Her Pioneer Met My Saboteur

Yesterday I was having a conversation with one of my coaches and it was one of those moments when there was a pretty considerable gap between who she was being and who I was being in that moment.

But before I go on too much further let me explain what I mean by who we were being. While some people believe that you have one general way of being in the world and that how you do one thing is how you do everything, I have a nearly opposite view. We are complex beings made up of body, mind and soul and we “show up” in many different ways, wearing many different masks. There are a variety of agreements we made prior to putting on the physical clothes our souls are walking around in on this Earth and we each have a personal mythology that begun way before we ever entered our physical bodies. These are our archetypes or our energy guides that direct us toward our spiritual purpose.

There are many archetypal patterns that express themselves through our personalities and life experiences and they work within us to support our personal development. We do not have one way, one purpose and one path. We have many and these archetypal patterns are representative of them. They are a source of power for us, helping us to identify and amplify our brilliance, awaken our potential and rid us of limiting thoughts and beliefs. The challenge we have with any of our archetypes is to recognize the opportunity it provides us to learn a lesson and to grow.

There are some archetypes that we all share such as the child or the saboteur but many more that are unique to us alone. These make up our archetypal chart. I’m not going to go into too much detail about that but if you are interested in going deeper I highly recommend one of my mentors Caroline Myss. I have been studying her work for years and she has published countless works on this topic that are easy to find.

In any case what happened yesterday with me and my coach was that she was standing in an archetype much different than mine. I was standing in my Saboteur archetype. I was in the middle of a minor crisis that was manifesting itself in feelings of low self-esteem and choices I was making that were blocking my own empowerment and success. I was allowing myself to be pulled into situations where my natural instinct was to sabotage myself. (Note: There are positive and shadow sides to every archetype but I happened to be working with the shadow aspect in that moment.)

She, on the other hand was standing in the Pioneer archetype. Now, I have not done a full archetypal reading on her so I don’t know if Pioneer is really one of her 12 archetypes but I suspect it is. The Pioneer is characterized by someone who is an innovator and is constantly doing something or inventing something that has never been done before. In the positive this is a very powerful archetype. It’s not enough to just have the ideas but you must also be the person that will implement the vision no matter what.

What happened? My Saboteur felt threatened, challenged and a bit overwhelmed by her Pioneer. And, when she told me something I did not particularly like, I knew the truth of the comment was not in question but my reaction was indicative of a story I was telling. What she said was true. However, it was what I did and how I reacted, from the Saboteur position, which influenced the feelings I had about the conversation. Had we had the same conversation later that night her Pioneer would have had little ability to shake my Visionary.

So, what does this mean for you? Let me explain with this example.

I work with a lot of clients who are trying to fill classes, events and high end coaching programs. Here’s what often happens when they have a certain number in mind and then they don’t reach that goal. They are clear about the facts (the truth of the situation). There were a certain amount of spots to fill and only half were actually filled. What happens next is they begin making up the story of why (the illusion) and that is what begins to take their power. The story may sound something like this….

They didn’t sign up because….

• My program isn’t good enough
• I didn’t market it effectively
• They have found out I’m a fraud
• They don’t like me
• They didn’t get the marketing message

But the truth is that they don’t really know why and neither really do the people who didn’t sign up. Here are some other possibilities…

They didn’t sign up because….

• If they had they would have been traveling on the highway to get to your event on a certain day at a certain time and they would have been in horrible car accident
• If they had, the 3 people who wanted to come along, one of whom was a PR professional with major contacts in your industry, would not have been able to sign up too and so you would not have met them and took a huge step to increase your visibility and grow your business.
• If they had, they would not have been able to send their kid to camp this summer

Sure, the first two may take a leap of faith but no bigger than the one you may take to create your own illusion of why it’s not filled.

So, if we take this to the next step and think about what archetype you were standing in when you confronted these facts, we will have a better sense as to what your reaction would be. If this truth met your victim, you would have likely began the story with the first 5 reasons I gave above. If this truth had met your Visionary, Teacher or Mentor it would have been a totally different story. You would not have personalized it. You would have been able to take yourself out of it and you would have instead said something like, “My event is about teaching a powerful group of women and I don’t want anyone there who doesn’t want to be there 100%. The people who have signed up are exactly the people and the number of people who are supposed to be here to make it magnificent.”

Do you see the difference? Does this mean we are even aware enough at any given moment to just swipe out the archetype we’re standing in for one that better serves us? No, not necessarily. And, there is a reason our archetypes play out when they do. Each experience is an opportunity for us to grow and transform our lives. It is through your archetypes that you are able to see through individual events and experiences to understand the symbolic or greater meaning of them. This vision is what gives you choice, choice to see every event or relationship in your life as a part of the agreement or plan you made of which you do have a say.

So, the next time you are stuck in a place in your business or in other areas of your life and you are finding yourself reacting in a way that is not serving you, think about what archetype you’re standing in and what lesson it is trying to teach you. There’s nothing “wrong” with how you react or any of your archetypes. They serve a purpose far more profound than we are likely to ever know. But, what they symbolize is definitely within our reach and they are one of the many gifts we’ve been given to help us along our journey. But, you must always remember that you do have choice about what story you are going to tell and that CAN make all the difference.

Tagged as: Archetypes, Life Purpose, women e