The Primal Question 

“The thing underneath the thing that drives everything”

Mike Foster, renowned best-selling author, speaker, and executive coach, has crafted a transformative and foundational approach to self-discovery. With over two decades dedicated to helping people navigate life's toughest challenges, Mike's expertise is unparalleled. He’s one of the nicest people you’ll meet, also he’s my coach, mentor and inspiration. Through 6000 hours of client interactions and extensive research, Mike uncovered a universal factor that shapes every individual's life —the '7 Primal Questions'. 

We all have a Primal Question that became our subconscious driving force in our life. While we have one deep rooted PQ, usually developed in early childhood, depending on our upbringing or any traumatic events experienced throughout our life we may live with multiple PQs.  Identifying and understanding your unmet Primal Question provides a blueprint for unlocking your inner awareness.

Primal Question Coaching gets to the root of your reactions, thoughts and interactions. It’s your fast-track to personal development, providing deep insight to the primitive, subconscious motivation that impacts these four keys areas of life: 

Your relationship with your emotions; your relationship with others; your relationship with your choices and most importantly your relationship with yourself.

 

Whether your caretakers were aware of it or not, they had a profound impact on your perceptions of love, safety, belonging and who you are. A child's brain is the most influenced in the first 5-7 years of life. What we learn, observe and absorb during these early years becomes so deeply ingrained that it ends up defining how we see the world, define relationships, ourselves and the subconscious way we live as an adult. 

Dr. Gabor Mate says, “the parent-child bond is our most important relationship; through it we experience the world. The parent-child relationship gives us our concept of the world; is this place hostile? Is it friendly? Is it nurturing? Is it indifferent? We also learn who we are: Are we good? Are we bad? Are we acceptable? Are we worthwhile? All of this depends not on what the parent thinks of us but on how the parent unconsciously acts towards us.” 

This is not to blame parents or caretakers. Many things we learned as children were our perceptions of information, in addition to the examples we witnessed.  Most parents and caretakers did their best to meet or give a ‘yes’ to our needs. However, if a need was not met or left in confusion or doubt, it registered as a ‘no' to our child brain and we began to seek out ways, sometimes unhealthy ways, to get a ‘yes’ to our unmet need. That unmet need is the origin of our Primal Question. 

So, what are the 7 Primal Questions?

  1. Am I safe?

  2. Am I secure?

  3. Am I loved?

  4. Am I wanted?

  5. Am I successful ?

  6. Am I enough?

  7. Do I have a purpose ?

Here is how your Primal Question works in a nutshell: 

  1. You were stamped with a Primal Question in your childhood

  2.  Now as an adult, you subconsciously ask this question repeatedly 

  3. When the answer to your Primal Question is a yes, life feels good

  4. When the answer is no or maybe, you enter the “scramble”

  5. In the “scramble”, you attempt to force a yes through unhealthy choices 

  6. When the answer is returned with a yes, life is good again 

    ~Simple idea - huge implications.

See that scramble bit? That’s where most people are hanging out theses days - so many of us are operating out unhelpful behaviors adapted in childhood or out of maladaptive strategies hoping to feel that ‘yes’ to your PQ. Unfortunately, this leads to some unhealthy solutions that makes life feel unstable, anxious, exhausting, disconnected, confused, inauthentic and unfulfilled.

At times we attempt to dodge the scramble altogether by avoiding even asking for our PQ to be met. In our PQ avoidance we are operating in ultimate self protection and shutting out a significant need for our life and happiness. We are sleep walking through life.

This is where primal question coaching comes in!

While, coaching doesn’t go back to heal or address childhood trauma, we do help you identify patterns that keep you in the scramble and develop skills to move forward into your Primal Truth!

When you live in your Primal Truth you no longer look for outside validations or sources to get your ‘yes’. This is the ultimate self-leadership. You can take control of any unnecessary suffering, stress and conflict in your life.

One final note about the PQ - it’s also your superpower! It’s your message to the world and what you’ve become very good at answering for others. Other questions may influence your life. These are your satellite PQ’s, but only one of the questions is the real driver - the thing underneath the thing. These satellite questions create your positive archetypes and are how you express your unique gifts!

Ready to learn more about your Primal Question? Take your PQ Quiz and then hop on a free call ! If you're ready to live from your PQ truth and grow your superpower through coaching, hop over to my Programs page to see the best option to work together!

I am so excited to help you uncover your Primal Question, take back control of your life, live in your Primal Truth and unleash your superpower!

~AmySherice