It’s time to tell you about “The Model.” It is the cornerstone of The Life Coach School’s training... and for good reason. The Model is one of the most foundational tools that exists when it comes to helping people build better lives for themselves.

The concept itself is very simple, the challenge is having the discipline to use it... and often.

The model is basically a sequence of events that goes like this:

• A Circumstance occurs. "C"

• You have a Thought about that circumstance. "T"

• The thought you have creates a feeling. "F"

• Your feeling then causes your next Action (or inAction). "A"

• And finally that action creates a Result. "R"

And, finally, you know your awareness of how the sequence played out is accurate if your Result is clear evidence of your original Thought... but I will go into those details in a separate blog.

Pretty simple, right?

Ok, maybe not right now, but I promise you, with regular use, it totally will be. :)

Let me give you a little more detail, and then I will leave a template you can use to try it out for yourself.

For now, just understanding the basics... and actually stopping to be aware of your own sequence will give you tons of insight and clarity. 

Circumstance

A circumstance is something that happens, occurs, or just is. Circumstances happen (or just are) all around us all day, everyday. They are what make up the world we interact with. A circumstance is completely factual and entirely neutral. A circumstance is not skewed by opinion and is not appointed a "good" or "bad" perspective. A circumstance just is.

Thought

As humans we experience a circumstance and our minds immediately create a thought about it. The thought is usually anything but fact. The thought takes the circumstance and assigns an opinion to it. The thought often has a “negative” or “positive” slant. One person can even have multiple thoughts about a single circumstance. Annnndddd if there are multiple people experiencing the same circumstance, you can only imagine how many thoughts can be created around one single and exact same event.

Feeling

Next in this sequence of events comes the Feeling. Feelings are emotions that humans experience daily.  We assume our feelings are triggered by a circumstance we experienced, when in actuality our feelings are not about the neutral circumstance at all, but about the thought we created about the circumstance. Our feelings are always triggered by the thoughts we choose to think. 

Action

Following right behind our feelings comes our action! Our feelings are very compelling and as humans we naturally reACT to the feelings we are having. Once our emotions are triggered, an action, and sometimes sneakily an inaction, is generated. This part of the sequence can be very eye-opening once we have an awareness of the actions being generated from our feelings. Our actions, and sometimes lack of action, is always in direct response to the feelings generated by our thoughts.

Result

And finally, at the end of The Model sequence, we are left with our result. That result is entirely due to our previous action or inaction. A combination of all our results from all of our actions, feelings, and thoughts is what makes up the life each of us has created around us.

Most of the time we are not even aware we go through this sequence. We just assume we are reacting to the circumstance we experienced, never realizing it was not the circumstance that caused this chain reaction at all, but, our ensuing thoughts.

With attention and awareness, we can actually become proactive in creating the lives we want. The first step is becoming aware of the thoughts we are having and the results they are creating. The second step is learning how to choose thoughts that will create the feelings, actions and results we want in our lives. 

I highly recommend you download the attached worksheet and start plugging in your thought sequences. This practice will give you some great insight as to how you are viewing your circumstances as well as how those thoughts are then sculpting your life. Just click directly on The Model worksheet graphic to download. 

If you have any questions or would like some help navigating through the worksheet, I'd be more than happy to assist you. Just follow the below link to schedule a 30 minute mini-coaching session with me. I can personally walk you through the worksheet, and give you a small taste of the big impact coaching can have. 

Mini Coaching Session