Greater Purpose Mindset
Greater Purpose Mindset Leadership
The most powerful leadership mindset emerges when in pursuit of a greater purpose you are continually seeking or integrating the next layer of authentic transformation at an identity level.
The typical outcomes experienced following ‘Greater Purpose Mindset Transformation’ include:
– Smashing through mental and emotional glass ceilings
– Being a more inspired and enthusiastic leader
– Being a more effective communicator and more able to inspire others
– Increased levels of energy, focus and resilience
– Greater clarity of business priorities
– Magnified levels of intuition and creativity
– More meaning and fulfilment in being a leader
Such transformative outcomes are only possible because ‘Greater Purpose Mindset Transformation’ requires:
1- Transformation of your ‘current identity’
2- Expansion of your level of consciousness (your activated Thinking Systems and levels of awareness)
Greater Purpose Servant Leadership
Greater Purpose Leaders have a ‘Servant Leadership mindset’ are able to ‘Be, Do and Achieve’ far beyond the potential of ‘motivation only leaders’.
You may have heard stories of mothers lifting cars weighing half a ton to free their trapped children. When your actions and communication are genuinely in service of others, because you truly care about their wellbeing and growth, your mindset expands far beyond the limits of a purely self-serving or self-preserving mindset.
In doing so, they willingly take on significant challenges and step off the well-worn but uninspiring hamster wheel of chasing success. Instead, they experience deep fulfilment, even during periods of intense challenge.
The ‘Purposeful Grey Warrior’ Mindset for Business Leaders
In 2005, before Alistair became a full-time business leadership coach in 2006, Jon Robson began a seven-year journey competing in Shaolin Temple Kung Fu. At the start of that journey, he asked Alistair to be his mindset coach, and they worked together for one to three hours each week.
During this period Jon became:
- Three-time British Kung Fu Champion
- World Championship Silver Medallist
- Achieved a win ratio of over 90%
Alistair himself is a Karate black belt and later went on to coach other martial artists competing at national and international levels.
The Purposeful Grey Warrior Mindset was developed and tested both:
- In demanding business leadership environments, and
- At the sharp end of national and international martial arts competition
This video was filmed just before Jon competed at the World Championships in Toronto in 2009, where he won the silver medal. What began as a coffee shop conversation about his Purposeful Vision became a journey that far exceeded both our original expectations.
The key elements of the ‘Purposeful Grey Warrior’ are:
1- Greater Purpose Identity
Choosing to be driven by a Greater Purpose where the inspiration to make a difference replaces the need for constant motivation.
2- Focused Fulfilled Non-attachment
Jon Robson’s focus was not on ‘winning’ but on his greater purpose to inspire others and to ‘give it everything he could with everything he had’, as he did throughout his martial arts career, whereby his successes were a byproduct of his focus on experiencing fulfilment as he alludes to in the above video.
3- The Equilibrated Mind
Increased awareness that all upsides have a downside and all downsides have an upside, freeing the mind from the prison of infatuations and their inevitable accompanying nightmares to enable focus on maximising your authentic potential
4- The Grey Warrior
In line with Carl Jung’s conclusions about ‘the shadow self’, we all have a light side and a dark side. Our warrior is just one of our ‘archetypes’, if you present yourself as either ‘a light warrior’ or instead as ‘a dark warrior’ as many martial artists, business leaders and people generally do, then you are negating half of who you are and half of your potential.
The inner conflict between the shadow and light self is mentally emotionally and spiritually draining. Black and white together make grey, and it is the Grey Warrior who wastes little or no energy in internal conflicts and is thus able to maximise their potential to serve others and experience the greatest levels of fulfilment.
5- Archetypal Mindset Anchoring
Carl Jung identified many archetypes that serve us in different situations, when Alistair worked with Jon Robson we identified that when he was competing and a Kung Fu competition he required only 3 archetypes to be present, the Warrior, the Sage and the Magician! Using a number of advanced NLP techniques we created a powerful mindset anchor for Jon to use when competing.
As he was about to step on to the mat to compete, Jon was able to simultaneously trigger these 3 archetypes (shadow and light) to be equally and fully present in his performance.
Having tested the ‘Grey Mindset’ concept in the most extreme challenging environment of martial arts competition adapting it to be used in the business leadership environment has been very rewarding.
The Grey Mindset concept has transformed and empowered business leaders under the greatest pressures to lead and communicate effectively, to present, to perform or even to ‘be highly creative’!
Grater Purpose Leadership Mindset Transformation
Everyone experiences self‑doubt, limiting beliefs, fear, anxiety, and periods of excess stress. These feelings are a natural part of being human. What defines us—and ultimately shapes our destiny—is how we respond to them.
For business leaders, getting caught in recurring cycles of limiting beliefs, fear, anxiety, or stress doesn’t just restrict their own potential. It also limits the potential, performance, and wellbeing of their entire team.
Our work helps clients develop practical, grounded strategies to cultivate an Empowered Mindset.
We use a wide range of leading‑edge mindset tools. This approach is rooted in over five years of experience as an NLP (Neuro‑Linguistic Programming) trainer, followed by 18 years working as a senior facilitator for Dr. John Demartini. During that time, I facilitated more than 50 of his Breakthrough Experience events around the world, helping thousands of people overcome some of the greatest mental and emotional challenges of their lives.
Fear, Anger & Sadness (Excess Stress / Distress)
Mental and emotional overload—whether it shows up as excess stress, distress, or even excess elation—often indicates that we’re operating from one or more of the three core polarised ego states:
- Fear or Desire Infatuation
- Anger or Connection Infatuation
- Sadness or Happiness Infatuation
Stress vs. Eustress
Not all stress is harmful.
While distress and excess stress are unhealthy, eustress—healthy, productive stress—is essential for growth.
Eustress occurs at the intersection of challenge and support, the place where we stretch our abilities without overwhelming ourselves.
We define an Empowered Mindset as a mindset that transcends ego, transforming fear, anger, and sadness into inspiration and enthusiasm.
It’s the state where you are deeply focused on the end result, yet not emotionally attached to it.
Limiting Beliefs
Limiting beliefs, limit our potential and how inspired and fulfilled we can be. Our limiting beliefs can show up as either false negative assumptions or as overly idealised, infatuated beliefs about ourselves. One helpful model for understanding these patterns is the Enneagram. While imperfect—like any model—it offers useful insight into how the ego shapes behaviour.
In this context, the three “pain bodies” of the Enneagram correspond to the physical, mental, and emotional stress we experience. They reflect core underlying beliefs that many of us carry subconsciously. In the illustration referenced, these beliefs are expressed in their negative, avoidance-based form rather than in the positive, infatuated form.
If left unexamined, these deeply rooted beliefs limit our potential—for both achievement and fulfilment. By bringing them into awareness and addressing them directly, we give ourselves the opportunity to grow beyond them and step into a far more empowered way of leading and living.
The above illustration of the Enneagram has all the core ‘limiting beliefs’ only stated in the negative! However, ‘fantasies are the driving force of nightmares’, the universal law of polarity dictates that each negative belief also has an ‘infatuated or fantasy’ polar opposite that is equally culpable for us limiting our potential!
Your 9 Core Limiting Polarised Beliefs
Whichever pole of our core beliefs we are experiencing in any given moment, it pulls us away from the greatness of our authentic self — the part of us that transcends all polarised limiting beliefs.
- THE PERFECTION BELIEF (Internalised Anger Belief)
“There is a right way / I must be perfect” (I am inferior)
vs.
“There is a right way / I am perfect” (I am superior, righteous) - THE HELPER BELIEF (Externalised Sadness Belief)
“I am unworthy or unlovable because I am guilty”
vs.
“I am more worthy, more lovable — I deserve more.” - THE ACHIEVER BELIEF (Denied Sadness Belief)
“I must achieve to be good enough or acknowledged” (frustration with the world)
vs.
“I am the best — I am better — I am acknowledged” (self-infatuation) - THE TRAGEDY BELIEF (Internalised Sadness Belief)
“I do not belong — I am a reject” (I am depressed)
vs.
“I belong — I am adored by others” (I am elated) - THE THINKER BELIEF (Externalised Fear Belief)
“I must be in control / I am not in control!”
vs.
“I must be in control / I am in control.” - THE LOYALIST BELIEF (Denied Fear Belief)
“I am not significant — I cannot trust myself or others”
vs.
“I am significant — my trust in myself and others is unquestionable.” - THE OPTIMIST BELIEF / THE EPICURE (Internalised Fear Belief)
“I lack the capacity or the resources”
vs.
“I possess flawless capability and unlimited resources.” - THE POWER BELIEF / THE BOSS (Externalised Anger Belief)
“I must achieve external results — I must be in charge and in control.”
vs.
“I have total power over others — I am the boss.” - THE PEACEMAKER BELIEF (Denial Anger Belief)
“I am not capable — I am not angry.”
vs.
“I am capable of anything — I can bring peace to all.”
YOUR UNCONSCIOUS STORIES / RULES – UNDERSTANDING ‘YOUR ELEPHANT AND YOUR MONKEY’!
Your Unconscious Stories & Rules:
Understanding ‘Your Elephant and Your Monkey’
The nine fundamental beliefs of the Enneagram are powered by subconscious rules — and those rules are driven by stories. Your elephant is a metaphor for your subconscious stories and the rules that come with them.
Your monkey is a metaphor for your conscious, logical mind and it is tied to your elephant (the unconscious, story-driven mind). No matter how much the monkey wants to move in a different direction, it will always be led by where the elephant is going.
The stories driving your elephant (your unconscious mind) are not always logical or rational and they may or may not serve you, yet they are the engine of your hugely powerful subconscious beliefs that create your reality.
In short: stories shape beliefs and beliefs shape reality!
For example, if when you were younger, your circumstances led you (your elephant) to buy into a story that “Money causes pain!” then despite the fact that your conscious mind (your monkey) wants and pursues money it will always fall short, even when there opportunities to make a lot of money the powerful subconscious mind (your elephant) sabotages the opportunity. To shift your identity and your beliefs, you must redirect the direction of your elephant (your subconscious beliefs). Logic and reason alone won’t do it, you must rewrite the stories of your subconscious identity.
Empowered Greater Purpose Mindset
Having greater purpose identity and greater purpose visions that inspires you and those you lead is an essential component of transforming fear, anger and sadness into inspiration (inspiritu – the spirit within) and enthusiasm (en Theos – the god within).
The greatest human potential lies within our greatest purposes. When we are driven by great meaning we are inspired, resilient, determined, more creative and clearer about our priorities and we are then most able to transcend our egoic identity and the limiting beliefs that accompany it. Authentic greater purpose empowers us to make the identity level shift required to transcend the limiting beliefs that are holding us back!
Intuitively we are able to identify the ‘unconscious stories’ that are holding us back i.e the current direction of our elephant. When we create replacement stories that are based on greater purpose visions and dreams, our elephant will change direction and then our monkey will be able to help navigate.