About António
“Mental reprogramming assistant!” That was the answer he gave when a well-known young woman from Portuguese TV pointed a microphone at him and asked what he did for a living.
Meaning what, exactly?
Some time ago, on a beautiful sunny day, on a street in Lisbon, I sat at the end of an inviting garden bench. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, went “within myself” and stayed like that for a while.
When I opened my eyes again, there were strangers all around me, and a smiling young woman was pointing a microphone at me. Before I had recovered from the shock, she fired off:
“Good morning! Awake?”
“Y… es…”, I answered.
“What's your name? What do you do?”
“António Cordeiro. I’m... a mental reprogramming assistant.”
“Meaning what, exactly?”, asked the confused young woman with the microphone.
It’s still the answer I give when people ask me what I do. I don’t programme anyone. I help people notice the programmes and repetitive patterns running in our minds, and discover that they can be replaced with more useful ones.
The path
At the age of thirteen, I kicked off what is now Moita Rugby Clube da Bairrada. I brought together a group of children, and that was the beginning of my first formal leadership experience. I played, led, organised and coached this demanding sport for several years. While still at university, I began my professional career in sports training and management.
Later, my entrepreneurial energy began to emerge: I resigned and embarked on my first private project, designing, setting up and managing a chain of pizzerias. It was an important period, also marked by my experience on the Board of the Associação Nacional de Jovens Empresários.
In 2009, everything changed radically. I began preparing for my Coaching certification and, some time later, devoted myself professionally to the study, use and teaching of a powerful tool for supporting behavioural development: the Enneagram.
2009 was also the year I began studying a non-dualist teaching of "profound personal transformation" called A Course in Miracles.
Why these things belong together
People often ask me how the Enneagram and A Course in Miracles fit into the same practice. For me, they fit because they look at different and complementary levels of the same transformation.
The Enneagram helps us recognise personality: the patterns we repeat, what triggers them, and how they shape our relationship with ourselves and with others. It shows us how we appear to work.
A Course in Miracles takes us deeper and asks a different question: what if what we are observing and trying to transform is not, after all, who we really think we are? Instead of perfecting the personality, it invites us to stop identifying with it.
That is why the two paths meet so naturally. The Enneagram helps us see the pattern, and the Course helps us not to mistake the pattern for who we truly are.
One offers a map for understanding ourselves. The other points to what lies beyond the map. It is in this meeting, between knowing the personality and ceasing to identify with it, that the source of my work lies.
What now?
If any part of this journey crosses yours, there are several places where we can begin.