Image by Jorge Gonzalez. Used under a creative commons zero licence.
Everything is against me, I thought.
My colleagues seem to be deliberately unhelpful. I’ve got SO much work. And I DON’T want to BE HERE.
I was miserable. I dreamed of working for myself, having my own clients. I longed for the sunshine, peace, space and time to myself
Image by Pablo Basagoiti. Used under a creative commons zero licence.
I DO go on about vision. Knowing your direction, what your deepest self truly desires to experience in life, getting clarity on what you actually want is SO important.
But it also requires ACTION.
And there is a huge obstacle that can get in the way.
Image by Nicholas Swanson. Used under a creative commons zero licence.
I've been having so much fun meeting some of you IN PERSON - firstly at the Escape the Rat Race meetup a couple of weeks ago and for my workshop on Saturday.
After my talk, one of the audience members shared that after hearing a story of someone else's journey or going to an event like the meetup, she felt really inspired. But then the feeling of inspiration faded and she would get stuck again.
She wanted to know how to create the consistency of feeling energised and excited.
Image by Jared Erondu. Used under a creative commons zero licence
I made a scary phone call this morning.
On the surface it looked like a pretty innocuous phone call, but it was so much more than that. It was a big deal for me.
I could see what it meant to me, because I put it off for at least 2 hours.
Read MoreImage by Alondra Olivas Used under a creative commons zero licence.
One topic that I love to explore is that of powerful conversations.
When we feel stuck, as though there is so much out of our control, or it feels as though someone else is making life really difficult, it can be tempting to complain it’s all about them/the job/the situation and how ‘if they would just’ act differently, our lives would be a lot easier.
In fact, complaining may be covering up the fact that that we are fearful about communicating HOW we’re feeling and what we WANT the situation to be like because we worry that it’ll create confrontation and descend into an argument.
Photo by Roberto Nickson. Used under a creative commons zero licence.
You say things like 'I'm just going to...' and 'One last thing...' or 'Don't worry, I'll power through it'
And when you're always pushing yourself and running at 110% ALL THE TIME, you KNOW it doesn't work.
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Do you ever wonder how other people seem to get stuff done?
You have all these intentions about what YOU'RE going to do and yet, somehow it never happens??
My life in London (and actually since I was about 15 years old) was BUSY. I had appointments every day, work, social life, courses I was taking, groups I was part of.
I had no SPACE to create change in my life.
Do you ever have that thing where your head is totally in a spin and you can't think straight?
Read MoreAfter creating a vision, you need a PLAN.
I KNOW this is where we can get really stuck, so in this week's video I share the tool I use to map out the next steps, including how to work out what to do NOW to progress towards your goals.
Read MoreI KNOW how much getting stuck really kills your enthusiasm and your energy. You start thinking you're hopeless, you can't 'make it happen' and you feel like giving up.
So how about a practical strategy that helps shift whatever's keeping you in that place? Today's video is about how to get out of your head and get things moving again.
Something that I used to struggle with is not having enough TIME.
It was all very well reading about how you could get loads done if you did something for 10 minutes a day, but I found that when I got stuck in to something, 20 minutes would have gone past then I would carry on for a bit and suddenly it would be midnight! It would put me off doing it again because I would be tired for work.
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Fear can hold us back from creating the life we want. Here I share a story about how I moved through a big fear that was preventing me taking the next step.
Read MoreImage by Oscar Keys
The kind of whispers we’ve all heard went through my head:
"It’s inevitable - you can’t have good health all the time."
"You’re just getting older, it’s totally normal"
"Everyone has stress in their job, but we all have to work don’t we?"
I started wearing glasses for distance.
Read MoreImage by Noah Kuhn. Used under a creative commons zero licence.
A big bear that used to hunt me (no, not a real one) was:
What if I fail?
Say you're in a reasonably good position as you are. You have a job, maybe some money in the bank. Your co-workers are alright. You’ve got a nice-ish place.
Why would you risk it all for some…pipe dream?
Read MoreImage by Jordan Sanchez. Used under a creative commons zero licence.
I started this journey, thinking it was just about finding a job that I loved.
I quit the graduate training scheme I was on (having sat the exams and leaving my job before even finding out the results) because I had decided that following my dreams and trying to make myself happy was more important than what the company needed (and because I spent tea breaks crying in the toilets).
Read MoreImage by Olenka Kotyk. Used under a creative commons zero licence.
If you’ve been feeling as though your dream is so far away and you wish you could just ‘be there’ and start ‘living the dream', take heart.
You CAN start living it: right now.
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Image by Davide Ragusa. Used under a creative commons zero license.
I did hundreds and hundreds of exercises, read very many books and spent years changing careers before creating the vision of what I wanted.
There are two major sticking points in a person’s quest to finding work they love.
The first is working out what you want. (Over and over people tell me what they DON’T want, but you have to turn that on its head and get specific).
Read MoreIt was 7 years ago that I first googled 'changing careers’.
I hadn't known what I wanted to do after University so I took a gap year, temping in Canada. It was a whirl. An adventure. And then 4 of my close friends got engaged and started getting mortgages and sending out wedding invitations and I took fright. I needed to get a proper job. Settle down. Stop messing around.
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