I recently read Moby Dick for the first time. It’s a whale of a book (yes, I’m owning the pun), but it gut-punched me in a way I didn’t expect.

Someone warned me before I started: “Don’t read Melville literally. Everything is a metaphor.” They were right.

The open sea isn’t just water. It’s life itself.

Leaving port is what we all must do if we want light, warmth and purpose. But the cost? Risk, storms and the occasional leviathan. Still, if you want to live fully, you get on the boat.

There’s one scene I can’t shake. A sailor is half-dead after hours in freezing water, cutting blubber and fending off sharks.

When he finally collapses back on deck, the mate shouts for brandy. But the cook pours ginger tea instead because the shipowner’s pious wife had forbidden alcohol on board.

The mate loses it. Ginger tea? Ginger tea won’t revive a man who is slipping away. Upset, the cook scrambles below deck to find the brandy.

In true Melville fashion, nothing is ever just what it seems. That moment made me think of coaching.

In my coaching cohort, our mentor asks after every session: was the coaching helpful, or was it transformational? Of course, we aim for transformation, coaching that changes lives forever. Yet I realized I often slip into “helpful” coaching, dishing out soothing ginger tea that feels safe but does not shift the deeper currents.

One of my clients, for instance, faced crushing health challenges and a string of failed business deals. His body, once his outlet for stress, had become a source of pain. His real estate investments collapsed, draining his family’s savings. In his darkest hours, the cruel, relentless voice in his head played judge, jury and executioner:

“I mess everything up. I don’t deserve good things. This always happens to me.”

Out of empathy, it’s tempting to say things like “think positive,” “find the silver lining,” or “you’ve got this.” But those platitudes are ginger tea for the soul. They soothe in the moment without changing anything.

What I really want to offer him (and you) is brandy-level coaching. Coaching that does not hand you a map but shows you how to use your built-in GPS:

Built-in wisdom

• You have a real-time, responsive intelligence that knows the right answer. It never shouts, only whispers. The trick is quieting the noise so you can hear it.

Factory-preset well-being

• That invigorating feeling of being fully alive is not something you earn; it’s already inside you. To access it, you simply notice your experience deeply and open your awareness to the present moment.

Creative power

• In every instant, you can conjure new possibilities and reshape your experience. This capacity for insight brings those “aha” breakthroughs when confusion clears and the next step becomes obvious.

You are not the sum of what went wrong. Beneath every setback, there is a deeper self, a self that is not shattered by stormy seas or defined by how much money you have. That core of well-being has not vanished; it’s just been drowned out by the waves.

We create our life from the inside out, not in a naive “just think positive” way but in a profoundly human way. Your thoughts assign meaning to events. Emotions rise and fall, but they do not define you. And even when your body betrays you, you are more than your pain.

There’s a part of you that is still, wise and deeply sane. When the emotional storm passes, that part comes back online and guides you to the next step, not from panic or shame but from grounded knowing.

This is not about pretending the storm never happened. It’s about remembering you’re still the captain.

Melville saw life as an endless struggle, but I believe there is a generous force behind it all—Someone who wants to carry us home, not dash us against the rocks. And that Someone has equipped you with everything you need for the journey.