New beginning or painful ending?
"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings". Lao Tzu
This quote is quite poignant for me. I have a choice to focus on the end of my 16- plus year banking career or I can focus on the fresh start this now gives me.
A fresh start to do an assessment of my life to date, a look ahead to what I want it to look like in 5, 10, 20 years and the legacy I can build that will outlive me. What an incredible gift this is!
Does it always feel like a gift? I wish. Many times, it feels like a pipe dream that could easily go up in smokes. It feels like leaving the ‘job security’ behind and taking on a huge risk. It feels scary, daunting, and challenging.
So, what can I do to make sure I focus on the right things and have the right mindset that helps me to see the positives and the opportunities?
I must take my past learning, experiences and skills and repackage this to work for me in my new beginning.
I need to identify my fears, face and overcome them, making a choice to look forward only and not be distracted or held back by my past. I must focus my gaze on my new beginning and remind myself daily of this quote.
I will find people who can speak into any areas of insecurity that I have and not be afraid to be vulnerable. That’s the only way they will know I need help and for me to get the support that will help me achieve my goals.
A lot of Sou and no ffle
One of my passions is cooking and I like to attempt tricky recipes just for the fun of it. I still remember making my first soufflé over ten years ago and wondering if it would rise or fall. Recently I was watching 'Masterchef - the professionals' and contestants in the skills test were asked to create a soufflé which they all did with varying degrees of success. One of the contestants went through the right steps and appeared to have got his ingredients correctly measured out, yet his soufflé did not rise as expected despite his best efforts. When the judges reviewed his soufflé, Monica Galetti uttered the phrase, "you had a lot of Sou and no ffle". Her comment soon became a rib tickling catchphrase between my sister and I. After three days of laughing at this comment, the penny finally dropped. I realised there was a lesson - about actions not translating to desired results or expectations. I am sure we have all had some 'sou and no ffle' moments. These quickly become defining moments when some life impacting choices come up.
- Do you allow yourself to be defeated, never to make another soufflé or do you get up and make another one even if you’re the only that’s going to eat it?
- Do you allow yourself to be defined by this mistake or failure or do you shake it off, learn from it and move on?
- Do you allow yourself to be haunted by this failure or shortfall adding to others that you have filed in your ‘failure archive’?
So what do I do when I don't get my desired results and when my archives creep back up?
Knock knock! Are you ready?
In my last post, I talked about opportunities knocking on our doors throughout this year. So, the question is, ‘are we going to be ready when they come?’ To answer this, I want to share a story with you and it’s all
Knock Knock. Who’s there?
My nephew came to visit a while back when he was about two years old. Many times he would knock on the door and I would ask, ‘who is there?’ he would reply, ‘it’s me’. Again I would ask, ‘who is me?’ And he would say, ‘it’s David’. I then get up to open the door to his delight. The truth is that I knew it was him before he even knocked. I recognised the sound of his tiny feet and his knock. He was the only child in the house and the only person who knocked if any door was closed. I enjoyed playing these ‘knock knock’ games with him throughout his visit. I am reminded of that game as I ponder what is knocking as we start a new year.
- What opportunities are knocking on our doors?
- Who is knocking on our doors?
- What will be on the other side of the doors when we open them?
- Will you hear and recognise the knocks when they come?
