The Buddha's Eight Fold Path to Personal Success

The power of coaching lies in its individualization to the client needs.The coach needs to understand the coachee; his personality, his needs as well as his expectations. Having understood this, the coach then proceeds to create a customized approach to help the client move from where he is, to where he wants to be.

This will become clear from my experience with a client of mine. After having successfully managed the international interests of his family, he had handed over the reins to his brothers, and had taken to concentrating on investments and charity. He ran a well-managed charitable hospital for the poor in India, and also did a lot of good work in an African country  - his way of giving back to a country which was the source of all his wealth. 

For our first meeting, he invited me to London, where we had week-long coaching sessions. In his well-appointed office (he had the queen as neighbor!), hung a large portrait of Shiva and he always attributed everything that happened in his life to "the good Lord's wishes". Having observed this side of him, I began to think of ways to use this spiritual trait to hasten him towards the achievement of  the goals he had set for himself. The result was a worksheet - The Eightfold Path to Personal Success.

 Using the Buddha's Eightfold Noble Path as a template, I modified his eight original Right Paths

Source: http://brian.hoffert.faculty.noctrl.edu/HST330/13.IndianBuddhism.html

to Appropriate Paths to render them more practical to practice to make them look like this;

1. Appropriate Understanding
2. Appropriate Speech
3. Appropriate Livelihood 
4. Appropriate Concentration 
5. Appropriate Mindfulness 
6. Appropriate Effort  
7. Appropriate Action and 
8.  Appropriate Intention

I presented the worksheet to the client at our next session, telling him to read, contemplate and interpret the eight paths in his own life situations and implement them. The client was greatly impressed, and kept asking me where I got it from.

"From the Buddha," I replied. And I wasn't far from the truth. With the Buddha's blessings, the client benefited significantly from the contemporary rendering of his Eight Fold Path.

If you too wish to use the worksheet to help you carve your path to personal success, write to me and I'll send you a copy.