The SPA Method: Why Three Pillars Are Better Than One

SPA METHOD · COACHING · NLP

By Daniela Fukumothi · June 2026

I have a confession.

I just love learning.

Coaching. NLP. Positive psychology. Neuroscience. Happiness research. Productivity. Leadership. I have read the books, taken the courses, attended the seminars, listened to the podcasts — and every single time, I would finish and immediately think: Where is the next one?

Because there is always a next one. There is always another incredible teacher with another powerful framework, another tool that works, another way of seeing something that shifts everything. It never ends. And honestly? I never wanted it to.

But at some point, something shifted. I was sitting with years of learning — the NLP Masters, Tony Robbins on breakthrough and human needs, Tal Ben-Shahar on happiness, Connirae Andreas on transformation, the positive psychologists, the best coaches, behavior, neuroscience and well-being experts — and I realized I wasn't lost anymore. I had created something to collect and organize all of it.

A structure.

To make sense of all that great data and toolkit on how to build a better you and a better life.

I realized every single one of these extraordinary teachers, in their own unique and brilliant way, was working on managing the same three things.

A state. A perspective. An agenda.

I didn't create SPA because I thought I knew better. I created it because I was so in awe of everything I was learning that I needed a way to organize it — for myself first, and then for the people I work with. SPA is my way of making sense of the map. Of understanding which tool goes where, and why.

And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. Especially when I see and hear people suffering or in distress about situations out of their control.

What is the SPA Method?

SPA is the methodology I created to bring these three pillars together — because that's where real transformation happens. Not in one pillar in isolation. In the relationship between all three.

Each pillar is big enough to hold its own space. You could spend a lifetime working on any one of them. But when you understand how they talk to each other, how each one influences the others, something clicks. You stop chasing individual fixes and start building something that actually lasts.

All the tools, techniques, and frameworks I had been learning began to fall into place.

The resources for managing emotions, breathing, grounding, bouncing back — tools for State. The mindset work, limiting beliefs, timeline therapy, perceptual positions, anger and anxiety work, inner dialogue — tools for Perspective. The coaching, goal setting, values clarification, purpose work, productivity — tools for Agenda.

Different teachers. Different languages. Different entry points. All useful. All pointing at the same three pillars.

That is the SPA Method.

State — where everything begins

State is the quality of your thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and words at any given moment. It is your ability to access your inner resources when you need them. It is the way you experience the world.

We all move between resourceful and unresourceful states — many times a day. Something someone says. The temperature in the room. A song. A memory. We are constantly shifting, and that is completely normal.

The question is not whether you will ever feel unresourceful. You will. We all do. The question is: how quickly can you notice it, and how consciously can you move the dial back?

That is the quiet superpower of the people who seem to have it together. Not that they never feel bad. But that they have learned — first consciously, then naturally — to check in with themselves and make the shift.

There are only two ways to feel bad: you are either reliving something negative from the past, or you are imagining something negative in the future. Neither is happening right now. The present moment is almost always okay. It is our mind that travels — and takes us with it.

State is where we start. Because your state decides your thoughts, your words, your actions.

Change your state, and everything else becomes possible. But try to change everything else without addressing your state — and you will always be swimming against the current.

Perspective — the glasses you are wearing

Perspective is your unique view of the world. Your map. And as NLP teaches us, the map is never the territory — it is just the best version of reality your mind has constructed so far.

I like to think of perspective as glasses. You are always wearing a pair. On a good day, you put on the feel-good ones — and everything looks bright, people seem kind, small inconveniences slide off you. On a harder day, you put on the "the world is against me" pair — and suddenly even a compliment feels suspicious, and the one person who didn't smile at you becomes the thing you fixate on for hours.

Same world. Different glasses.

Perspective is your point of view — and the ability to notice that others have a completely different one. It is the flexibility to add options when you feel stuck. It is the creativity to write your own story. It is how you use time — because something that feels like the entire world right now will be a tiny dot on your life timeline in five years. It is the quality of your inner dialogue. Are you speaking to yourself the way you would speak to someone you love?

There is a story Tony Robbins once told about two brothers — twins — who grew up in the same home, with the same difficult father, the same lack, the same circumstances. One became a successful, generous man. The other became someone who hurt people and struggled his whole life. When each was asked how their life had turned out that way, both gave the same answer: with a father like mine, how could I have turned out any differently?

Same situation. Completely different meaning. That is perspective.

The change work in perspective is where the biggest transformation happens. Because a limiting belief — about who you are, what you deserve, what is possible — will quietly veto everything else. You can have a beautiful agenda and a resourceful state, and one unchallenged belief will stop you at the door.

Agenda — the so what

Agenda is your direction. Your purpose. The what and the how of your life.

It is the confidence to move towards what you actually want. The ability to plan your steps and take them. The courage to adjust your path when the world — which is always changing — asks you to. The quality of your experiences, your growth, your contribution, your legacy.

Agenda is the answer to: what is this all for?

And here is something important: your agenda will change. It has to. The world is constantly shifting, and an agenda that is completely detached from what is happening around you is not a vision — it is rigidity. The attachment to a fixed agenda can itself become a limiting perspective. What we are aiming for is not a rigid plan, but a value-aligned direction. One that bends without breaking.

Agenda also needs other people. You cannot fulfil most of what you want in life alone. Which means you need to communicate — clearly, generously, effectively. And to do that well, you need your state. And your perspective.

Why all three — together

If you only work on your agenda — setting goals, pushing forward, executing — it will feel flat. Disconnected. You will be moving, but not towards something that truly means anything.

If you only work on your state — feeling good, staying calm, collecting tools and resources — life can feel pleasant, even blissful. But when you reach the end of it, you might ask: what was the thing I actually wanted to do? Did I do it?

And if you only work on perspective — shifting mindset, challenging beliefs, reframing — without the energy of a resourceful state and the direction of a clear agenda, the insights stay insights. Beautiful. And unused.

State gives you access to your resources. Perspective gives your state and your agenda meaning. Agenda gives your state and your perspective somewhere to go.

They are not three separate things. They are one system.

And when they are working together — when you are checking in with how you feel, noticing how you are seeing the world, and moving with clarity towards what you actually want — that is when life stops feeling like something that is happening to you.

And starts feeling like yours.

Ready to explore each pillar? Start with State, Perspective, and Agenda — or discover how the SPA Method works in a free Discovery Session.

With love,

Daniela

Enjoyed this? Next up: something a little more personal — a birthday note on turning 45 and what the 40's have taught me so far.