Professional Me
I have first-hand experience of the challenging situations my clients encounter because I’ve led businesses and non-profits, run for Congress, been authorized as a Zen teacher, led efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion, appeared on all the major TV and radio shows, been in movies, had my books translated into 20 languages, spoken internationally before many tens of thousands, and had my work supported by over 20 foundations. For fifteen years, I have been a public thought leader on what makes for the good life. I have also been married and divorced and co-parented, helped a parent through death and shepherded a teenager through difficult years–all the life things.
Those are a few of the professional things to say about me. You can find out more in my official biography here, or my curriculum vitae here, or skip to the personal here.
Meanwhile, what makes me special as a coach and advisor besides the range of my work and life experience is the depth of my inner growth, and the personal qualities I have spent decades developing (read more here). My clients say I listen to and understand them better than they have ever experienced. They say I am the most non-judgmental person they have ever encountered. They say I am kind and loving and can challenge without being threatening.
All of this gives my clients the freedom to explore themselves at the deepest levels while having confidence that I understand through first-hand experience the kind of challenges they face. This is what leads to their growth in meeting their challenges, emotional intelligence, self-leadership, ability to lead, communication, understanding their values, discovering inner resources, and identifying and removing blocks.
That I live an accomplished, actualized, authentic life and that my coaching is deep and skillful helps my clients wake up the entirety of their potential and use it in their work and lives. Now for the personal part of me …
Personal Me
The professional things are good to know, especially if you, as a potential client, want to justify to yourself or your boss or board why you should hire me. But now, I want to connect more personally, especially if share my interest about what really makes for good lives, good organizations and good societies.
When it comes to my life, here are the kind of thoughts that arise: I want to prioritize excellent collaborations, friendships and companionship. I want my work to be impactful and helpful. I want my spiritual life and self-development and community never to get short shrift. Loving my daughter endlessly, I want her to be happy and safe.
I want to use the skills and talents that make me go into a flow state and not get lost in busy work and being hectic. I want to have fun and be in love. I want to experience so much and feel creative. And I really want to do all this while addressing myself to the many kinds of suffering I see in the world–I want meaning and purpose. And, honestly, I want to be prosperous and influential doing all that.
Some people might consider that I have made real sacrifices to lead the life I want to live. Over the course of time I have quit pretty much everything that stands in its way. I quit a teenage addiction to alcohol and drugs. I quit an unfulfilling career as a PhD engineer. I quit being bored in my life as the director of a public relations firm that didn’t use my most prized talents. I quit a career as a magazine writer that won me nothing but status. I quit writing history books that didn’t address the things I really cared about in the world.
Meanwhile, I have studied, trained, thought, written books, given talks, and been in movies about what actually makes for the good life I’ve been looking for–and also about how we can make the good life available to everyone.
Through my coaching, writing, and social change work, I help people and groups of people to follow their own internal compasses in the hope that we can all concentrate on what really matters to us and our stakeholders, what dignifies us, and what creates a world that is safe and just enough that becoming fully human is an option available to everyone.
I do all this because–in balance with parenting and playing frisbee and meditating and being with friends and resting and having fun and appropriately choosing where I live and how I spend my time–it makes for the good life for me. Maybe I can help find the good life for you or the groups or organizations or societies you care about?
Official Biography
Colin Beavan’s writing, speaking, coaching, consulting and activism have encouraged hundreds of thousands of people, businesses, colleges and governments to discover ways of living and operating that are better for themselves, for their communities and for the world. It is Colin’s mission to wake people up, on an individual and collective level, to ways of life and doing business that are healthier and happier for individuals, for our society, and for our world. (You can find his short bio here and his full curriculum vitae here).
Colin Beavan is among the world’s best known spokespeople on environmental issues, consumerism and human quality of life. He was called “one of the ten most influential men” by MSN, an “eco-illuminator” by Elle Magazine, a “best green ambassador” by Treehugger.com, and his blog was selected as one of the top 15 environmental blogs by Time Magazine. He has spoken at and consulted to numerous brands–from eBay to CliffBar, from Northface to Ideo–and has been invited to speak everywhere from California to the Czech Republic. Colin’s work has been the subject of stories in the New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde and literally hundreds of other national and international news outlets. Colin has appeared on The Colbert Report, Good Morning America, Nightline and countless other TV and radio shows.
Colin’s most recent book is How to Be Alive: A Guide to the Kind of Happiness that Helps the World, published by Dey Street Books (a division of HarperCollins). No Impact Man, Colin’s previous book, is required reading on over 100 American college campuses at last count. It has been translated into 15 languages. His documentary film, also called No Impact Man, was featured at Sundance and has been shown in theaters and on TV around the world. Some 50,000 people have been through No Impact Week, an immersive educational experience run by his non-profit.
Short Biography
COLIN BEAVAN PHD attracted international attention for his year-long lifestyle-redesign project and the wildly popular book, No Impact Man, and the Sundance-selected documentary film that it inspired. He is a sought-after speaker, coach and consultant, ran for the US House of Representatives in New York’s 8th Congressional District in 2012, was the founder of the No Impact Project, a board member of Transportation Alternatives, an advisory council member of 350.org, a guest professor at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior dharma teacher in the Kwan Um School of Zen. He is the author, most recently, of How to Be Alive: A Guide To The Kind of Happiness That Helps The World.