Yesterday evening, I hopped on the Lizzy Line after work to meet my sister in London’s West End.

We were grabbing a bowl of pasta before shimmying over to St James’s Church in Piccadilly to catch a talk from the American “supercoach” Michael Neill. 

The theme of the talk was:

Is there a right way to live our lives?

Not long into the talk, Michael shared an example from when he was growing up. 

He said that, as a boy, he was told to eat every last crumb of food on his plate as a sign of respect for all the people around the world who didn’t have food on their plate.

Then Michael went on to say how his wife had been brought up to always LEAVE some food on her plate. She’d been taught that this was the polite, proper thing to do and a sign of good manners.

Needless to say, this culinary culture clash led to some lively conversations between Michael and his wife.

Lauren and I have our own examples of this.

Take flatpack furniture.

The “right way” to assemble Ikea flatpack, according to Lauren?

To do it ourselves.

The “right way” to assemble Ikea flatpack, according to Yours Truly?

To find someone else to do it!

So Lozzadog Lauren ends up with functioning furniture and I end up with a bill from a guy called Steve on Taskrabbit which I’m more than happy to pay.

Point being, there’s more than one way to build a Bönglesnärf bookcase.

And as Michael established after 10 mins or so, the answer to the question “is there a right way to live your life?” is a big, fat “NO!”.

This notion really speaks to me.

Yes, it feels unsettling.

But I also love the freedom that comes from the idea that the shoulds, the musts, the need-tos and the have-tos are a bunch of troublemakers which I can unashamedly tell to sod off. And instead of doing the done thing or following the bleating herd, I can take a look at my life FOR MYSELF and ask myself the questions:

What do YOU want to do Tom? What do YOU know to do Tom?

Perhaps this is why, 2 years after completing my 7 month coaching certification with Michael, I recently joined another of Michael’s programs called “Your Life, Your Way”.

Perhaps it’s also why I’ve been inspired to create my OWN brand new program which explores lots of similar themes.

I’ve been dropping a few hints about this program over the last couple of weeks.

Tomorrow, I’m lifting the lid on what inspired the whole program and finally revealing the program’s name.

So stay tuned. 

If you dig the idea of living your script instead of someone else’s, I think you’re going to love what I have in store.

To fulfilment, 

Tom