If we’d have to think about Irish stereotypes, we’d find quite a few. Rob Duffy gets quite a few off our checklist pretty much from his first impression. The name, the spectacularly ginger beard, and the thick accent, all make Rob the perfect Irish man. One of the most striking stereotypes, namely the jolliness of our green and orange fellows, is perfectly embodied in this 37 year-old life coach.

At age 21, Rob Duffy had a grave accident, falling from a four-story building after being impaired. Luckily, he had only minor injuries considering this height: a severed forefoot and a broken arm. It was then when he reconsidered his life choices. As he describes on his Medium blog:

“Over the course of the last 15 years, my beliefs about things such as god and who I am have changed dramatically. I no longer believe that any metaphysical anomalies occurred on that day in September 2001. I also look back and believe that it was one of the best things that could have happened to me. It gave me a massive opportunity and served as a catalyst to press the reset button on my life. The direction that I was taking at the time wasn’t leading anywhere positive.”

Starting his own business

Rob quit his job at the postal office in Dublin and started his own company, and chose the path of coaching. Today, he has a bachelor in Social Science with Psychology and is a graduate of the University College Dublin (UCD) Innovation Academy Postgraduate programme. He’s certified as a Personal & Business Coach by The Irish Lifecoach Institute, and a qualified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner by The Institute of Health Sciences. An earlier attempt at studying politics wasn’t in the taste of Rob: “Even though I found it mostly disgusting, politics and power still intrigued me.”

Life Choice Solutions is the name that Rob gave his own business, through which he coaches people from all kinds of backgrounds. “I’d like to make it clear that there a distinctions between a coach and a psychologist. Psychologists deal with the past, while I try to help you reach your own future goals.” While the name might be confusing in this instance, ‘coaching’ does not imply that that Rob provides tips and tricks on the ‘who’ and ‘how’ of reaching important goals, but tries to help the person figure out the problem by him- or herself. “My toolkit are questions. If people are not to their full potential, asking inquiring about the exact reasons that hold them back can be life-changing to them. They’ll go ‘hah, why do I believe X?’ That’s where I’m going with them.” Rob believes that in essence, everyone needs a coach: “You should always work on your potential!”.

Apart from his job as a life-coach, Rob has also been highly active in the libertarian community. In 2010 he started the group “Libertarian Ireland”, spreading the philosophy of liberty on a very difficult terrain, as the Irish often tend to be socially conservative. Tendencies of the new political Right are also a reason to be worries, according to Rob: “I see these young guys who describe themselves as ‘ethno-nationalists’. I hope the libertarian movement can remain immune from these type of tendencies.” As a Regional Director for Students for Liberty, Rob is delighted to meet amazing young people from all over the continent, you fight the fight for freedom.

“There are two types of leaders: the convinced leaders and the “more data needed” people, who need to gather all of the information before they would lead the way for others.” Rob himself believes that libertarians are often more prone to “walk towards fire”, to dare to be innovate. He sees people who are very open about their personal life with people from the organisation they know very little about. “They are much braver than I was at the time.”, says Rob, smiling brightly as he always does.

You can find out more about his company and how to reach him on www.lifechoicesolutions.com

This article was first published by Freedom Today.

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