Are you a joiner of dots where you find it so juicy when themes and patterns start connecting and meanings become loud and clear?
So am I, it means momentum is building.
For 27 years I’ve been learning, practising and teaching in the field of human potential. During that time, I’ve been an avid studier of ways we can be and do our best and enjoy life. For the last decade working as an executive coach and business mentor across many sectors I’ve seen more and more amazing women and men struggling to keep up with demands of life and work.
Now the tide is turning.
Amazing women and men like you and me are saying “No. No more, not now, not any longer. I require a different experience. Life is too precious to squander by bending myself out of shape keeping up with inhuman demands and delivering empty results. I refuse to keep denying my own experience”
The systems we live with have required us to produce, consume and conform in exchange for jingly jangly prizes. Whilst the prizes kept our attention we played along, “no pain, no gain”.
But the balance has tipped. The ego flattering prizes; status, money, possessions, shiny Instagram-able experiences, aren’t compensation enough to insulate us from unsustainable conditions.
One by one, courageous individuals are recognising the shortfall isn’t in them (the lie we colluded with to maintain the status quo) but in unrealistic expectations, a false promise that outwardly “successful” = happy, and a system that has been serving the few at the expense of the earth and the many.
How to recognise if you’re at the tipping point:
- You’re dog tired. Your inner narrative is “I should be better, faster, smarter but I can’t be arsed.”
- You’re fed up with having to do tiresome tasks and not doing what lights you up.
- Goals that once captured your imagination leave you flaccid.
- You crave simple pleasures.
- The mortgage that felt like a ticket to nirvana now feels like a heavy sentence.
- Planning your escape has become a pre-occupation
- “There must be more to life than this” is your mantra
If you’re there, congratulations!! You’re ahead of the curve. It’s no small thing to peel back the veneer and acknowledge your hard work and admirable efforts aren’t delivering meaningful benefits.
Broken as it is the old model persists partly because so many are heavily invested and unwilling or unable to change. Partly because collectively, we don’t yet know how to do life in a different more nourishing and sustainable way.
By questioning and admitting you want different, you are already part of the solution, for yourself and for us all.
How to help yourself:
- give yourself a round of applause.
- commit to listening to your inner voice and responding kindly
- entertain your fantasies of a different experience.
- embrace uncertainty even when “the devil you know” appears a safer bet.
- talk with colleagues and friends about ways to make life and work gentler and more connecting.
- start measuring success in terms of your internal priorities rather than external benchmarks.
- especially if you’re a leader be out and proud with your process, you’ll be doing a massive service to the people looking to you for inspiration.
