TPL – The Purpose Lotus Coaching Model

A Coaching Model By Christos Vasilopoulos, Business Coach, GREECE

TPL – The Purpose Lotus Model

Unfolding all the aspects of a subject and its accompanying thoughts and feelings reveals how and what a person thinks and feels right now and -then- how to move forward.

For anyone to be able to move internally and externally from point A to point B, they need to identify where they really are right now. Recognizing and accepting the current situation creates a base where a person can jump to the next desired and affordable step, no matter their goal/task/issue.

As Archimedes said:

Give me a lever, and I can move the world.

The Purpose Lotus model helps the person see themselves and the situation as it is, both from inside-out and as a “3^rd person” observing the situation from a distance or a different angle. With a solid point created, one can move forward.

The Metaphor

This elevated awareness model resembles a lotus flower’s form and growing place. It draws its concept from the Buddhist tradition and symbolism, providing an extension that is both applicable and meaningful for a client.

The Purpose Lotus model consists of the following metaphors:

• The base of the Lotus and the currently existing “muddy” situation.
• From that mud/confusion, a flower can grow (knowledge, clarity, understanding, and all positive directions) as it gradually unfolds its petals and reveals its colors.
• The client is helped to raise awareness and understanding of each “petal” (thoughts, ideas, beliefs, etc.) that they need to move to the golden center of the Lotus and clarify their purpose and actions.
• The client is helped to understand their situation’s why and the what.
• Awareness is raised by keeping them focused in, around, and on the flower elements with questions and tools that help them understand all the different shades and aspects of their task, limiting the chances to shift away or backward.

Thus, the model’s concept is twofold:

1. It helps the coach to have a symbolic visual depiction of the process and focus on the client.
2. It helps the client stay focused on the elements of their goal towards the action center.

The process is topic-agnostic. It can be applied in nearly all coaching situations.

TPL – The Purpose Lotus: The Symbolisms

The whole point is to raise profound awareness and understanding in the client, up to the fact that it leads to meaningful actions that the client can uphold.

The lotus flower is a powerful symbol associated with suffering, particularly the suffering that comes from growing and developing through difficult experiences. The mud, where it grows, represents the challenges and difficulties of life. However, the flower represents the beauty and wisdom that can emerge from these situations. Here is how the Lotus is used as a symbol in philosophy:

1. Purity and Enlightenment: The lotus flower grows in muddy water but emerges unblemished and beautiful.
2. Rebirth and Renewal: The lotus flower closes its petals at night and sinks beneath the water, only to rise again and bloom anew in the morning. This is seen as a symbol of rebirth and renewal, suggesting that even in the face of death and decay, there is always the possibility of new beginnings and fresh starts.
3. Non-attachment and Detachment: The lotus flower is often depicted as floating above the water, detached and unaffected by the world below.
4. Beauty and Perfection: The lotus flower is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and perfect flowers, with its symmetrical petals and graceful curves. This is seen as a symbol of beauty and perfection.

On top of these, lotus flowers are represented with different colors (and exist like that), where the color symbolism represents different levels of understanding.

The petals (things to explore) are not either good or bad. They are what they are for the client. The model utilizes the base of that philosophy, outside any religious or other metaphysical approach and attachment, to make the client aware of all the different current things (like the flower petals) that formulate how they are and think now.

Understanding the how and what in all its aspects (thoughts, feelings, reality)can shift the client from the night of the problem to the day of clarity and detachment from the current situation so they can see it clearly from “above.” So, the client is -at the same time- detached and focused.

The generated clarity can create a solid “ground” that one can see and “feel.” From that point, they can choose what they want to do and the different options to achieve that. Before that clarity and solid ground, most actions don’t have the proper energy and strength of intention, thus making them less possible to uphold and be accountable for.

That helps clients to clarify their purpose and see the beauty of their purpose amidst any “mud.” They rise above the mud (negative thoughts, feelings, etc.). The mud can still be there, but”now” is something understood (as they understood why it exists) and left behind, and beauty and action can be developed. The lever is in place, and they can use the generated solid point to lift themselves higher.

The Process

The process has layers.

The base layer is that of:

• Setting the goal
• Exploring the path to the goal via values, beliefs
• Visualize a different state of being
• Taking action toward the new form that relates to the goal

When used, a client was surprised by asking them to see themselves as a “3^rd person” concerning their goal and troubling and speak their thoughts and feelings about their story.

In that way, they suddenly detached, momentarily escaping the duality of like/dislike of the situation.

They were placed above the “mud” and started exploring their feelings’ different aspects (petals). Some feelings were intense, others not so much. In the same way as the colors of petals can be.

The client clarified how they felt about the case they were troubled about.

At the beginning (coaching agreement phase), they were projecting their feelings about their situation to other people and thought that others should change their behavior. But while exploring each aspect of their thought, they discovered that the peace and clarity they were after was about how they thought and felt about a situation they couldn’t affect as it was another person’s behavior.

They explored the relations of the behavior of others towards things like their self-image, what expectations they have and what happens when they are not met, and many more things like that.

The Outcome

When they realized they couldn’t affect how someone else acts and the surrounding thoughts and feelings that showed up, they shifted to how to deal with that or similar situations. There, three things happened:

1. They felt peace with themselves. They laughed at their past way of thinking.
2. They started thinking of action types and ways to practice (i.e., reminders) on how to deal with similar situations in the future.
3. They felt that such situations were something they could now handle, control, and not worry about.

From the model perspective, they reached the epicenter of their current purpose.

Wherever this model was applied it had a transformative effect on thoughts, feelings, past beliefs, and actionable tasks.

References

Sacred Lotus in religious art – Wikipedia
About the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism (learnreligions.com)