From faith healing and addiction recovery to finding your life’s purpose, I’ve spent nearly fifty years watching people transform. Today, I began connecting some dots I hadn’t connected quite this way before.
I wasn’t planning to revisit the soul of my life’s work today. LOL. I was actually working on something entirely different.
I’ve been helping some natural alternative health practitioners explore and document their experiences with unconventional approaches to wellness. And while investigating some rather extraordinary recovery stories, I found myself wondering about something that has fascinated me for most of my adult life.
How much of a person’s recovery begins before the treatment ever starts?
Not that the treatment doesn’t matter. Sometimes it matters enormously. Nature has given us an extraordinary collection of compounds, plants, minerals, and biological resources. Modern medicine has learned a great deal from studying them.
But I kept coming back to something else. The person receiving the treatment. Their expectations. Their confidence. Their relationship with the practitioner. And, perhaps most importantly, their willingness to believe that their circumstances could actually change.
One person described an experience with a natural alternative practitioner this way: “I didn’t know if this would work, but I believed in her.” Then came the remarkable declaration: “She healed me 100%.”
Now, I don’t know exactly what happened inside that person’s body. I couldn’t tell you how much of the improvement came from the intervention, how much came from other circumstances, or whether belief contributed to the outcome.
But something in that statement caught my attention.
The belief came first. The reported healing followed.
And suddenly, I found myself traveling backward nearly fifty years.
The God Factor
When I first entered the ministry, I was attending Bible college and working with Teen Challenge, a Christian residential program for people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. Back then, we talked about extraordinary recovery statistics. I remember hearing recidivism figures in the neighborhood of three to eight percent.
At the time, we had a name for what we believed made the difference. The God Factor. And I wasn’t simply observing it from a distance. I was involved in the process.
Sometimes we would meet with someone facing criminal charges and appear in court to propose an alternative to incarceration. Rather than going to jail or prison, the person might be given an opportunity to enter a residential rehabilitation program.
There were serious consequences for failing to comply with the court’s conditions. But something else happened. The person was offered a different future. And, in our ministry, that future began with an encounter with Jesus.
The central message was wonderfully simple. You are a new creation in Christ. The old has passed away. The new has come. Whoa, Nelly!
Think about that for a moment. We weren’t telling someone, “If you work hard enough, maybe someday you’ll become a different person.” We were telling them that the transformation had already begun.
Their new identity came first. Their new behavior would follow.
That was the premise of the conversion experience. And I watched people respond to it. Their demeanor changed. Their expectations changed. Their understanding of themselves changed.
Of course, that didn’t mean addiction disappeared instantly. People still had to navigate cravings, withdrawal, emotional wounds, relationships, and all the practical difficulties of rebuilding their lives. But something important had shifted.
They were no longer approaching the future exclusively through the identity that had brought them into trouble. They had a new starting point.
Sometimes the Recovery Begins While You’re Waiting
Here’s another interesting part. Sometimes people began changing before they even entered the residential program. They had made a commitment. They had been given an opportunity. They were waiting for the next chapter to begin. And during that waiting period, they were already thinking differently about their lives.
Now, the anticipation wasn’t the only influence. Legal consequences, a changed environment, and the prospect of structured support all mattered. But I began wondering whether we sometimes overlook what happens between the moment someone commits to an intervention and the moment the intervention actually begins.
I’ve encountered similar stories in alternative health.
Someone makes an appointment with a practitioner who has a long waiting list. Three weeks away. During those three weeks, they begin imagining the possibility of recovery. They talk about what they’re going to do when they feel better. They start paying attention to their health. Perhaps they make a few changes before their appointment.
And sometimes they report improvement before receiving the treatment they originally sought.
That doesn’t establish that anticipation caused the improvement. Symptoms can fluctuate naturally, and other factors may be involved.
But wouldn’t it be interesting to measure?
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- What was happening when the person first requested help?
- What changed during the waiting period?
- And what happened after treatment began?
Maybe we’ve been starting the stopwatch too late.
The Person Who Gives You Permission to Get Better
There’s another part of this that I find especially compelling. The practitioner.
Sometimes a person has lost confidence in their own ability to recover. They’ve tried things. They’ve been disappointed. They’ve heard discouraging predictions.
And then they meet someone who looks them in the eye and says, in effect: “I believe there’s a way forward for you.”
That can be a powerful experience. Not necessarily because the practitioner possesses some mysterious healing ability. But because the person receiving help may begin entertaining a possibility they had nearly abandoned.
I recognize this from ministry. I recognize it from coaching. And I recognize it in some of the stories told by natural alternative practitioners.
There is a relationship between trust, expectation, and the willingness to participate in recovery.
Researchers study parts of this through placebo effects, therapeutic relationships, and mind-body interactions.
But I suspect the word placebo is sometimes too small for what we’re talking about. Because we’re not always discussing a person expecting a pill to work. Sometimes we’re discussing a person beginning to imagine an entirely different life.
From Conversion to Purpose, Message, Passion, and Mission
Eventually, my work moved beyond the ministry and into life coaching. And somewhere along that journey, I developed what I call PMPM: Purpose. Message. Passion. Mission.
The idea is to help someone discover and align four important dimensions of their life. Their Purpose gives them a reason to move forward. Their Message helps them recognize what they have to share. Their Passion gives energy to the journey. And their Mission turns those discoveries into meaningful action.
When these four elements begin working together, something interesting happens. People change. Sometimes immediately.
I’ve watched someone’s demeanor shift during the discovery process. They sit differently. They speak differently. Their eyes light up. Suddenly, the future isn’t an enormous collection of unrelated problems. They have a direction. A roadmap. A reason to get out of bed tomorrow. And off they go!
It’s not quite the same experience as Christian conversion, but I recognize the family resemblance.
A new identity emerges. A different future becomes imaginable. And the journey begins.
Do We Really Have a Purpose?
Some of my fellow coaches have given me a fair amount of grief over the years. They think it’s ridiculous to suggest that everyone has some special purpose floating around in the sky, waiting to be discovered. Or perhaps tattooed on their forehead. LOL.
But that argument misses something important.
You don’t have to believe that your purpose was assigned by God before you were born. You don’t have to believe in destiny. You don’t even have to believe in God.
You can believe that purpose is something you discover, something you create, or something that emerges as you learn more about yourself.
What matters in the coaching process is whether you can establish a meaningful direction that brings your values, abilities, interests, and actions into alignment.
I’ve worked with people who have very different spiritual and philosophical beliefs. That’s fine with me. I don’t need them to agree with my understanding of the universe. And I don’t think coaches need to agree with their clients’ spiritual beliefs to respect the importance those beliefs may have in their lives.
A Christian can understand purpose as a calling. An atheist can understand purpose as a consciously chosen commitment. Both can build meaningful lives around it.
The important thing is that the purpose belongs to the person discovering it. Not to the coach.
The Breakthrough Is Real. But Will It Last?
Now we come to the part that has troubled me for years.
I have witnessed some remarkable transformations through PMPM. But I wouldn’t suggest that everyone who experiences a breakthrough goes on to fulfill their mission. Far from it.
Based on my own informal observations, I would estimate that perhaps thirty percent sustain their new direction over time. That isn’t a controlled study or a formally audited success rate. It’s my working estimate from years of coaching.
And I’ve spoken with some of the people who didn’t continue.
Their explanations have been remarkably similar. “It was great while it lasted.” “It was just too hard.” “I couldn’t do it.”
And that brings us to what may be the most important discovery of this entire conversation.
A person can discover a new purpose without fully overcoming the old beliefs they hold about themselves.
The breakthrough changes their direction. But it may not change their relationship with difficulty. They encounter a challenge. Something doesn’t work. Someone criticizes their idea. They lose an opportunity.
And the old voice returns. “See? I knew you couldn’t do it.”
The person hasn’t necessarily lost their purpose. They’ve lost confidence in their ability to pursue it. And that’s a very different problem.
What Happens When You Encounter Your First Obstacle?
Here’s a thought I’ve been entertaining. What if we prepared people for difficulty before they encountered it?
Not by frightening them. Not by listing every possible thing that could go wrong. But by giving them permission to be inexperienced.
Suppose someone finishes their PMPM discovery, excited about their future.
And I tell them:
“You’re going to encounter challenges. That’s part of the journey. But promise me something. Don’t decide whether you’re capable of fulfilling your mission based on your first obstacle.”
Then I might add:
“How about we make it to your seventh challenge before you start drawing conclusions about what you’re capable of?”
Seven isn’t a magic number. It’s simply a way of interrupting that old habit of treating the first disappointment as proof of personal inadequacy.
And maybe the seventh challenge won’t be the end of the journey, either. Maybe by then they’ll have discovered something extraordinary.
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- They can encounter obstacles without surrendering their identity.
- They can change strategies without abandoning their mission.
- They can ask for help without admitting defeat.
The first few challenges aren’t necessarily evidence that you’re unqualified. They may be part of how you become qualified.
Of course, persistence doesn’t mean ignoring serious risks or continuing down a harmful path. Sometimes the wisest decision is to change direction. But changing your route is not the same thing as surrendering your purpose.
The Community That Keeps the Transformation Alive
This is where my Teen Challenge experience comes back into the picture. When someone entered that residential program, they entered an environment designed to reinforce their new identity.
They were surrounded by people who believed in the possibility of transformation. They had structure. They had encouragement. They had accountability. They had a community. And that community mattered.
With PMPM, things work a little differently.
Someone discovers their purpose, and then they begin building their own support system as they move forward. They meet people who share their interests. They find collaborators. They encounter mentors. They connect with people whose skills complement their own.
Some become friends. Some become business associates. Some become members of a growing team. And if they’re smart, they begin building their tribe.
Not everyone needs to follow the same mission. They simply need to recognize and support one another’s journeys.
Meanwhile, the person’s old relationships don’t necessarily disappear. A childhood friend can remain a childhood friend. Family members can remain loved and appreciated. But those relationships no longer have to define the limits of what the person believes is possible.
Sometimes the people who knew us before our transformation have difficulty recognizing the person we’re becoming. They may even discourage us, believing they’re protecting us from disappointment. And that’s where a new community can make an enormous difference.
The new people in our lives begin recognizing us by the mission we’re pursuing. They see our contributions. They invite us into opportunities. They encourage our progress. Eventually, our new identity becomes part of our everyday social reality.
The mission attracts the community. And the community helps sustain the mission.
Why Environment Matters So Much
I’ve seen a related problem in addiction recovery. Someone makes substantial progress in a residential program or during incarceration. Then they’re released into the same circumstances they left. The same pressures. The same habits. Sometimes the same people encouraging the same destructive behavior.
That doesn’t mean their old neighborhood is inherently bad, or that everyone returning home will relapse. But environments influence behavior. And changing your identity while remaining surrounded by reminders of your old identity can be difficult.
The same thing happens to people pursuing a newly discovered mission. They may be excited about starting a business, writing a book, serving a community, or creating something meaningful.
Then they encounter people who say: “Who do you think you are?” “That’s never going to work.” “Get real.”
Those comments can be devastating when they awaken an old belief that the person was never capable in the first place.
This is why building new associations matters. Not because we should abandon everyone who disagrees with us. But because we need relationships that support our growth rather than constantly pulling us back toward our previous limitations.
What Does All This Have to Do With Healing?
Quite a lot, I suspect. We began this conversation by considering people who report dramatic improvements after receiving unconventional health interventions. Some of those interventions may have genuine biological effects. Others may not.
And in many individual cases, we simply don’t have enough information to know.
But what if we examined the entire experience?
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- The decision to seek help.
- The anticipation before the appointment.
- The relationship with the practitioner.
- The belief that improvement is possible.
- The daily routine that follows.
- The changes in sleep, stress, activity, and behavior.
- The encouragement received from others.
- And the new identity that sometimes emerges when someone begins seeing themselves as capable of recovery.
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None of those factors proves that a particular treatment works. But neither should we overlook them. They may be important parts of what happens when someone begins getting better.
And perhaps the same principle applies across several areas of human experience.
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- A person recovering from addiction.
- A person managing a health condition.
- A person discovering their life’s purpose.
- A person emerging from years of discouragement.
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In each case, the circumstances differ. The medical, psychological, social, and spiritual considerations differ.
But there may be a recurring element:
Someone begins to believe a different future is possible and starts living in ways that move toward it.
The Missing Piece May Be What Happens After the Breakthrough
Today, I began with a question about healing. And somehow, I ended up reconsidering nearly fifty years of ministry, coaching, and personal development work. LOL.
But I think I’ve discovered something useful.
I’ve spent a great deal of my life helping people experience breakthroughs.
A new identity. A new purpose. A new understanding of what’s possible.
And those moments can be extraordinary. But perhaps the next great opportunity isn’t making the breakthrough more powerful. Perhaps it’s helping people sustain it.
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- Helping them understand that the first obstacle doesn’t invalidate their discovery.
- Helping them build relationships that reinforce the person they’re becoming.
- Helping them distinguish a failed strategy from a failed mission.
- And helping them remember who they decided to become when the excitement begins to fade.
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Maybe we need to pay more attention to the days and weeks following the moment of transformation. Because that is when the new identity encounters the old world. And that’s where the real journey begins.
So, What Changed First?
Was it the person’s health? Their behavior? Their relationships? Their expectations? Their understanding of who they were? Or was it the moment they encountered someone who believed in a future they couldn’t yet imagine for themselves?
I don’t think there is one answer that explains every transformation. And I’m not particularly interested in forcing one. But I am interested in asking better questions.
After all these years, I still believe that people are capable of extraordinary change. I also know that change can be difficult to sustain.
So perhaps the question we should be asking isn’t simply:
“How do we help someone experience a breakthrough?”
Perhaps it’s:
“How do we help someone build a life that can support the person they’ve just become?”
And maybe that’s the next chapter of my life’s work. Not another spectacular moment of transformation. But helping people carry that transformation into tomorrow. And the next day. And the seventh challenge. And beyond.
Because discovering your purpose is a wonderful thing.
Learning to keep walking when the road gets difficult is how that purpose becomes a life.
FAQ
Q: What is personal transformation?
A: Personal transformation is a meaningful change in how someone understands themselves, their values, their possibilities, or their direction in life. It may influence behavior, relationships, priorities, and long-term goals.
Q: Can changing your beliefs change your life?
A: Beliefs can influence expectations, motivation, behavior, and decision-making. Developing a more constructive understanding of yourself may help you pursue opportunities and respond differently to challenges.
Q: What is the difference between behavior modification and identity transformation?
A: Behavior modification focuses on changing specific actions or habits. Identity transformation involves changing how someone understands who they are and what they are capable of becoming. Both can contribute to lasting personal development.
Q: What is Purpose, Message, Passion, and Mission (PMPM)?
A: PMPM is a life-purpose coaching framework developed by David M. Masters. It helps individuals identify and align their Purpose, Message, Passion, and Mission to create a meaningful direction for their lives.
Q: Why do personal breakthroughs sometimes fail to last?
A: An initial breakthrough may create excitement and clarity without eliminating longstanding self-doubt, difficult circumstances, or unsupportive relationships. Sustaining change often requires continued practice, adaptation, and supportive connections.
Q: How does community support personal transformation?
A: Supportive relationships can provide encouragement, accountability, shared experience, practical assistance, and opportunities for growth. These connections may help reinforce a person’s developing identity and goals.
Q: Can faith contribute to personal transformation?
A: Faith can provide meaning, hope, identity, community, and motivation for some individuals. People may also experience meaningful transformation through secular approaches that emphasize purpose, values, and personal agency.
Q: What is the role of anticipation in personal change?
A: Anticipation can influence expectations, motivation, attention, and behavior before a formal intervention begins. Preparing for a meaningful change may itself encourage someone to begin acting differently.
Q: How do you overcome self-doubt after a breakthrough?
A: One approach is to recognize that obstacles do not automatically invalidate a new purpose. Revising strategies, seeking support, building skills, and interpreting setbacks as opportunities to learn can help sustain progress.
Q: What does it mean to build your tribe?
A: Building your tribe means developing relationships with people who understand, respect, or support your direction. These may include friends, mentors, collaborators, professional associates, and others who contribute to your journey.
