Book Cover
Built This Way
The Book
Built This Way is publishing October 22
There’s nothing wrong with you. There is a reason the pattern repeats.
Built This Way: Why Painful Patterns Repeat and How to Change Them is the best place to begin if you want to understand why old patterns repeat and how real change becomes possible.
The book is for people who know better but still react anyway, who understand the issue but keep finding themselves back in the same loop. It is also useful for parents, partners, leaders, coaches, therapists, and anyone who wants to understand the patterns that shape how people respond under stress.
Learn more about Built This Way →Reader Tool
Try Why Did I React That Way?
Why Did I React That Way? is a reflection tool connected to Built This Way. Use it after a moment when you reacted, shut down, got defensive, felt hurt, got angry, or repeated an old pattern.
The tool helps you slow the moment down and look at what may have been happening in your body, your story, your emotional pattern, and your next best practice step.
Try the Reflection Tool →For Leaders
For leaders, founders, forums, and teams
The same patterns that shape personal life also show up in leadership: decision-making, conflict, trust, avoidance, over-control, burnout, and the private pressure many high-performing people carry alone.
SkillfullyAware® leadership work helps leaders and groups see those patterns more clearly, talk about them more honestly, and practice better ways of responding under pressure.
SAAQ for Leaders
A private developmental reflection on how you lead, relate, decide, protect, and grow under pressure.
Explore SAAQ Coaching →Forum Retreats
Guided experiences for EO/YPO forums and leadership groups ready for honest, skillful, well-held development.
Explore Forum Retreats →Executive Coaching
One-on-one support for leaders navigating pressure, transition, conflict, decision-making, identity, or growth.
Book a Conversation →Practice the Change
Insight matters, but insight alone rarely changes a pattern.
Power Tools are classes, workbooks, guided meditations, books, and practical resources that help you keep practicing after the first insight. Use them when attention is fixated, emotions are activated, habits are running, or you want support working with a specific pattern.
Meet Dr. Mark Pirtle
Dr. Mark Pirtle is the creator of SkillfullyAware®, author of Built This Way, and creator of the SkillfullyAware Awareness Quotient, or SAAQ.
His work helps people understand why painful patterns repeat, how those patterns shape life and leadership, and how awareness, practice, integration, and compassion make change possible.
Mark’s teaching brings together mindfulness, adult development, shadow work, somatic awareness, systems thinking, and decades of work with clients, leaders, groups, and retreat participants.
What People Experience in the Work
Reflections from leaders, clients, and participants who have used SkillfullyAware® to understand patterns, build trust, and practice meaningful change.
"His approach to shadow work and emotional intelligence transformed our team dynamics. If your team needs alignment, bring Mark in—you won't regret it."
Dr. Pirtle's shadow work coaching has been transformative for both my personal and professional life. Through his guidance, I've developed a heightened ability to attune to myself, others, and situations. His insights are practical and profound, transferring seamlessly to any domain. I'm a better version of myself because of his coaching.
"Working with Dr. Pirtle has transformed my understanding of my mind, myself, and what it is to live with skillful awareness."
Breaking Bad (habits)
Essays on why painful patterns repeat, why change is hard, and how to practice becoming more SkillfullyAware in daily life.