Within seconds, I heard his wife Meg cheerfully greeting me on other end of phone. She began by explaining that she was in middle of "cleaning gunk from drain," but she wanted to know what life coaching was all about. I took a deep breath, preparing to give her my quickest rap, and out of my mouth popped "life coaching is like cleaning gunk out your drain."

After power of that image sunk in, and I wondered if he thought I was crazy, I realized life coaching is exactly like cleaning gunk from our drains. Life coaching is about clearing gunk from our lives!

Our lives can be full of debris and gunk that interrupt effortless flow of a purposeful, passionate and fulfilling life. The gunk accumulates and gradually zaps our energy and creative passion, usually without us even noticing it. Many people learn to tolerate it, and some eventually experience a crisis, an illness, or simply find themselves wondering "is this all there is?" These are reasons most of my clients come to me.

Here are top 6 sources of gunk that could be blocking your flow. I invite you to take a minute and consider following possibilities:

1. Limiting beliefs Have you ever stopped and listened to what’s going on inside your head? We are so full of shoulds and woulds that we don’t even know what we truly think or feel. No wonder we have difficulty imagining life we want. The first step in changing our lives is changing our thinking.

Remember it fully. Step into that experience, and as you do, take your time to appreciate state you are now in -- seeing and hearing experience again, feeling things you felt then. Now, notice submodalities -- sights, sounds, and sensations OF experience. Make a note of them.

Now, clear your mind.

When your mind is clear, select an area in your life in which you already experience confidence, but haven't yet felt a sense of mastery, of ultimate success. Select one you can vividly see, hear, and feel.

Step into experience and notice submodalities -- sight, sound, and feelings -- there.

Then step out.

Now, remember submodalities from your mastery experience, and submodalities with this one. Notice which submodalities are different between two experiences. Do you see something in first that you don’t see in second? Feel something different? Hear something different?

OK, again, clear your mind.

Go back to situation you just recalled (the one in which you haven’t yet experienced a sense of mastery), and this time transform it into mastery state of mind submodalities. Hear, see, feel what you felt with mastery experience, only now you’re doing it with this experience.