It has become a common saying that all most men are looking for is peace. I had yet to encounter somebody looking for peace in a coaching session until relatively recently. If I think of the topic for myself, the questions I am drawn to are “What does peace mean to me now?”, “What would I like it to mean?”, “How could I take my first steps towards this peace that I envision?”, and “How will I overcome obstacles that derail my progress towards finding peace?”.

If I put myself on the spot, I’m surprised that two things from popular culture enter my mind. Firstly, an old interview with Bruce Lee where he said: “You don’t find peace, you choose it, by what you ignore, by what you release, by what you stop giving energy to. That’s the shift”. Secondly, the old rock song ‘Peace of Mind’ by Boston (1976) – particularly the lyrics “Now you’re climbing to the top of the company ladder, hope it doesn’t take too long. Can’t you see there’ll come a day when it won’t matter? Come a day when you’ll be gone. I understand about indecision but I don’t care if I get behind. People living in competition, all I want is to have my peace of mind.”

With a little more thought, and a search online, I remembered an interesting article titled “In our chaotic world, can people find peace within?” from Gallup Blog (20 September, 2023). In a time of declining world peace, the article claimed that 61% of people around the world often or always felt inner peace during difficult times. I was quite surprised how high this percentage was. The cautionary tale of the article was to not just look at narrow economic metrics about progress in society but for policy makers to pay attention to numerous aspects of well-being for a population (as there is a global rise of unhappiness).

Ultimately, like some of the other topics I have encountered or discussed in this blog, I have a feeling that inner peace may mean different things to different people and that will make it an interesting goal to explore when it appears in future coaching sessions. I hope to provide the right space to hear more about people’s search for peace and how they plan to get there.