t least once a year while I trained at the Zen monastery, the monks would load up all of our trucks and drive for hours to offer our New Year’s retreat at a quaint villa that the Sisters of Notre Dame owned by the ocean. We would show up with chainsaws, weed-eaters, shovels, meditation cushions and most of our kitchen.

Upon arriving, the appointed head monk would meet with the nun in charge. He or she would receive a list of projects from the villa that the sisters drafted up.

You see, the deal was that in exchange for us putting on a retreat at their lovely villa for free, we would do working meditation to prepare them for their upcoming retreat season. So we would get a whole bunch of monks and a whole bunch of retreatants, and we would make magic happen there during the week.

The list the sisters gave us included everything they wanted to have done right before opening the villa. It was a truly exhaustive list.

In the walk-through, the nun would let us know what some of the most important things on that list were. She would point out what needed to be fixed, painted and cleaned. She would also share some dream projects with us. Things the sisters would never be able to do on their own but would love to see accomplished if it were possible.

After the tour, I remember my teacher and the head monk would review the list, and they’d consider, “What would provide the villa with the most noticeable, visible difference if we were to do it?”

The sisters may have put a big star next to cleaning up the entire place. That would be very important in preparation for their guests coming after us. It would certainly get done and have some noticeable difference, for a little while anyway. However, building an entire fence between the church and the villa, or building a new raised garden bed area behind the chapel, or painting a decorative sign over the private hermitage behind the villa — now these would be extremely noticeable! So we would bump these “noticeable, visible difference” projects up to the very top of the list.

Because at the end of the retreat there would be no denying it: Before there was no garden and now, voilà, there is a garden!

This garden is a “noticeable, visible difference” that the sisters will be talking about well after we leave. Visitors will remark on it. It’ll be the one thing that they remember when we ask to come again next year.

“Oh, those lovely Zen people showed up and built an entire raised garden bed area for us while they were here last. What a joy it is to see the hummingbirds on the flowers and have fresh produce daily. How wonderful it would be to have them here again!”

So I ask my prospects, “What’s the most noticeable, visible difference you and everyone around you will be raving about after our time together? What’s there in your life that would never have been there without us working together to create it? Let’s put a star next to that and raise it to the top. That’s why you want a coach. Not for things that you’re going to do anyway.”

And now I’ll ask you. How about you? What “noticeable, visible difference” would you like to create? What isn’t there in your life now and what do you want there to be?

What would you, and others, be ogling over because of the noticeable, visible difference it’s making in your life?