Tag: WordPress

Changing the questions

Posted on by philipdodson

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Today I met Amanda, at a very posh coworking space, We Work, and it happened through the power of Twitter, well partly.

So sitting last week a notification popped up from Twitter saying ‘Amanda C Watts, is now following you’. I have to be honest, I don’t always look at these notifications, as I am training myself not to be a magpie and look at the next shiny new thing

Anyway, I replied with ‘thanks for following, can I ask why do you do what you do? replying in 140 characters might be a challenge’.

The response from Amanda was ‘help people build their dreams. I am on a mission to help 1 million people leave a legacy so I can leave mine’.

She asked me the same, my response ‘I am on a mission to create an alternative world based on putting people first and values. A world for the many not just a few’.

Today we met for the first time. I had a great conversation, realised that we had common values, had other things in common and agreed to connect further, and who knows what will come from it.

So the point of this, had I just followed back or replied with ‘thanks for following, what do you do?’. She might have replied ‘I’m a coach’ and when Amanda asked me, I might have replied ‘I run a coworking space’.

The meeting probably wouldn’t have happened.

If you want a different outcome, ask a different question.

Head back into your shell

Posted on by philipdodson

We all get those days, when overwhelm about the future, and often the ‘Tsunami’ of tasks, that we have put on our own ‘do list’, simply scares us into inaction.

We feel the urge to give up.

We feel like the only solution, after the initial bravery of stepping out into the ‘spotlight’, is to run back into the safety of our ‘shell’. The thought of actually changing to what we really want creates fear.

Well don’t run back.

The courage required to make the first steps towards changing something or doing something different, is not to be underestimated, and the time it takes to build up to taking that step too.

Don’t let unease of our limbic ‘chimp’ brain, drag you back to a place of ‘safety’, where starting, to some up the courage to try again, will be even harder the next time.

When we are at our greatest feeling of unease, then that is the signal, that we are about to create our best.

We need to fight the urge to hide again, battle through, break the tasks down into small manageable chunks, and keep going. Momentum will build and then the pain will ease.

I am at that stage now, let the ‘battle’ begin, I am going to accept my fears, realise that they are a positive sign and carry on the cause.