Rachel was an amazing sleep coach. Her clients raved about her. After months or even years of having their kids keep them up at night, it took just a few sessions with Rachel for their child to sleep and they started feeling human again.

Rachel had a long wait list of clients and while many people suggested she hire other coaches to work underneath her, Rachel didn’t want a team. She liked keeping things simple. After all she was making multiple 6 figures and she had all the freedom she wanted.

Rachel realized tho, the amount of time and energy it took with each client didn’t really make sense. She found herself having to ask a million questions to really understand each client. She wanted to *deeply* understand them and the process was draining one.


As we were speaking, I realized there was a problem here.

Rachel struggled to understand abstract concepts. Everything needed to be written out for her to fully understand what was going on.
This was why intake took a while. Unless the parents spelled out exactly what was going on, Rachel was lost and would ask a hundred more questions.


As soon as we improved Rachel's ability to understand abstract information, her intake sessions went down from 2 hours to 45 minutes. Plus she didn’t feel drained by the end of it.

Rachel was able to take on another 20% of clients each week! She was able to help MORE people and make more money without changing anything else in her business.


Thinking abstractly is one of the 28 thinking skills.
These are the skills that we are using all day every day as we go about our day.

If any of the 28 thinking skills are weak, it makes it challenging for us to do what want to do.

You may be struggling with a different thinking skill that making it challenging for you to grow your business.
See where each of your thinking skills are standing by taking the thinking skills assessment here: www.lifepixuniversity.com/cf

Abstract thinking is your brain's ability to understand concepts, patterns, and ideas without needing every single detail spelled out.

Think about it like this: if someone says "the meeting was chaos," a person with strong abstract thinking can imagine what that means - people talking over each other, no clear agenda, nothing getting decided.

Someone with weak abstract thinking needs more: "What do you mean chaos? Who was there? What were they saying? How many people talked at once?"

Rachel's brain needed the second version. Everything concrete and explicit.

When a parent said "my son's sleep is inconsistent," Rachel couldn't form a mental picture. She needed: "Monday he slept 9 hours, Tuesday 6 hours, Wednesday 11 hours..." Only with specific data could she see what "inconsistent" meant.

The problem with this? It's exhausting for everyone, and it limits how quickly you can understand and help people.

I had Rachel do the following 3 exercises to improve her abstract thinking:

Exercise 1: Mental Visualization

When someone tells you something abstract, pause and create a mental picture of what they’re saying. It’s okay if it takes time. It's better to have that pause, than it is to ask them a hundred more questions.

Rachel started doing this in every conversation. Parent says "bedtime is chaos." Rachel would pause and visualize: probably multiple requests for water, getting out of bed, calling for parents, taking an hour or more to fall asleep.

Then she'd check: "So I'm picturing lots of stalling tactics and probably 60-90 minutes from lights out to actually sleeping. Am I close?"

Usually she was. And instead of asking 20 detail questions, she'd ask 2-3 clarifying ones.

This feels uncomfortable at first because you're working with incomplete information. Your brain wants certainty. Remember, you wouldn’t make any real conclusions based on assumptions. You’re just imagining the info first and then clarifying it with the person you’re talking to


Exercise 2: Connect to Patterns You've Seen Before

Abstract thinking gets stronger when you link new information to patterns you already know.

When a parent would describe a sleep issue, Rachel learned to think: "This sounds like the separation anxiety pattern I've seen before" or "This seems like the overtired pattern."

She didn't need every detail because she could map the abstract description onto a known pattern.

You can do this with anything. "This client situation reminds me of..." "This problem feels similar to..." Your brain starts recognizing patterns instead of treating everything as brand new information that needs complete explanation.

Keep a running list of patterns you see in your work. When something new comes up, try connecting it to a pattern before diving into all the details.


Exercise 3: Reduce Your Need for Certainty

This one's more of a mindset switch than an exercise.
Rachel realized she was asking for every detail because she was afraid of misunderstanding. She wanted 100% certainty before forming an opinion.

But most of the time we don’t have 100% of the information. We’ve got to trust ourselves that we have enough information to do the work even if we don’t have every detail. Plus, we always know we can make adjustments as we go along.

Personally, I know when working with clients its impossible to know everything. Sure, we have a RoadMap call where I get to understand your brain and create exercises based on what you need. However if I were to get every single bit of information about your brain it would take weeks! I want enough information so I know the top 3-5 thinking skills you need to improve and a basic understanding of how you work. Then as we do the work, I’ll get to learn more about you and can make changes if nessecary.

I know by the end of the RoadMap call I don’t have all the information about you. That’s part of what lets me still learn more and be open. I also know I have enough information that will have an incredible impact with whatever work we’re doing.

If you can identify how much information you need to be able to start, not all, just specifics on what you need, then you’ll have easier time knowing when you have enough to move forward.



Two weeks after we began working on Rachel’s abstract thinking, Rachel had an intake call with a mom on her waitlist for six months.

The mom said, "My twins' sleep is all over the place."

Rachel paused, visualized twins with inconsistent sleep, and said, "So I'm guessing unpredictable bedtimes, different wake times, each one's affecting the other's sleep?"

The mom said, "Yes! Exactly! It’s making me wonder if I’ll ever be able to sleep again"

That was her first intake call that took 45 minutes instead of 2 hours. AND it was about twins. Since then 45 minutes has been her new standard which means Rachel is able to help more people faster. Plus she’s a whole lot less drained by the end of it.



Cheers to Peak Brain Performance!