A Conversation With: David McLeod

Welcome to this installment of The Wellness Universe’s ‘A Conversation With …’ interview series! Each week, we will feature interviews from some of our amazing WU World Changers so you can learn about who they are as a person, their profession, mission, and their why!’

A Conversation with David McLeod –

Author, Speaker, Facilitator, Coach.

The Wellness Universe directory is a resource and community filled with Change-Makers, we call WU World-Changers (Wellness Universe World-Changers). Today we want to introduce you to our member, David McLeod.

 1.          Hello David, will you please tell us about yourself?

Wow, talk about asking a big question! Obviously, there’s a lot I could say because I’ve made quite a few trips around the sun, and I’ve accumulated a fair bit of life experience. For example, I served as a fighter pilot in the Canadian air force.

After that, I spent almost 35 years as a software engineer developing all kinds of interesting and powerful applications that have helped people in many different industries. I’ve composed and published music in a variety of genres; I’ve written hundreds of poems—and some of them have been published too. But I think the most important and rewarding role I’ve taken on is that of a father. I have three amazing adult children who have brought me much more joy and fulfillment than any one person likely deserves.

Since about 1995 or so, I’ve been on a path of pretty intense personal growth that has allowed me to develop a high-level perspective of the whole trajectory of my life, to extract the lessons I’ve learned from all of the different roles I’ve played, and to weave all of that into what I am now calling a “Life Mastery Paradigm”. Today, I focus most of my attention on serving as “Your Life Mastery Coach”, helping other people to find fulfillment in their lives with much less chaos and randomness than I experienced in my own life.

2.           David, what is it that inspires you?

I think the thing that inspires me most is witnessing someone blossom into the full magnificence of who he or she really is. There is something magical about watching someone wake up to the realization of their full potential, and then to start bringing that potential into reality.

3.           Will you please tell us what you call yourself and explain what it is that you do?

Nowadays, my professional title is “Your Life Mastery Coach.” I work with people who are unhappy, disillusioned, disappointed, or angry about the way their lives have turned out. I support them in finding purpose, passion and peace as they deconstruct their old and usually dysfunctional lives in favor of lives that are true works of art.

4.           How exactly does that help someone?

Well, my own journey has helped me to understand the importance of knowing who we really are. In my view, it seems that most people on the planet today have a lot of confusion about this, mainly because we are taught in almost every culture in the world that we are supposed to “fit in” or “conform” to a limited way of being that supports the community at the expense of the individual. As we work to adopt the beliefs and thought patterns of the expectations of our society, we tend to forget the truth of who we really are, and as a result, our lives take a shape that isn’t congruent with our heart’s and soul’s desire. I believe that this is ultimately the cause of all unhappiness and suffering. So, in my work, I help people to reconnect to the truth of who they “really” are so that they can be more in tune with their true nature, and thus reorganize their life in a way that is aligned with their true identity and their true purpose.

5.           Why are you so passionate about helping people reconnect to the truth of who they really are?

Well, as I said, I think that most of the people on the planet are suffering under an illusion of who they “think” they are, rather than who they really are. This illusion (or confusion, if you will) leads people to believe that they are separate from one another, and so they don’t really understand or appreciate how much their thoughts, beliefs, and actions are impacting the world around them. I want to do everything I can to wake people up to the truth of who they really are so that they can begin to see their connection to everyone and everything else, and—eventually—transform the entire world into the kind of place that we all want to live in.

6.           Did any specific life experience prompt you to follow this path?

I wouldn’t say it was a specific event, but it certainly was the result of waking up to my own dysfunctional belief system! I can best describe this by telling a bit of a story that explains the path I accidentally took.

When I was about 3 years old, my mother said something to me that shaped the next 40 or so years of my life. “I know you better than you know yourself,” she said. Doesn’t sound like such a big deal, does it? But for a kid my age, it was like hearing the voice of God speaking to me directly! It felt like truth to me when I heard it, and while I don’t think my Mom had this intention, those 8 simple words completely shaped my way of thinking! After all, if Mom knew be better than I knew myself, then so did my Dad, so did my grandparents, so did my teachers, so did the minister… Eventually, I came to believe that EVERYONE knew me better than I knew myself! But this also meant that everyone knew what I wanted and needed better than I did. So, I started looking outwardly to virtually everyone to help me know who I was and to know what I wanted and needed. But here’s where the weird thing happened: I could still see other people owning their own truth, and declaring what they wanted and needed, but somehow I couldn’t do that. So, gradually, over a period of 40-ish years, resentment, anger and shame grew slowly within me.

Eventually, the inner rage would not be contained any more, and it began to leak out and hurt other people. One day, an event happened that shocked me into realizing that I had to do something to change my thinking or else risk really hurting the people I cared about the most—my children.

Long story short, I ended up leaving my family and moving to Northern California, and it was here that I was able—with the help of some amazing people—to release all that pent up inner rage that was eating me up inside. Over the course of about 5 years or so, I was able to understand my old belief system and dismantle it and reclaim the truth of who I really am. Once I did that, I began to see and embrace my own potential, and my whole life started to transform into something that was much more in alignment with my true essence.

7.           How long have you been doing this?

Shortly after I began to reconnect to the truth of who I really am, I came to a powerful realization that I wanted to help other have this same kind of understanding. So, I began learning the skills to facilitate and coach others in uncovering, illuminating, healing and integrating their own true essence. For about 12 years or so, I did this kind of work for free. Starting in 2014, I began the process of formalizing my practice while building a coaching business. So, I guess the answer is that I’ve been doing this for about 17 years now.

8.           Will you share a story of how you have made a difference in someone’s life?

I’ve had many people come up to me and tell me that something I’ve done has had a major impact in their life. I’ve had people tell me that I’ve saved their marriage or their relationship. I’ve even had a couple of people claim that I saved their lives. Of course, I’ve merely been the facilitator or coach who helped them to do that work for themselves, so I don’t really think of myself has a healer in that sense.

Anyway, I think the best way to share is to allow my client’s words speak for themselves:

“I asked for David’s help at a time when life wasn’t making sense for me anymore. I was depressed, angry, and very closed off to important people in my life. I had an ongoing fear of failure, and I was also afraid to let loved ones get too close to me. I was abusing alcohol in order to deal with my issues—which only made matters worse. For about ten years I read countless spiritual and self-help books and listened to many personal growth audiobooks. I believed that would be enough to ‘heal’ myself, and I thought I really could do it all by myself. But I quickly learned that as human beings we need to allow other people to help us, and vice versa. That’s where David McLeod came in! I began a coaching program with him, and positive changes started happening almost immediately. David was very professional, experienced, and caring, and he provided indispensable help to reach all the dark places within myself that I couldn’t access on my own. Because of my work with David, I now experience a lot of clarity, self-forgiveness, and happiness—not to mention a significant increase in confidence and self-respect. I no longer abuse alcohol which has made my body and mind rebound in many positive ways! Thank you so much, David, for all that you’ve done for me!” – Denis B, Operator-Maintainer, Labrador, Canada

9.           What’s next on the horizon for you?

In the past couple of years or so, I’ve really gotten clear on my entire vision for the “Life Mastery Paradigm.” My path for the foreseeable future is to keep building on this vision and to bring forth all my programs. I’ve recently released my “Life Mastery Music” product in support of meditation. Next up will be my “Life Mastery Wisdom” podcast that I hope to be releasing a couple of times a week. And shortly after that, I’ll be releasing my “Life Mastery Affirmations” program. Within a year or so, I hope to present my first face-to-face event, that I’ll probably call “Life Mastery Live.” I’ve already got some exciting ideas about how that might look, but it’s still in the early stages of development. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to share my guest interviews on “Life Mastery TV,” and publish articles on my “Your Life Mastery Coach” website. Busy, busy, busy!

10.         Thank you so much for sharing today, David! Do you have any final thoughts?

Much like “enlightenment”, Life Mastery is a process, not an end result. Anyone can do it, no matter how much experience you may have. One thing I’d like to leave with you is my “Life Mastery Mantra”, something you can recite any time you want as a way of bringing yourself back to the present moment and in full connection with who you really are:

I gratefully forgive the Imperfect Being I have been in the past.

I gratefully embrace the Magnificent Being I am right now.

I gratefully welcome the Evolved Being I am becoming in each new moment.

If you would like to connect with David, please visit: https://www.thewellnessuniverse.com/world-changers/davidmcleod

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