Returning to Eckhart Tolle, Twenty Years Later

I’ve just returned from a four-day retreat with Eckhart Tolle in Whistler, Canada.

I have to admit, this completes a bit of a personal trifecta. Over the past 3 years I've been lucky enough to attend retreats with three of my favourite wisdom teachers: Byron Katie, Martha Beck and now Eckhart Tolle.

This retreat was extra special because, after years of trying, I finally convinced my husband Jonathan to come too!

I know... right?!

Sharing these ideas together has been one of the greatest gifts. We now have a common language for navigating life, marriage and parenting. To experience together the ideas I've loved and taught for so many years felt like a dream come true.

A book that changed my life... twice

Eckhart Tolle is best known for The Power of Now and A New Earth.

I was given A New Earth for my 30th birthday by my brothers and sisters-in-law. At the time, I remember thinking it was the best book I'd ever read.

Twenty years later, just before flying to Canada, I picked it up again. I’ve just turned 50.

And surprisingly...I still think it's the best book I've ever read.

I'm clearly not the only one. Oprah has chosen A New Earth for her Book Club twice—the only book she has ever selected twice since launching the club in 1996. When she reintroduced it in 2025, she said it was because the book had profoundly changed her own life and she wanted a new generation to experience its wisdom.

Tolle was remarkably perceptive about where humanity was heading. Reading A New Earth again twenty years later, I was struck by how accurately he anticipated so much of the chaos, division and unconsciousness we're navigating today.

We don't have to believe everything we think

One of Tolle's central teachings is beautifully simple.

The present moment is all we ever truly have.

The past exists only as memories. The future exists only as imagination.

Yet most of us spend our lives living somewhere other than where life is actually happening. Our minds replay old conversations. We rehearse imaginary disasters.

We catastrophise. We ruminate. We worry.

We become so identified with our thinking that we don't realise our thoughts are simply... thoughts.

They aren't facts.

Mark Twain captured this perfectly:

"I've been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened."

I laughed when Tolle joked that if a waiter asks, "Do you have any allergies?"

Our ego replies, "Yes... happiness."

Because the ego doesn't really want peace. It wants to keep proving it's right. It wants another story about why life is unfair. Why someone wronged us. Why we're stuck.

Why things won't work out. The stories can feel incredibly convincing.

I see this every week in my coaching

Listening to Eckhart, I realised just how deeply these teachings underpin the work I do with career changers.

In my signature program Become Your Own Pathfinder, there's an entire module simply called Fear, because before we can move forward, we first need to see what's actually running the show.

As I often tell my clients: If you want to clean the house, you first have to find the dirt.

So I ask them to write down every fear they have about changing careers.

Without fail, the same thoughts appear.

• The job market is terrible.

• Nobody will hire me.

• I'm too old.

• AI is taking all the jobs.

• I'll make the wrong decision.

• I'll have to start from scratch.

• There's no money in the career I really want.

• I might fail

Those thoughts feel true. But are they? As Byron Katie asks: "Is it true?"

Not "Does it feel true?"

But...Is it actually true?

Once we create some distance from those thoughts, something remarkable happens.

People stop reacting from fear. Instead, they begin responding with clarity. And then they start taking action.

Small, intentional, strategic steps.

That's when everything changes.

Three recent examples

One of my recent clients had been out of work for more than a year after burning out in a toxic workplace.

At 54, she was convinced her age would prevent her from finding another meaningful role. Living in a regional town rather than a major city only reinforced her doubts, and she'd begun looking at jobs well below her experience and earning potential.

Last week she accepted a contract paying more than her previous role with a supportive, high-performing organisation.

Another Pathfinder, who works in academia, realised she wasn't in the wrong profession at all. She simply wasn't in the right role.

Since doing Pathfinder, she's been promoted and is now a finalist for a major award within her organisation.

A third client had spent 25 years as a physiotherapist. She genuinely loves her work but wondered whether she'd quietly outgrown it.

Rather than leaving physiotherapy behind, she discovered she didn't need to choose one path or the other. She now works part-time in both roles, striking the perfect balance between the work she already loves and a new creative chapter that lights her up.

Each of these women learned to question the fearful stories their minds were telling them. Their success began with a shift in thinking, they became curious about their thoughts, found a new perspective, and started taking aligned action.

Clarity first. Strategy second.

One of the phrases you'll often hear me say is:

Clarity first. Strategy second.

When we're caught in fearful thinking, we react.

When we're present, we respond.

Presence allows us to quieten the mental noise long enough to hear what we truly want. From that place of clarity, strategy becomes much easier because we're no longer making decisions from fear.

Thank you, Eckhart

Thank you, Eckhart, for your extraordinary wisdom. Your teachings have profoundly impacted my life and continue to shape the way I understand fear, pain, ego and presence. They've helped me become more aware of the stories my mind creates, to meet life's challenges with greater acceptance, and to return, again and again, to the only place life is ever truly lived: the present moment.

And every time I see one of my clients step beyond the stories that have kept them stuck for years, I'm reminded just how life-changing this work can be.

Ready to find your own career clarity?

If you're feeling stuck, uncertain or overwhelmed by all the "what ifs", I'd love to help.

Become Your Own Pathfinder begins on 6 August, and the Priority List is now open.

Inside the programme, we'll help you move beyond fear, uncover what you truly want, and build a practical, evidence-based path towards work that feels meaningful, aligned and financially rewarding.

👉 Join the Priority List here.