Are you giving yourself enough? 

Enough time? Enough credit? Enough love?

We - especially the females of the species, and even more especially those brought up in a country with a protestant work ethic - seldom give ourselves enough.

I can understand why you may think you’re not ready.

✓ There are always more courses to take.

✓ There are always more exams to pass.

✓ There’s always stuff you don’t yet know.

Working from home!

This is a DREAM for many of us! And being based at home has so many advantages! Can you think of them?

“I don’t know where to start!” I hear this all the time.

People with the greatest intentions, the greatest plans, fantastic ideas! And they stop themselves because … “I don’t know where to start.”

Now these people aren’t stupid! Of course they’re not. They’re capable, able people. People who’ve usually been earning their own crust for many years …

We start our new business idea with such great enthusiasm!

We KNOW this is going to be the best thing ever.

We have an irresistible offer,

We have all the knowledge we need,

We KNOW we’re good at what we do.

I have a confession to make.

I was interested in training dogs for years.

I competed at a high level with my dogs for years.

I even made up a couple of Champions.

Is that True or False?

I floated this question in the my private group Creativity Central recently and got ZERO response.

Now either I worded it too obscurely for it to be understood or nobody agreed with me,Or could see any sense in the statement.

We were looking at the kind of nonsense we take seriously when we’re deciding to follow our passion.

Thoughts of insufficiency, and worse - implied criticism or disrespect from those who should be supporting us!

So what should we be saying instead of “I’m a failure”?

I am eternally curious. Think of the 4 year old child who drives everyone mad with endless WHYs. whywhywhy, but Mummy WHY? And somehow I never grew out of that! Whywhywhy is a constant cry of mine.

If all the people who’ve invented things discovered things made our lives better had listened to their inner voice telling them they couldn’t do it we’d still be living in caves! So challenge those thoughts they are NOT gospel! They’re there to hold you back keep you safe - who knows what dangers are out there?

Nothing ever stands still and - as the saying goes nature abhors a vacuum. So if a gap in the market appears the canny folk have been quick to jump in.

Like all the companies who made hay when the pandemic hit, like online conferencing and the like - an essential and much-needed service!

We believe we are limited by the world around us.

We believe that we have been short-changed!

Everyone else seems to have what they need - and we don’t! And you know what? If that’s what you believe, that’s just how you’ll stay.

Imagine how the game would go if there weren’t any!

22 people, running about aimlessly, kicking a ball here or there. Nothing happening. No drama. No joy. No regret.

Just running about kicking a ball.

Like all of us - I made mistakes in my life, whether getting in with the wrong crowd, pursuing the wrong goals, or just not having any direction at all! When I think of what my poor parents had to put up with … 😢

And yet … how many of us are caught up in some sort of Puritan work ethic that means we must not enjoy ourselves?

That enjoying ourselves is somehow self-serving?

How many times have you watched a tv detective, or read a detective story, where the detective is convinced from the start who the guilty person is?

He then works through the whole book or play fitting the evidence to the person!

Our daily habits make our life what it is. What we can achieve every day is entirely down to how we spend our time. And that’s often governed by habit!

As a busy friend of mine once put it, talking about running her farm and her young family, “Some days I meet myself coming back!”

What I’d like you to look at today is what we can control, and what we can’t.

And how to tell the difference!

What I’d like you to look at today is what we can control, and what we can’t.

And how to tell the difference