Last Saturday evening, Lauren and I sank into the dimly-lit settee in Fort Grundy’s antechamber to fire up the movie Oppenheimer.

Near the start, Oppenheimer dashes to his lab to grab an apple he's injected with cyanide and left on his professor’s desk.

When he gets there, who should he find fondling the juicy green apple but physicist and Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr. 

The two giants of science get chatting about quantum theory.

That’s when Niels hits Oppenheimer with this:

“Algebra’s like sheet music. The important thing isn’t can you read the music. It’s can you hear it. 

Can you hear the music, Robert?”

This short snippet goes a long way to explain why music is universally loved whereas maths is universally hated. After all, imagine if firing up Spotify meant deciphering reams of notation instead of humming along to a jaunty tune.

But it’s not just music and maths where this distinction shows up.

The same distinction gets to the heart of the difference between a mentor, consultant or teacher vs a coach.

Of course, there’s a place and time for the former. Back when I took magic lessons, it was helpful to have an underground card magic legend in my corner. He helped me find my way with various sleight of hand moves, gave me tips on how to practice and literally showed me the magical ropes. We walked the same path that he’d walked decades before and good thing too. I wouldn’t have picked up anywhere near the amount of magic I did without him.

But coaching is a different ball game.

Coaching isn’t a way to follow someone else’s path. Nor is it about learning the notes, mastering the technique or studying the theory. You don't find fulfilment by analysing it, access intuition by reading about it or get clear on your next move by trying to figure it out.

You find all these things by living them.

It all comes down to the difference between an understanding which isn’t just stored inside you but is actually ALIVE inside you.

It's why the music vs maths distinction matters so much. 

Fulfilment, intuition, clarity, love, peace of mind and everything else that makes us human work exactly like music. 

You can't reason your way to them. You can only hear them.

Funnily enough, as I type these very words I've realised just how apt this email would’ve been a few weeks ago while I was promoting my new program The Music Inside You.

Alas, the doors to The Music Inside You have swung firmly shut.

But my coaching wait list is open.

If you’d like to hear the music of life rather than thinking about the music of life, my coaching could be a good next step. 

More info here:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

To fulfilment, 

Tom