#TodayTuesday - Going Beyond My Familiar Zone
Admittedly I have come to this week's Quest instigations a little later than normal and I am reminded of my adventures around London at this time last year. For the #TodayTuesday instigation I didn't intentionally set out to travel beyond my usual zone but it has been happening all week as a function of my activities and the massive transition that is taking shape in my life.
This week was possibly one of the most unusual weeks for me. Although I am ever-conscious of the cycle of the moon and I can naturally tell through my own feelings when we are nearing a new moon or a full moon, this week's 12/12/19 portal was extremely powerful as I found myself slipstreaming through time and space. On Monday morning I left for Brussels and returned on Tuesday, emerging from the Eurotunnel as if emerging into a completely new timeline.
Throughout the week I had cause to go to places that I have never been during the last four years that I have been in London, such as Smithfield Market area near Farringdon. I found this part of London reminded me of scenes from old movies, and although I felt like hell on Wednesday morning from a severe bout of food poisoning, I also felt a sense of wonder and delight as I walked around.
Other places I visited included Winter Wonderland, Bernadini's restaurant in Marble Arch, breakfast at a Nordic cafe in Putney, and some shopping in Hackney. Each of these places saw me criss-crossing the city in different directions using almost all of the modes of transport available. In a place as huge as London, it can be too easy to stick to what's familiar; and it makes me wonder if we do this purposely - for safety, for normality, for some sense of foundation or security.
Beyond this specific instigation, though, I feel that this whole year has been an experiment in going beyond my familiar zone. Extending this metaphor outwards, my whole life is an experiment in going beyond my familiar zone. My explorations of the physical planet, the metaphysical and the liminal spaces has helped me to see things differently, and in one way or another to connect with people at a level that is hard to describe. More about this in #FutureFriday.
For the entire year I have been learning a new industry, a new career, new skills and a new way of being in the world. This has meant countless hours at the laptop and yet it has also included trips to places that I had never considered going - like Orlando for a conference and Lake Tahoe for a retreat. I returned to the Algarve in October where I had been in the summer, and yet I didn't return to any of the usual places we go in the Algarve.
In one way or another, I have been going beyond my familiar zone each and every day of 2019 as I have sought to carve out a place in the world in service of a higher mission. At the company where I was working in a senior role I was starting to deliver this mission to those around me, but it became obvious that the only way to truly serve was to leave. For the past 20 years I have normally left one job to go to another one, or felt some level of anxiety when that hasn't been the case. In jumping into the abyss of the unknown I am trusting this feeling of neutrality and deep trust that is guiding me towards the next great adventure.
During 2020, I will do more of what I have been doing in 2019 by helping my heroes to go beyond their familiar zone and to step out of the habits that have created a reality that no longer serves them. To do this, I will need to continue to step incrementally outside my own habits, take risks and dare to share more of me with the world.
I will consciously travel beyond my familiar zone by working in new industries and sectors that will force me to learn a new lingo, new organisational structures and habitats that will help me to see the world anew. I will use this opportunity to cast myself anew and show up differently since none of these people will have any expectation of who I am meant to be, freeing me to be more of who I am.
#FutureFriday of Work - It's About The Heroes
When Jeffrey Davis shared Khalil Gibran's quote I looked it up to see if there was more context, and in that discovery I realised that in 2019 I needed to find love in a new kind of work. And so I did...
“Work is love made visible. And if you can't work with love, but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of the people who work with joy”
The heroes that engage me are willing to try something different. They are tired of the corporate platitudes, the 'headed' way of leading and yearn to connect at a level below the neck. They have either tried other things or have an intuitive sense that the 'old way' no longer works.
My clients want to work with me because they recognise that there's something I can offer them that others cannot.
The elixir I offer my patch of the planet is a unique balance between pragmatic solutions based on decades of experience and the wisdom of the latest in personal development thinking, first hand experience of ancient traditions, and my knowledge of the different systems in nature and the universe.
In a corporate setting, my previous roles have enabled me to learn how each department in the organisation comes together to solve complex client solutions. I am able to understand the mechanics of service delivery, finance, legal, and risk, and help companies to market and sell this to their clients. To many of my clients, I fit right in - I look like them, I understand their challenges, I can speak their language; and yet I speak a whole other language they yearn to hear - the language of connection, trust, authenticity and possibility.
The golden thread that has run through the teams I have transformed and the clients I have worked with in 2019 (and beforehand), is their deep desire to change something within themselves, knowing that by doing so, they make an impact on the world around them. They have either come to me with this conscious desire to tap into their potential below the surface, or they have discovered the possibility through the work we have done together.
The people who have been open to this change in the teams I have led have seen exponential changes in their work, but not everyone is ready for this kind of change and I have had to come to terms with that as well. They aren't for me - as Seth Godin would say 'You... but not you'.
My true brand heroes come because they sense in me someone who can explore their world with them in a safe and non-judgmental way. My own explorations of the alternative, the esoteric, mystical and metaphysical provides some psychological safety when it is coupled with a professional career as a senior leader in a multi-million dollar corporation. In part this is because I can re-interpret these concepts into a language that is accessible and relevant to the layperson. At the same time, I can transcend such pomp and labels and work with artists and healers equally. Like a chameleon, I stand in both worlds with comfort and ease.
To deliver any of the goals - a retreat, a new course, create new clients, I will be shapeshifting from who I was at the end of 2019 to who I will become. As I re-imagine myself, I sense that in the long-term my work will iterate towards helping people find their true path in life through a combination of tools and modalities that I can uniquely combine into a three part program that I am will map out through the course of 2020. Its debut is scheduled for 2021, but this could easily come forward if the right circumstances allow this.
This program will challenge me to look deeply at who I am and to own it, so that I can help my heroes create the future or way of being that they most desire.
My daily practice will be to return to my mission and to remind myself that change happens outside the comfort zone. Each day I shall honour the impulses of my soul so that I can put one foot in front of the other as I ascend the mountain like a climber in fresh snow with no tracks to follow.
PS when you are ready, here are 4 ways that I can help you #ignitepotential:
• Leadership Coach / Personal Coach
• Business Winning Consultant
• Sales Team Transformation
• Authentic Leadership & Business Igniter Retreats
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