Andrew

I recently reignited my passion for writing.  As a seasoned story-teller within communication as well as story-listener as a coach, I’m reminded of the importance – not withstanding where you sit on this spectrum.  I attended a Life Righting Collecting memoir writing course.  The 3-day workshop, structured as a collaboration with palliative care healthcare professionals, the opportunity to explore our own stories – mainly those untold.  Our homework was to write about the ‘thing’ that shouldn’t be written.  A personal topic or theme that genuinely rings true to each of us.

No deadline was offered, or guideline proffered – a pure challenge—an invitation to stand and smile at our vulnerability.  This topic haunts me a little, reflecting on themes that might arise and perhaps those that have not.  So the question posted, where do you treasure your themes or document your dreams.  In an age of technology and visual reflection, I am hastened to consider which app to use or where to begin.  For fear of potentially overthinking the matter on hand, I discovered a carefully stashed accounting ledger – spotted somewhere and stored for sake of future interest.  The ledger, thick pages, rich lines and blank intent stare vividly at me and I considered turning this into a ledger of my themes and thoughts.  Why not – at no point will any audit reflect a balance, deficit or surplus – but the intent is enough.

I started Tactcian Applied as a personal platform to offer my experience to those who might benefit, my experience the theme for the questions I posed and opportunities I help shape or reshape. The insight that so much of life revolves around our curiosity and ability harness this – through both corporate and personal coaching I am able to do this. Having worked with student, seasoned professionals and a number of brands I realise that often our ability to have step back, course correct and still remain on focus to achieve our goal or outcome, but suitably positioned to remain agile and responsive to our complex world.

Our ability to put pen to paper, albeit metaphorically can be a challenge.  Defining our thoughts into structure and refining this structure around our goals can seem daunting – however a simple application, involving exploration and raw curiousty can be a meaningful process.  As a coach I don’t hold the answers, but I’ve learnt that pure engagement can help my clients refine and define their ambitions and goals – finding new purpose and meaning.

I’m rereading a book by Alexandra Fuller, telling of her life growing up in Africa.  Not to give too much away, Alexandra writes of an adopted Eagle Owl living in Zambia. The superstition around these mysterious creatures is profound.  Profound enough that nobody will help feed the ailing orphan owl except their cook, who, by his account, has had enough bad luck to last a lifetime and is convinced that “this bird” can not give him any more bad luck.

So I considered that ‘bad luck birds’ in my own life.  The superstitions or beliefs (we can debate which is stronger later) that have become limiting beliefs, a narrative that has evolved to convince us in such a meaningful way that we can’t begin to unlearn this?  These themes of limitations are realities for so many of us, laced with our toxicity, slowing bleeding our self-esteem and eroding our internal narrative.  Scary but true.  It’s often only the extent that might vary.  I often watch people plumbing this bad luck bird, fluffing up its feather and showing it off to people – reiterating this disbelieve and vocalising the internal superstitions.  These appear guised as cheerful chirps, quick quirks and ultimately statements we believe true of ourselves and announcing these to the world as a personal affirmation that these are true.

BS!  I hear you!  But guide your mind reset your self-awareness, and take note of the words your choose and narration you offer your story.  In sad reality, I do this too.  Why?  So many of my personal themes and ledger inputs crop in here.  The things I can never do or am particularly bad at are the shortcomings I offer and the limiting beliefs that stalk us – sabotaging our strategy and giving our goals a course correction to nowhere.

My advice, make friends with your self-saboteur – identify the words you choose and reframe these thoughts actively as your own process within your own self-awareness.  Change the superstitions you hold about yourself; this misconception might need a tweak or a kick in the pants! Guided conversation and structure coaching will always be beneficial – however you find your modality and quieten this squark – it may be time to hasten this Dodo’s demise and find a new metaphor for your new internal narrative.