Meet Akiroq

Stop "Showing Up" and Start Showing Results

"You want change? Then show up."—I see that push every day as a coach, and I'm calling BS. The "showing up is 80% of success" line sounds great on Instagram, but it's missing the real deal. Here's why this advice falls flat and how to discover what actually works for YOU.

How Humor Heals in Difficult Times

There's nothing quite like experiencing the particular discomfort of kidney stones to inspire reflection on coping mechanisms. After a recent bout with these unwelcome crystalline visitors, I found myself repeatedly turning to humor as a lifeline, scrolling through memes, watching comedy clips, and even making jokes about my predicament. This experience prompted me to explore the powerful role humor can play when we're navigating life's painful moments.

The Persistence of Personal Solution Finding

For over 20 years, my nights were fragmented by pain. I would wake 5-8 times every night, exhausted but unable to find relief. The cycle seemed endless, and with each failed remedy, it became increasingly tempting to accept this as my permanent reality. But something within me refused to surrender.

Introversion or Protection

Fifteen years ago, during a therapy session, I received a question that would challenge my self-perception for years to come. Like many, I had always identified as an introvert. It was a fundamental part of my self-narrative. Then my therapist asked: "Is it introversion, or is it just life, the things that happened to you, the way things and people affected you?"

Embracing Failure

Success can be a double-edged sword. While achieving our goals and maintaining forward momentum feels wonderful, it can inadvertently make us more vulnerable to the emotional impact of failure. This paradox became clear to me recently when a minor setback affected me more deeply than seemed warranted by the circumstances.

Finding Peace When You Don’t Have All the Answers

As coaches, we often encounter clients grappling with situations where they can't pinpoint exactly why they're experiencing difficulties. Whether it's workplace tensions, social challenges, or unexpected responses from others, the inability to understand "Why" can become an additional source of stress layered on top of the original problem. This article explores how to guide clients through these murky waters toward effective coping strategies and emotional resilience.

The Hidden Truth About Client Motivation

Many coaches enter the profession believing that focusing on positive outcomes is the key to motivating clients. After all, doesn't everyone want to move toward a brighter future? However, research reveals a surprising truth: Approximately 90% of people are primarily motivated by moving away from pain, while only 10% are naturally driven toward pleasure or positive goals.

The Art of Gentle Guidance

As coaches, we often encounter clients who hold deeply entrenched beliefs that may be limiting their growth or well-being. Our role isn't to challenge these beliefs head-on (an approach that typically backfires) but rather to guide our clients toward greater self-awareness and critical thinking. Understanding that people hold onto beliefs for emotional, social, and psychological reasons, not just intellectual ones, allows us to address these complex layers with compassion and skill.

Understanding and Managing the Professional Client

In the helping professions, we occasionally encounter what's known as the "professional client", an individual who moves from practitioner to practitioner, creating complex dynamics that can challenge even the most experienced coaches and therapists. This article explores how to identify these situations early, manage them effectively, and protect both your practice and professional reputation.

Designing a Coaching Environment That Nurtures Both Coach and Client

The environment we create as coaches extends far beyond a simple workspace, it's a container for transformation, a sanctuary for both practitioner and client. Through thoughtful design of our physical and virtual spaces, we can enhance wellbeing, deepen connection, and create more impactful coaching experiences.

The Elephant in the Room of Personal Perspective

In the journey of personal growth and self-discovery, one of the most profound challenges we face is recognizing the limitations of our own perspective. An ancient parable about blind men encountering an elephant perfectly illustrates this universal human experience and offers valuable insights into how we perceive and interact with the world around us.

Coaching Lessons from Office Space

The 1999 cult classic Office Space might seem like an unlikely source of coaching wisdom, but its comedic take on mundane corporate life taps into deeper truths about workplace fulfillment and personal authenticity. By using humor, the film highlights universal struggles: stifling bureaucracy, disconnection from meaningful work, and a yearning for greater alignment with one’s true self. As coaches, we can leverage these memorable moments to help clients examine their own professional paths and move toward more genuine, values-driven work lives.

The Milton Model: Empowering Client Discovery Through Artful Vagueness

When a client arrives at their own understanding, the insight becomes part of their lived experience rather than simply received wisdom. This fundamental principle lies at the heart of the Milton Model, a therapeutic language pattern that masterfully uses intentional vagueness to guide clients toward personal discoveries and transformative change.

Understanding Our Attraction to Social Turmoil

In an age of endless scrolling and constant connectivity, many of us have become unwitting participants in what could be called the "drama economy." We claim to desire peace and stability, yet our actions often tell a different story. We find ourselves inexplicably drawn to heated political debates on social media. We watch as opposing sides clash in comment sections. We share inflammatory posts that pit ideological groups against each other. We follow explosive exchanges between political figures as they spread like wildfire across our screens. This magnetic pull extends beyond politics to viral public meltdowns, celebrity scandals, and culture war controversies – any situation where tension runs high, and society seems to splinter along fault lines of opinion and belief. This magnetic pull toward drama isn't just coincidental – it's deeply rooted in our psychology and social dynamics. Our fascination with drama isn't simply a character flaw; it's partially hardwired into our neural circuitry. When we encounter dramatic situations, our brains release a cocktail of chemicals, including cortisol and adrenaline, creating a heightened state of awareness and emotional engagement. This biochemical response can become addictive, leading us to seek out more sources of drama to maintain that stimulated state.

Understanding and Responding to Strawman Arguments

A strawman argument occurs when someone misrepresents their opponent's position, creating a distorted version that's easier to attack. This misrepresentation often bears little resemblance to the original point, yet it's presented as if it accurately represents the person's views. In today's polarized climate, this tactic has become increasingly common and sophisticated.

Beyond the Hashtag

In an era where social consciousness is increasingly visible on social media, many clients struggle with the distinction between genuine advocacy and performative allyship. As coaches, we have a unique opportunity to help clients examine their motivations and transform surface-level support into meaningful action.

Breaking Free from Evening Mindless Eating

As a coach working with clients on creating meaningful, lasting change, I've observed that evening mindless eating is a common challenge that many face. This pattern of maintaining disciplined eating habits throughout the day, only to struggle with evening snacking, affects people across all walks of life. Today, let's explore this challenge and discover practical strategies for creating sustainable change.

Breaking Free from Perspective Prison

We all live in our own perspective prisons. Our viewpoints, shaped by experience and necessity, serve important functions in our lives. They help us make sense of the world, feel secure in our understanding, and maintain a coherent narrative of our existence. Yet these same perspectives that protect and guide us can also trap us, making it difficult to understand others or recognize our impact on them.

Finding Self-Love Through Your Inner Child

Have you ever noticed how certain moments can suddenly shift your entire perspective? Recently, I experienced one of these transformative moments during an inner child exercise that challenged everything I thought I knew about self-love and personal growth. As someone deeply committed to continuous improvement and excellence, I discovered that the key to deeper self-acceptance wasn't in looking forward but in connecting with the pure, innocent nature we all possessed before life's challenges shaped us.