For months, I’ve been pushing and struggling to set the scene for my future, and right now I feel like things are coming together. While they do, I’m playing a waiting game.
My body tells me I am tired. My head tells me I should do more. My heart (when I listen) tells me it’s all going to be ok.
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My life is about to radically change.
This is not a surprise – we’ve been planning this for four years. In fact, it wasn’t going to take us that long. In the space of just one year, we were going to leave the hustle and bustle of a British city for the beauty and quiet of the Tirolean Alps. Three times a year for four years we’ve escaped to our great big house in the mountains, and each time we’ve come back to work, earn more money, and save.
This time it’s different. This time we’re not coming back to work. This time, I’m going to have to work over there.
Posted in Inspiring Change, Making it happen, Riding The Wave
Tagged choice, commitment, journey
Happy is being helpful - the times I feel most connected, strong, powerful is when I’ve been in a position to help someone; the time when my talents have naturally met the needs of another, and together we have achieved something that moves them forward.
And in the process I move me forward, because I open my heart just that little bit more, and I feel like I have done something that matters.
That is one of the greatest appeals of working for someone else - that sense of community, of belonging, of completing tasks that need to be done. We are all aching to make a difference, to feel we belong.
Except in so many instances, we don’t really feel we make a difference because the tasks we complete feel so mundane, repetitive, endless, like washing the dishes. I think I really hate washing the dishes. Except I don’t, actually - I hate the idea of washing the dishes. It’s the job’s mundane nature, the fact that it will just have to be done again in a few hours’ time. It’s a thankless task.
And there you have it: Thankless.
Are you hoping to make a difference, or do you want to be seen as making a difference?
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Posted in Making it happen, The Leader Within
Tagged commitment, connection, recognition
Not everyone is a natural entrepreneur. If I’m honest, I’d say that deep down, I think I’ve a deep-set need to follow and settle myself within a structure that others have created for me.
It’s not like I don’t know my talents –I look at the raw materials and I construct a better way. I can do that with filing systems, or I can do it with people. I see what fits, what doesn’t fit, what is no longer of any use. I can see what needs to be implemented to make things work; I hear what’s not being said.
It helps being an outsider for this – It helps not to be emotionally attached to my raw materials, or numbed to the inconsistencies, the challenges, the over-regulation and control that employees face each day. Nevertheless, I am still drawn by habit to working for others, to finding my space in someone else’s world.
A short one today!
I loved this short film starring Natasha James and thought I’d share it here.
It made me smile, but I’d love to see this kind of conversation at the start of a working relationship. Right now, there can be a sort of inequality in that workers are expected to commit wholeheartedly, show loyalty and behave consistently, although the same is very rarely returned.
What about a system that allowed us all to grow, one that recognised that our needs change, our understanding evolves, our talents and enthusiasm turn in different directions? A relationship that said “what a perfect match we are right now” but just as easily let go when it was time to move on?
Your thoughts?
Posted in Riding The Wave
Oh well, it’s happened! I need to share this:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world.” ~Marianne Williamson
Just about every Coach I can think of has quoted Marianne Williamson at least once in one form or another. And when they do, something in me wilts and says ‘oh no, not again’. But yesterday, I think I met that ‘deepest fear’ head on and truly, truly understood.
It all happened when my friend challenged me to actually do the thing I keep talking about, the thing that is the perfect outlet for all my skills and my deep desire to make a difference. And she didn’t just mean online behind the safety of my laptop; she meant for real. In front of real people and everything.
My reaction surprised even me: I have been very carefully doing extra research, making new connections and writing and re-writing my sales page til the cows come home – all ready, of course, for when I do the thing and the crowds all push and shove to be first in line. But suddenly, when faced with making it real, I was reduced almost instantly to a blubbering, quivering mess. Continue reading
You want more money, but you want the way you earn it to have meaning and purpose. You want to make a difference. You want to believe that you – little old you, with all your fears and insecurities – can help to change the world.
But when you look at the Great Big Problems around you it’s hard to believe it’s possible to stop the momentum of something so huge. You imagine trying to coordinate hundreds of thousands – millions – of people, get an agreed consensus on what must be done. You think you couldn’t possibly get heard.
A client and I were discussing the importance of wearing a suit in business. My client felt she should wear one, wanted one to give her confidence in new situations.
Maybe because of our subconscious connection between suits and authority, a suit has magical properties. It casts a spell over others – over you. When I’m wearing a suit I feel taller, powerful, more elegant. I feel more likely to be taken seriously, listened to. The suit carries an air of authority, tells people I know what I’m talking about; a suit shows I mean business.
But the magic isn’t in the suit; it’s in how the suit makes you feel.
My client and I talked about bottling that magic for the days we aren’t looking the way we think we should, for the times we ache to be ourselves and still exude confidence and authority from every pore.
We talked about creating a suit of confidence – the emperor’s new clothes, if you will. Entering into every encounter feeling like we’re wearing the best suit money can buy; calling on that magic to walk taller, feel stronger and make ourselves heard every single time.
It just takes a little imagination – try calling on the power of the suit today.
Comments: Tell me about your suit and how it makes you feel. What’s your secret talisman for confidence every time?
Posted in Inspiring Change, The Leader Within
Tagged choice, confidence, perspective
Hi! I'm Meg Ward. It's my mission to get you out of that rut and into your GROOVE. Find the right work for you and simply SHINE in what you do - never settle for 'just a job' again! 
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