Today was the very first broadcast of my live Tycoon Women Moments radio show. Apart from a slight hiccup with an open mike and announcing the wrong track, I think it went amazingly well. What's more, I really enjoyed it. If you recall, yesterday I was stressing myself out because I didn't think I had enough interesting moments in my life to justify being the very first guest on the 7 rhythms of life feature that is going to be a regular part of the show. This is the part of the show where I invite a guest to tell their story via a series of pivotal moments in their lives and link these to songs which were either significant at the time or have, with hindsight come to represent those events. Anyway I managed to identify seven moments to talk about, which I've decided to serialise here in my blog over the next seven days. The order in which the moments are recounted is selected by turning over a playing card. The first of my seven moments is moment number two: The Moment Of Clarity (perception)
These moments are to do with finding your passion and/or identifying your life's work/ purpose.
My Moment of clarity (perception)
It was hard for me to choose a single moment of clarity as there have been many times in my life where I've suddenly become extremely clear about what I need to do next. However the one I've chosen is the most recent; when I chose to leave my job after working for my employer for more than 20 years and take the humongous step – well it seemed humongous to me - to step away from a regular salary cheque, set up my own business and become self-employed.
It took me 20 years to get to this point of clarity of knowing that what I was doing was not the work I was here to do; was not how I was going to make my difference in this world.
However I had been ignoring the signs the gentle rain drops splashing against my window pane of life, hinting that I needed to be doing something else. These changed into a rain shower, then a storm and then hurricane Katrina or Hugo.
Like many people all I knew was being an employee. My salary was enough to ensure we lived a very comfortable life; I had a lot of autonomy in my job and it was very easy to imagine me staying in this role forever. On the face of it I should have been happy, however I knew that this was not the work I really wanted to do and things were changing radically due to increasing budget constraints. Consequently my employer was giving me very strong hints that it was time to move on.
What helped me to get clear was working with a coach; my employer had decided that all senior managers needed one-on-one personal development coaching so that they would be better equipped to support staff in the areas that they were planning to “downsize” in the future. As a bi-product of this, I had a real opportunity to re-examine what I wanted in life. And what I wanted was to follow my passion and that, funnily enough, was personal development and coaching.
Being clear was one thing convincing family and friends that I hadn’t completely lost the plot was another - although I must say they have all been very supportive.
It really is important to have supportive people around you to encourage you to follow your dreams. Because if you don't the clarity that you start out with can quickly become muddied and clouded by the doubts unsupportive people introduce into your mind. You will never be short of people lining up to pour oil on your dreams and set them alight. Therefore, either walk with a fire extinguisher so that you can quickly put the fire out, or avoid these sort of people altogether.
The song I've chosen to represent this moment in my life is a song by Louis Armstrong. I've always been a great fan of Louis Armstrong. When I used to teach aerobics I would use this track as the Revitaliser at the end of the class. The Revitaliser is designed to wake you up and to get you going again after the cool down stretch. The song is When the Saints Go Marching In. For me it's always been a real energiser, a real go get them song and once I was clear about what I wanted to do this is exactly how I felt.
I will tell you about my next moment tomorrow.
What is your moment of clarity and what song would you use to represent it? Please share your thoughts and experiences so others can benefit. I look forward to reading about them.
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I always welcome your thoughts and commets.