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You did not arrive at who you are today by accident.

Every experience you had, every person who influenced you, every moment of fear or love or rejection or belonging — all of it left a mark. An imprint. A programme that now runs quietly in the background of every decision you make, every relationship you enter, every ceiling you hit.

Most people never look at this. They focus on what they want to change right now — the income, the relationship, the career, the health. They build new habits. They set better goals. And then they wonder why, despite everything, the same patterns keep returning.

"The outside keeps changing. The inside stays the same. Because the programme was never updated."

In the InnerMost Shift Coaching framework that underpins my work, we call these the Yogic Phases of Transition — the 7-year cycles through which every human being is shaped. Understanding your phases does not change your past. But it gives you something more valuable: it shows you exactly where the programme was written. And when you know that, you can finally rewrite it.

The phases that shaped you

0 — 7
The Imprint Period · Survival Exploration
This is the most foundational phase of your entire life. Your brain is in a highly receptive state — absorbing everything as truth without filtering. You are not yet capable of critical thought. Everything around you — the safety or chaos of your home, the warmth or distance of your caregivers — is absorbed directly into your subconscious as fact about how the world works.
What gets imprinted: Is the world safe or dangerous? Am I loved unconditionally or conditionally? What do I have to be or do to receive care?
7 — 14
Unconscious Modelling · Creative Discovery
You begin to model the people you admire — heroes, parents, teachers, older siblings, anyone you idealise. You absorb their beliefs, their emotional patterns, their relationship with success and failure. This is also when your creative self either blossoms or quietly shrinks — depending on whether what you expressed was met with encouragement or criticism.
What gets modelled: What does success look like? Is it safe to stand out or safer to fit in? What do I have to suppress to be accepted?
14 — 21
Socialisation Period · Identity Formation
This is the most critical phase for your adult identity. The question "who am I?" becomes urgent. Peer acceptance feels like oxygen. The verdict others give you about your worth lands not as opinion but as truth. Many of the most powerful limiting beliefs people carry into their 30s, 40s and 50s were formed in this single seven-year window.
What gets locked in: Am I enough? Do I belong? What am I allowed to want? Whose version of me am I living?
21 — 35
Partnership & Professional Genesis
You step into adult life — careers, relationships, independence. The programmes formed in the first three phases now meet reality for the first time. The gap between who you believe yourself to be and what the world reflects back becomes visible. This is where the patterns become undeniable — if you are paying attention.
What gets tested: Every belief formed in the first 21 years now faces the real world. Patterns become visible here.
35 — 42
Intuition & Insight
Something shifts in this phase. The external achievements that were supposed to bring fulfilment either have — or they have not. Either way, a deeper question begins to surface. This is often when people find their way to coaching — not because things are broken, but because something deeper is asking to be heard.
What surfaces: Who am I really? What do I actually want? What have I been living for — and is it truly mine?

What shapes us — and what limits us

There are two kinds of forces that shape every human being across these phases:

What evolves who you truly are
✦ Inspirations
✦ Involvement
✦ Choices
✦ Ideals
✦ Freedom
What makes you who you have become
— Influences
— Impositions
— Directives
— Rules
— Force

Most people are living a version of themselves shaped far more by the second column than the first. Not by their own choices and ideals — but by the influences and rules of others absorbed before they were old enough to evaluate them.

The question is not who shaped you. That is history.

The question is: are you still living by their rules?

The question that changes everything

"Which seven years left the deepest imprint on who you became — and are you still living that imprint as if it were truth?"

For many people, the answer is the 14-21 phase. That is where the most formative identity decisions were made — often under social pressure, often in fear, often while trying to survive adolescence rather than thrive through it.

For others it is the 0-7 phase — where the earliest decisions about safety and love and worth were formed before there were even words to describe them.

Whatever it is — it is running. Right now. In how you approach money, relationships, leadership, risk and the size of life you allow yourself to live.

What you can do with this

Awareness is the beginning. Not the end — but the beginning.

When you can see the phase, you can see the programme. When you can see the programme, you can question it. And when you can question it — with the right support and the right tools — you can change it. Not gradually. At the identity level. Permanently.

Reflect on these today ✦

✦Which phase of your life has had the greatest impact on how you show up today?
✦What is one belief about yourself that you formed in that phase and have never seriously questioned since?
✦If that belief were simply an imprint from a phase of life that is now over — how would your life look different?
✦What would the version of you look like who has genuinely updated their programming?

You do not have to answer these perfectly. You just have to be willing to ask them honestly.

Because the moment you genuinely ask "is this belief actually mine?" — something shifts. A crack appears in the programme. Light gets in. And from there, everything becomes possible.

Find your imprint phase

In a discovery call, one of the first things we explore together is which phase of your life left the deepest mark — and what it is still costing you today. This single insight often unlocks more clarity than years of trying to change behaviour without understanding its source.

Apply for Your Discovery Call ✦
Raju Thammala
Raju Thammala
Founder of The First Leap™. Certified Coach, NLP and InnerMost Shift Coach with ICF ACSTH-Approved training. The Yogic Phases of Transition framework referenced in this article is drawn from the Value Conscious Leadership module of InnerMost Shift Coaching.
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