What Would Happen If You Answered Your Soul’s True CallING?

After Success, The “Second Journey” Beckons…

If you are a high achiever who has excelled at many things but sometimes wonder, “Now what?”

I assure you, you are in the right place.

If you’ve ever crossed a finish line most consider daunting, only to feel a little empty, depleted, wondering why it’s not fueling you like it used to…

I have great news for you! You’re not confused. You’re not ungrateful. And you’re definitely not crazy!

You are riding the edge of the legacy driven moment known as the Hero’s Second Journey.

When My Last Race Didn’t Satisfy…

All my life I’ve been an athlete.

As a teenager growing up in Italy, I spent many weekends winning tournaments in an elite golf league.

The rush of winning drove me to continue winning.

I was a “good boy,” I was liked, and that was everything I thought I wanted. But after a while, winning at golf tournaments wasn’t enough for me.

I felt a restlessness inside. I needed a new challenge, a new conquest. Something that would push me to my limits physically, emotionally, and mentally in a way I’d never experienced before.

“I know!” I thought to myself, a surge of adrenaline rushing through my veins.

“Ironman! I’ll compete in Ironman!”

One of the toughest athletic competitions in the world.

And so the grueling training began…

The morning of the race I woke up, pumped to experience one of the greatest achievements of my life, or so I thought.

After 13 hours, a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles biking and a 26.2 mile run, I crossed the finish line.

I wasn’t met with the rush of accomplishment I’d anticipated. On the contrary, I felt a nagging sense of  “Now what?”

I didn’t know the answer to that question, and slipped into a mild depression.

A Conversation With My Soul

I decided to keep training for my next triathlon while completing the MBA Program I’d recently enrolled in.

After 20 years of growing my family business to the forefront of the shipping and transportation industry, my accomplisnments there landing me a spot on the board of a prestigious fashion school in Florence, I knew a thing or two about business and thought…

“I know I got my Law Degree, but maybe it’s time to push some new frontiers in business. And do another triathlon.”

I biked, I ran.

I studied.

I stayed up late.

I wasn’t going to let a little nagging feeling of emptiness stop me in my tracks.

I had things to achieve.

Well… my soul and my body conspired to bring me out of this pattern for good.

The more I trained, the more exhausted I was.

The more I sat in class, the more mind numbing it felt. I was listening to all these nice and interesting people talk about the Economic Crisis, and although I respected that and admired them, I wasn’t able to connect with them in their conversations like I used to.

I suddenly found myself wanting to talk about their lives, their families, their challenges and their dreams.

I didn’t know what was happening to me inside, but something was shifting. I didn’t realize that the high achieving mind and body driving me through so many accomplishments was now being pulled by my soul… and what got me here was not going to get me to the next frontier. The one that would bring true satisfaction, deep fulfillment, and an end to the restless accomplishing.

“I can’t do this anymore,” I thought. And I dropped out of my Master’s Program.

Coming Home To My True Self

I hired an intuitive soul coach.

It felt kind of funny, being an accomplished athlete with a Law Degree and many successful business ventures in my back pocket, working with an intuitive coach! But every time she spoke, new doors in my pathway opened:

“Nicola! Your ego wants to prove yourself successful, the MBA was just another attempt! Your soul wants to fulfill your love for deeply personal work and living in a more meaningful way.”

“Ego. Soul? I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Nicola you would love the program at University of Santa Monica.”

“What’s that?”

“Spiritual Psychology, you will love it!”

I went home that night and started researching the program and enrolled.

The teachers, the content, and my classmates… they all felt so familiar to me. Like I was coming home.

My soul was coming back to full life. I woke up again from a deep sleep. I started the process of awakening to who I truly am and the work I am meant to do. It wasn’t Law, it wasn’t running companies in my sleep.

It was to know myself, and help others do the same.

It Started With My Father, And A Small Book Of Poems

So much of my life was to impress my Father, since I was a kid.

My parents came from Italy to watch me graduate and afterwards I drove them to the airport.

While we hugged at the gate, not knowing when we would see each other next, I handed my father a small book of poems I’d written during my time as a student.

“Whispers of the Soul” contained stories of my Mother, my Father, my Grandmother. Stories of my life and true self that I’d written authentically and vulnerably.

I was nervous walking away. “What would he think? This is the real me. This is it!”

My Mom called me and said “Nicola! Your father read those poems at the gate and he cried like a baby! He cried all the way home. I was so embarrassed!”

I smiled.

All those times I finished races, won tournaments, got trophies and degrees… I would rush to call my dad and we would revel in the prize together.

But opening the window to the truth of who I am, the truth of who he is… so that connection and intimacy could work in our lives…

The ultimate prize.

The joy and energy produced from this finish line never wore off. It became a new beginning. A gift that continues to grow and give exponentially because it is about something so much more than just myself.

Which Brings Me To The Hero’s Second Journey

According to Joseph Campbell, the Hero’s Journey is coded in every story, myth and legend told in every culture regardless of time, space or location.

In it, a hero (within each one of us!) sets off on a journey, faces incredible challenge, meets mentors, allies, and enemies, is severely tested, and must ultimately achieve some external goal.

Once the hero survives the tests and achieves the goal, they must then start the journey home. They can no longer stay where they are, the community they must return to needs their new realizations and special knowledge they gained along the way. If the hero were to stay where he was, he would die!

Once you have become that great athlete, that accomplished attorney, the award winning doctor or the globally esteemed businessman, you too will become restless, because you’re actually meant for so much more.

It’s encoded in your DNA through this “monomyth!”

You have to take the second journey and that second journey is an inner one. It’s an inner one into the depths of the legend, or map of your soul. You have conquered everything outside, now it’s time to come face to face with something deeper.

This is the moment where legacy is born. You’ve been preparing for it. You’re ready.

One Of The Ways We Embark On This Next Level Journey Is Through An Ancient Tool Known As The Enneagram

What’s that, you ask?

An ancient mathematical principle represented in a simple geometric pattern that governs the movement of the entire universe.

Over the last 40 years, it’s been reintroduced to the Western world and applied to the fields of psychology, personal development and the understanding of human consciousness to reveal what drives us and why. Once we unlock that driver we can discover the deeper truth of our authentic limitlessness.

Then, and only then can you access the energy source coming from the hidden depths within.

As you discover more about this tool you’ll see how all the endless lists of achievements were the ego’s attempt to access this deeper resource - it’s why you’ve been so successful but also why you’re currently frustrated.

I’ve used the Enneagram to open that hidden inner world with everyone from top athletes to top executives and they report a sense of well being and possibilities they always wanted but didn’t have the tools to actualize.

A way to run their companies, play sports, run races, engage with family, show up at work, and make high level contribution in such a consciously architected way that the joy, love, acceptance and energy once relentlessly sought but never directly experienced, finally arrives.

Who Else Has Walked This Path?

Since answering my soul’s call to follow the path of Spiritual Psychology and Leadership Coaching, amazing hero’s making their “return home” have trusted me to guide the way, as I trusted a coach and mentor to guide my way.

• A sales executive of one of the largest pharmaceutical corporations who was burned out. He found the courage to leave his safe and soul draining job, battled through his demons and addictions and found a new inspiration to create a life filled with meaning and start an entrepreneurial endeavor aligned with his true soul’s gift.

• An owner of a high-tech company that was out of balance, feeling unfulfilled and “unsuccessful” despite great accomplishments. Together we discovered his lost passions and inner joys he has become the leader he always wanted to be, and the husband and father his wife and kids were waiting for.

• An associate of a financial venture firm who was feeling deflated by life and totally disengaged at work, feeling despondent about his future in spite of a successful past. From a more authentic and true space, he claimed his spot as partner in the firm.