Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Space for the square pegs.

Breaking the silence – a gentle re-introduction to me

Oh. Argh, eek – I haven’t posted for exactly 2 months!  That’s a website so full of cobwebs someone might be tempted to hire it as a set for a horror film.  So what on earth has been holding me back?

Actually does it matter?  No, not really.  I wasn’t ready then. I am now.  I have given myself the necessary space for all my ideas to fall into a more useful combination.  I have allowed myself the time and given myself permission to simply wait until I am ready to speak once more.

And the nice thing is, when I look back over my stuff I find I’m still pretty happy with what I have been saying.  It simply lacked the structure that I hope to inject into this website over the next few weeks.   You know, make it so visitors are clear about whether it’s for them or not, dust off the better ideas and shelve some others that haven’t quite got a place any more, tidy up that messy jumble of categories… sort of rearranging the furniture and dusting the alcoves.   Necessary maintenance intended to make this the kind of space where people feel welcome and would like to come back and relax every now and then.  Including me.

This may or may not take some time – I’m OK with that.  If you’d rather sit back and wait a little longer, then feel free – maybe sign up for my newsletter so I can keep you informed of when it’s a good time to hop back on board.  But do hang around if you feel inclined – I’d be honoured.

It seems to me that all this preparation stuff is meant to go on in the background.  All the insecurities and worries and ‘not ready-ness’ are meant to be miraculously missing from a blog, but it also seems to me to be everything that this blog should be about.

I have had stunning moments of clarity and terrifying times of simple, abject fear.  All of these are relevant.  Bear with me on this.

What I have been wanting –trying – to say over the past two years is that it is simply enough to be yourself.   What my experience keeps telling me is that this is all very well but the world tends to wade into this personal utopia with the explicit intention of tripping you up, catching you out or reminding you of exactly how far you still have to go.  This experience has been terribly effective in stopping me getting any further, time and again.

The trick, it seems, is to stop believing you have to have it all sorted before you start.

So I’m not.  I haven’t.  Nor have you, I suspect.

Welcome aboard – let’s ride this one together and see where it goes.

‘Til next time, then.  x

Fear, where are you now?

A strange thing happened this morning. I sat at my desk and found I wasn’t afraid.

Not in the slightest bit.

Two years ago, I was afraid of everything, or so it seemed. Now I’m wondering when it slipped away.

Fear has been my excuse.

This morning, with that absence of fear, I found I sort of missed it. Even as it has held me back, the fear has kept me safe in its own small way. I realised how long my fear had been a crutch, an excuse, something to hide behind when I didn’t get things done.

Today, I might feel frustrated; shy perhaps; impatient, self-conscious; sometimes embarrassed, but not afraid. It’s a strange sensation – this feeling of no-fear. Continue reading

A leader is the one who cares

Every now and then I go innocently out to do something simple and  rewarding, like buy a book perhaps, and I gaily walk straight into a brick wall!

This wall may take the form of those automatic cashiers in the supermarket (designed to cut operating costs by reducing four cashiers to one slave, running after the endless errors and frustrated customers generated by these machines.)

Unfortunately, the brick wall can just as easily take the form of a human being who has forgotten they are not a machine. Continue reading

Start now, and no shortcuts!

I have a very exciting new idea in my head, and for some reason I’m just not diving into it in the way I expected. There’s always something else to do, or I lack certain bits of knowledge or experience before I can proceed.  The latest is the pursuit of someone else’s business idea in favour of my own.

Wrong idea!!

No more blame and excuses: it’s not a lack of time, and I’m certainly not short of ideas.  Money isn’t even the thing – it’s quite simply a lack of courage, and that has to stop.

It’s no good sitting back in your perfectionist’s chair and waiting for all the pieces to assemble themselves around you because it doesn’t work like that.  You have to get in there, get your hands dirty.  Try things out and be prepared to be wrong.
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The story of my self-acceptance part 1 – Knowing myself

I am inspired and impressed by Robert Holden’s 10 step plan for self-acceptance  on Oprah.com. Robert hits the nail on the head by identifying self-acceptance as the key to feeling whole and fulfilled in this life. Instead of looking outside for approval, you start by finding approval within yourself.

It reflects perfectly the journey I have undertaken over the past year as a blogger/coach and the last 7 years since I stepped out of a safe relationship, feeling urgently that I had to do something but not knowing what.  It reflects exactly the realisations and learning that have hit me time and again over the past few months, so quickly that I haven’t found the words to express what was going on. 

Robert’s plan, I’ve decided, is an ideal framework for starting to find the voice of my new, self-accepting self.  Bear with me, we’ll see how this goes!  Continue reading

When it’s good to walk away

In the strange world of social media, where you can so easily become ‘friends’ with total strangers, I have had the privilege of watching another person’s life unfold.  As I’ve been watching, this person has publicly faced some extremely difficult personal dramas.  And now she’s choosing to walk away.

 Over time, like most people on the outside of a situation, I’ve had my opinions and thoughts and occasionally interjected.  And this morning, I disapproved of her decision to leave. 

 Until I realised: by walking away, she is reclaiming her life.

 This morning I thought, you’ll still be facing the same old demons.  You’ll still be meeting people who see you as someone to be used.  Because that story is within you, and that story will go with you wherever you go.

 But then I thought, no – not true.  By walking away, this person is doing a very brave thing: she’s creating a new story.  A story in which her happiness and health comes first.  Where she’s making herself stronger, valuing herself and creating a new friendship – with herself. 

 If a situation gets too uncomfortable, then walking away is a choice of power.

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Countering the return of Small Me – why “selfish” is essential

You may have noticed I haven’t been blogging much lately.  I’ve been spending some time getting other aspects of my life back in balance and trying to understand how it all fits together.  Things always do, you know, but it’s not always easy to see the big picture. 

 Anyways, this week I saw the return of ‘Small Me’ and felt it was time to share.

 Small Me emerged in my awareness as I began to recognise moments of confidence and personal strength I never knew I had.  These moments, I felt at home, at ease and unbeatable.  In these moments, I took great personal risks just knowing it would all be ok.  In these moments, I am what I call Real Me.

 Small Me showed up as the contrast – the me that lacks confidence, waits for permission, needs approval, the me that begs others to fill a great empty hole inside her because she doesn’t know how to fill it herself. 

 And the funny thing is, when Small Me is around, I get a whole lot less of the approval she needs.  The message Small Me has for the world is this:

 What you think of yourself SHOWS.  Not only that, it is a cue for the way others act around you. Continue reading

About FLOW and our addiction to stress

A new word has filtered into my attention recently.  Championed by Amy R Martin and Noreen Blanluet, that word is FLOW. 

FLOW is your life in top gear.  It’s easy, it’s joyful; you achieve more with less effort.  You’re engaged, focussed, creative; everything seems to go your way.  Challenges become opportunities.  Doors open.  Life just seems to, well, flow.

But - and here’s one of those pesky paradoxes that pop up all over the place when you’re nearing this way of being - as soon as you try to get there, the flow stops. 

Worse -  when you’re there there’s a very good chance that something inside you will get a bit freaked out and try to bring you back to the familiar, safe reality of stress and difficulty.  Because although it’s not nice, at least that part of you knows what’s going on.

I am convinced that we are addicted to stress

Continue reading