that I discovered called the circle of influence. The idea behind this is that there are certain things that are within our control, things that we can influence.

And then there is the circle of concern. The circle of control is full of excuses, victimization, and blame. This circle has things we cannot influence, but we often still concern ourselves with.

The proactive approach to life is to spend more time focusing on the things we can change and influence.

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5 Tips for Conquering Overwhelm
Coaching, Self-care David Perry Coaching, Self-care David Perry

5 Tips for Conquering Overwhelm

You’re overwhelmed because you’re confused.

When your mind isn’t confused, when tasks and priorities are clear, there’s no overwhelm.

When your mind is focused, overwhelm is absent.

The problem is that stress ensues as we start to feel overwhelmed. And the more overwhelmed you feel, the more stress you create for yourself.

This is a vicious cycle. One that we’ve all felt at some point in time or another.

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Your Survival Mechanism Keeps You Safe, And Prevents You From Thriving
Coaching David Perry Coaching David Perry

Your Survival Mechanism Keeps You Safe, And Prevents You From Thriving

“Keep it secret. Keep it safe.”


In that famous line from “The Fellowship of the Ring”, Gandalf strictly advises Frodo to hide the Ring of Power and not mention its existence in order to keep it safe from enemies.

Isn’t this how many of us live our lives? Keeping our own power hidden in order to stay safe from failure or embarrassment.

The irony is that if you truly understood this power, you’d realize there is no point in hiding it from the world.

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Catching My Self Sabotage
Coaching, Business David Perry Coaching, Business David Perry

Catching My Self Sabotage

One way our survival mechanism keeps us in our comfort zone is by sabotaging our own efforts to achieve more.

Any time we go about up-leveling our game, we will run directly into our internal saboteurs. We will attempt to sabotage our own big game or next level. This is simply the survival mechanism at work trying to keep us safe.

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Surpass Your “Upper Limit Problem” and Create Being
Coaching David Perry Coaching David Perry

Surpass Your “Upper Limit Problem” and Create Being

We all have the opportunity to be many things in this world, but unless we are working in alignment with our most authentic dreams and goals, a job title and a business license isn’t going to be enough.

You stand just before your Upper Limit embodying exactly who you are in this moment. All of the accumulation of action and progress you have made up until this point. You are the living manifestation of all the beliefs that you have about yourself and the world around you.

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The Other Side of Your Comfort Zone
Coaching David Perry Coaching David Perry

The Other Side of Your Comfort Zone

Most people are living a default life – you can predict where they’ll be in a few years by looking at how things have been going for them leading up to now.

In many cases, this is difficult for people to recognize due to the fact that they’ve been running on autopilot for so long.

This is why coaches prioritize empowering clients to challenge the status quo, or, in this case, the inertia of the default life.

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