The Paradigm Shift:
Exploring Two Complementary Self-Coaching Models
By Gus Gardin
When it comes to self-transformation, there is no one-size-fits-all path. Different models offer different tools, and sometimes, the most powerful approach is blending what resonates from each perspective.
Recently, I came across Brooke Castillo’s CTFAR model, a simple and practical framework designed to help individuals understand how circumstances trigger thoughts, thoughts generate feelings, feelings drive actions, and actions produce results.
As I studied it, I noticed intriguing similarities with a model I had developed independently while reflecting on the Law of Attraction: what I call the Triangle of Association.
While both models place deep importance on the relationship between thoughts and emotions, they approach change from slightly different angles — and, when combined, they offer a fuller, more empowering understanding of how we shape our lives both consciously and subconsciously.
In this article, I’ll briefly explain each model, highlight their key similarities and differences, and share why I believe they complement each other beautifully as tools for personal growth and self-coaching.
1. Understanding the CTFAR Model
One of the most widely recognized frameworks in modern self-coaching is Brooke Castillo’s CTFAR model.
CTFAR is an acronym that stands for:
Circumstances
Thoughts
Feelings
Actions
Results
The model begins with the understanding that circumstances — the external events and facts of life — are often beyond our control. Accepting this reality is crucial, because fighting against unchangeable circumstances only leads to unnecessary suffering.
What we can control is how we interpret those circumstances through our thoughts. The thoughts we choose shape our emotional responses, determining how we feel about what’s happening around us.
If we hold thoughts of disappointment about a circumstance we cannot change, for example, it’s natural to feel frustration or sadness. And that's okay.
The CTFAR model encourages owning and allowing our emotions, rather than suppressing or avoiding them.
When we try to escape difficult feelings — by overeating, drinking excessively, binge-watching television, or distracting ourselves through other unhealthy behaviors — we disrupt the natural emotional process. This, in turn, leads to actions that often generate negative results.
By contrast, if we allow ourselves to feel emotions fully without judgment, we can process them naturally, choose healthier actions, and create more intentional results.
In essence, CTFAR reminds us that inner transformation begins with conscious awareness of our thoughts and feelings — and that growth often comes not by changing external reality, but by shifting the way we relate to it internally.
The Life Coach School Founder Brooke Castillo
2. Understanding the Triangle of Association
I came up with the Triangle of Association while writing the script for my Law of Attraction and Abundance affirmations video on YouTube. At the time, I was deeply inspired by a video from the Proctor Gallagher Institute, where the Law of Attraction was explained as a mechanism involving the conscious and subconscious minds working together.
Drawing from that—and from my own lived experience of being stuck in a cycle of struggle—I began to recognize a deeper pattern. I noticed how negative thinking, when paired with negative emotions, seemed to shape the kinds of situations I kept attracting into my life.
That’s when I realized something important: no amount of surface-level positive thinking could override a default mindset that was still rooted in fear, scarcity, or unworthiness. In other words, if my core beliefs—stored in the subconscious—weren’t aligned with what I was trying to convince myself of consciously, then nothing would truly change.
To break free from the cycle of scarcity, I realized I had to start by changing my thoughts—which would, in turn, shift my emotions and create a new, positive pattern in my subconscious mind. A pattern aligned with an abundance mindset, rather than one rooted in fear or lack.
But as anyone who has tried knows, this is easier said than done.
Simply telling myself that everything would be fine wasn’t enough. Positive thinking alone couldn’t spark the genuine feeling of hope needed to imprint a new emotional frequency onto my subconscious.
That’s when I came to understand the crucial role of acceptance.
Much like what Brooke Castillo points out in the CTFAR model, the circumstances we find ourselves in are often beyond our immediate control. And it is only through acceptance—not denial or resistance—that we can clear the mental fog of uneasiness and start thinking rationally about where we are, how we got there, and the path forward.
Acceptance creates the space for rational, grounded thinking, which can generate a more authentic positive emotion—one rooted not in blind optimism, but in genuine hope and clarity.
It’s through this process that we begin to shift our default mindset, moving from a frequency of scarcity to a frequency of abundance.
From these reflections, I developed what I call the Triangle of Association: a simple yet powerful way to understand how our experiences, thoughts, and emotions interact to form the subconscious patterns that shape the reality we live in.
At the base of the triangle is the situation — the external circumstance or event we encounter.
That situation triggers a thought — a conscious interpretation or internal narrative about what is happening.
The thought then generates an emotion — the feeling state that accompanies and reinforces that thought.
When a situation, a thought, and an emotion become linked together strongly enough, they "close the triangle," imprinting a pattern into the subconscious mind.
Over time, if we repeatedly respond to similar situations with the same kinds of thoughts and emotions, we strengthen that pattern — creating an energetic imprint that begins to act as a magnet.
This subconscious imprint doesn’t just stay internal; it influences what we attract and what reoccurs in our external reality.
Just as negative patterns are created through the repetition of harmful thoughts and emotions linked to difficult situations, positive patterns can also be consciously cultivated.
This is where one of the most important principles I follow comes into play:
"Where focus goes, energy flows — and makes things grow."
Energy itself does not discern between good or bad, right or wrong.
It simply nourishes whatever we choose to focus on — much like water feeds a plant, regardless of whether the plant bears sweet fruit or grows painful thorns.
When we repeatedly deposit our emotional energy into positive thoughts and feelings like gratitude, compassion, or hope, we reinforce new subconscious patterns that vibrate at a higher frequency.
In doing so, we begin to attract experiences, opportunities, and relationships that resonate with that frequency — nurturing a self-reinforcing cycle of abundance, resilience, and inner peace.
Recognizing the Triangle of Association empowers us to become more intentional gardeners of our inner landscape.
By becoming aware of the patterns we have unconsciously created — and by choosing to redirect our focus and emotional energy — we can gradually dissolve the old cycles that no longer serve us and cultivate new ones that align with the life we want to experience.
While the process requires patience, awareness, and acceptance, the rewards are profound: a more balanced subconscious mind, a more resilient emotional state, and a reality that increasingly reflects the seeds of growth and abundance we have chosen to plant.
3. How These Models Complement Each Other
Although the CTFAR model and the Triangle of Association focus on slightly different aspects of inner transformation, they are not at odds with each other. In fact, they complement one another beautifully, offering two powerful lenses through which we can better understand how we create our reality.
The CTFAR model shines in its ability to help us recognize and interrupt the immediate chain of thought, feeling, action, and result. It empowers individuals to consciously reshape their interpretations of circumstances, choose healthier emotional responses, and act in ways that produce better outcomes.
Additionally, CTFAR encourages setting realistic, achievable goals — creating a clear, premeditated vision of the positive results we want to experience. This gives our efforts a tangible direction and helps us build momentum through intentional action.
The Triangle of Association, on the other hand, highlights how deeper subconscious patterns are formed over time through the emotional associations we create. It reminds us that the energy we invest — whether positive or negative — strengthens subconscious imprints that influence what we continue to attract, often without our conscious awareness.
By working with both models, we address both the surface and the roots of personal transformation:
– CTFAR offers a practical, conscious strategy for directing thoughts, emotions, and actions toward specific goals.
– The Triangle of Association reveals how emotional energy shapes our subconscious field and creates recurring patterns over time.
Together, these models offer a fuller toolkit for growth — helping us to act intentionally in the present while gradually transforming the deeper subconscious patterns that shape our future reality.
4. Practical Applications
Understanding these models is powerful, but real transformation happens when we put knowledge into practice.
One of the most effective exercises I recommend for reshaping our thoughts and rewiring our subconscious patterns is the consistent use of positive affirmations — but with a critical difference: affirmations must be felt, not just stated.
Simply repeating positive words mechanically, without emotional connection, will not generate the energy needed to shift deeply ingrained patterns.
Affirmations work on multiple levels when practiced properly:
– They help us consciously redirect our thoughts toward more empowering interpretations of reality, aligning with the CTFAR model.
– And when paired with sincere emotional engagement — feelings of hope, gratitude, or joy — they imprint new subconscious patterns, reinforcing the principles of the Triangle of Association.
It's through this conscious combination of thought and emotion that we "close the triangle" in a positive way, nurturing higher frequencies and attracting new realities into our lives.
For those interested in practical tools to begin reshaping thought patterns and emotional energy, here are some resources you can explore:
– Law of Attraction and Abundance Affirmations Video — A rhythmic, emotionally engaging affirmation video to help internalize abundance mindset shifts.
– Gardin Channel on YouTube — Explore more affirmations, reflections, and mindful content designed to inspire growth and transformation.
– Affirmations for Success & Productivity — A dedicated section on GardinArts.com with carefully crafted affirmations to help you focus, take action, and flourish.
Whether through writing affirmations, speaking them aloud, or immersing yourself in emotionally charged affirmations set to music, the key is consistency, sincerity, and patience.
Change doesn't happen overnight, but with each repetition — each focused thought, each sincere emotion — you are planting seeds of transformation that will eventually blossom into a new reality.