About Peter Schulte
Coach and writer
Professional background
For the first 12 years of my career, I worked at the non-profit sustainability think tank Pacific Institute, collaborating with the United Nations and some of the world’s largest companies on corporate sustainability practices for water and climate. After that, I founded and launched the non-profit Spark of Genius.
I have a BS in Conservation & Resource Studies and a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA in Sustainable Systems from Presidio Graduate School.
I trained to become a coach through the ICF-accredited Academy for Coaching Excellence, the Mankind Project, and through years of leading teams and managing young professionals.
I now run my own coaching business Peter Schulte Coaching LLC.
In this role, I edit the weekly Good News For Humankind newsletter, write about personal transformation and social change, and serve as a coach helping purpose-driven professionals make their contribution – without the burnout and self-doubt.
I live in Bellingham, WA, USA (the lands of the Lummi, Nooksack, and other Coast Salish peoples), with my co-parent Sara, two kids Owen and Asa, and cat Winnie. I love to sing, play guitar, write songs, philosophize, go on walks in nature, play tickle monster with my kids, and explore the beautiful Pacific Northwest and beyond. I use either he or they pronouns.
Purpose statement: I reveal a world of beauty and goodness.
My story
The short version
I was fortunate to start my career in what felt like a dream job, supporting international corporate sustainability principles through the United Nations systems. And I was successful in the traditional sense, making my way up the ranks and taking on more responsibility. But over time, after years of always striving for that next promotion, always feeling like I wasn’t quite doing and achieving enough, I found myself burned out and jaded. It was a “good” job, but it no longer fulfilled me.
Eventually, I allowed myself to quit my job to pursue something that felt more inspiring and authentic.
And for the better part of a year, I set out to write a book. But after months of slow progress, a quickly shrinking bank account, and a growing sense of being lost, I realized that this was a quite narrow path to fulfillment and providing for my family. I had overcorrected from practical success to impractical passion.
So again, I made a shift.
Today, I’m doing what I truly love. Life feels deeply purposeful, but also peaceful and balanced. I both feel inspired by what I do and put food on the table. And I help other people do the same.
The longer version
As a child, I felt like the oddball of the family. My older sister excelled at school and loved to read. And there I was, singing at the top of my lungs, making stupid jokes, playing in the mud, with no particular talents to my name. It always felt like my parents didn’t quite know what to do with me.
Everything changed on the first day of third grade. That year, I was moving from a Catholic school to the local public school where my two best friends went. I remember waking up and jumping into my parents’ bed so excited.
But to my surprise, my dad looked me in the eyes and let me know in no uncertain terms that today was the day when it all got serious. I needed to start applying myself. I needed to get good grades. I needed to be a “success,” to push myself harder at all times, to sacrifice feeling good to be great.
If I didn’t, I’d be a failure.
At least that’s what I heard. And I really took it to heart.
Starting then, I worked harder than just about anyone. I went through middle school and high school with straight A’s, graduated as valedictorian, and was accepted to a prestigious university.
In college, I grew out my hair. I started making music. I became an ardent environmentalist. I worked on a fishing boat in Alaska. I still worked my ass off: graduating magna cum laude with a double major. But society’s definition of success rang less true. Now, I wanted to excel at creative expression and saving the planet.
The internal pressure I put on myself remained largely unchanged.
With music, I thought I had to be as good and successful as my favorite band Radiohead or it was not worth it.
At work, I quickly rose through the ranks of a sustainability think tank by constantly saying yes to projects I didn’t have time for and burning myself out.
In business school, I felt like I needed to create a company that not only made billions but saved the world.
But in 2014, things changed. After a conference in Lima, I traveled to Peru’s Sacred Valley and came across the plant medicines ayahuasca and huachuma. I left those experiences with my mind and heart blown open, my constructs of success dissolved into nothing. (You can read more here.)
Somehow, it no longer felt like the world needed “saving” in the same way. And the “I” that so desperately wanted to be the hero no longer seemed so central to the story.
The knots I tied myself into no longer had the same hold on me. I could see clearly for the first time that I didn’t actually have anything to prove. No one was keeping score of my life.
From there, I continued working with plant medicines, got involved in men’s work, and completed a graduate program in leadership and personal development. And as I did, this new awareness only seemed to grow.
Eventually, I quit my exhausting job. I stopped dreaming of building a business that would save the world. I stopped imagining myself as some world-renowned changemaker with best-selling books and impressive podcast spots. I began letting myself do less, more slowly, and with much less internal pressure.
Now, instead of trying to be great, I focus on trying to do good in this world, regardless of the size of the impact or the renown it might gain me. I focus on doing what actually feels good and fills my cup.
In many ways, my life now is more challenging than ever. I am getting divorced. I have two impossibly energetic young boys constantly vying for my attention. I’m building a business in a deeply uncertain economy. And I’m witnessing the looming threat of authoritarianism in my country, as wildfires burn around me.
But I can still safely say: I love my life now more than ever.
I feel freer and more joyful than I have since that first day of third grade. I wake up excited to start my day, doing what I love, knowing that it makes a difference in these dark times.
If you’re someone who’d like to find and live your purpose, but with a much greater sense of peace and passion, I’m building a new program just for this. Click below to stay in the loop.