On one side abundant, almost saturating, offers for courses and programs that promise to teach the secret to find your purpose so you can make more money and increase your profits; on the other side the increasing number of people overwhelmed and confused, at times no longer knowing what purpose really means. At each step we take we seem to find more steps to walk to reach a destination that seems so far and unattainable we want to drop everything and cry.
I am overwhelmed too, I cannot deny it. For every little progress I make into my own development I discover more that needs to be done and attended. At times I asked myself where else and what else I needed to do… and begged for help to the stars.
When confused and overwhelmed the best medicine is pausing. Pause, listen, breathe…and when you feel a bit more rested and not in the mist of a crying situation ask yourself:
”What kind of life experience I want to have?"
It is the question I ask myself constantly and then I wait to hear an answer without jumping to give one. Be curious, listen to the small little whispers that emerge from within and that might not have any rational explanation. Visualise it. How it looks like? Sketch it out, write a poem, dance it out…give it a voice!
I am now going to ask you to be even braver and ask another question to yourself, actually ask it to your vision:
“What do you want to be?”
Engage in a dialogue that goes beyond planning and hustling, it might surprise you with an a-ha moment. We are so focused on looking outside of us for answers we have forgotten that our bodies, our hearts have something to say and know things. There is wisdom within us we do not tap into because we do not know how to pause and listen.
“We call it ‘finding your own true north’ like on a compass. In production-driven societies, we're tricked into believing that true north is outside of us. ” - Julia Butterfly Hill
If you are looking outside yourself to figure out if this is the right job, the right house, the right relationship, the right course, I am asking you to stop and pause to listen to your own inner whisper. The world made you believe: you are not wise, you need to do more, you have to struggle and suffer before you can get answers. It does not have to be that way…your true north is inside you, listen to it!
I invite you to read “Lean Back” poem from The Whisper:
Lean back
The Whisper
The tiny little Whisper inside
I made a career out of not listening to it
Until it broke me free
Under the big sky of Montana
Nowhere to hide from the truth
That nobody knew about me
I run a manufacturing plant and I hate it
I am a scientist
An executive
I lean into success
I lead from behind and beside
I am a business woman
At the top of her game
And my Whisper saw something else
She saw me dying
Dying to fit in the boy’s club
Dying to prove my worth
Dying to move the needle
Move faster
Move forward
I couldn’t hear the Whisper that was dying to be heard
Until a quiet moment in the middle of nowhere
Where the Whisper didn’t need to shout to be loud
You are not a business woman
You are not a woman in business
You are a woman whose business
Needs to become
Working in a new way
Reflect on what this “working in a new way” means to you. How can you lean back and listen more to your whisper? How can you listen more to your North Star?
These are some of the reflection practices you can find in The Poetry of Leadership developed to guide you to a more humane experience of Leadership (and life).
RNEWB offers a robust diversity of experiences, talks, workshops and programs that use storytelling, poetry and heARTistry in an innovative and yet practical methodology that has helped leaders and teams to reach their goals, tap into their creativity, broaden their awareness and improve trust within the organisations they lead. For more information please feel free to get in contact.