One of the first “therapeutic skills” I was taught as a Social Worker was called “normalization.” Basically, this so-called “skill” involved saying to someone who’s just told you about some of the difficult emotions and reactions that they struggle with, “It’s really normal to feel/ respond that way” (or some variation on that theme). Boy did me and my classmates have a hoot, “normalizing” everything each other said over the next few weeks… and coming up with statements that definitely aren’t normal, just because we knew someone would “normalize” us (“Gee, ever since I wrote that psych stats exam, I’ve had a strange desire to shag our lecturer…”).
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- Cath Duncan, Resource Miner & Agile Living Strategist
You’re so diligent, responsible and mature – reading blogs like this, and thinking about how to progress your life and how to unleash your potential and all. You take life kinda seriously, don’t you?
Yeah, I know… me too.
And sometimes that’s the reason you and I get stuck. We stopped playing. Remember playing…?
So this week, leading your life is all about remembering what you loved doing as a child.
One of the serious benefits of doing the work I do is that I get to witness people’s stories. I get to see and hear their process of visioning, struggling, reviewing, refining, questioning, doubting themselves, dealing with their fears, and making sense of it all along the way. Which means I learn loads through them. So I guess you could say that I’ve gained a lot of life experience vicariously, through my clients. And I’m super-grateful for the ways that has enriched my life, not just my coaching practice.
So I got to thinking the other day, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could share these experiences with other people – so they could also learn vicariously?!” And so I’m going to be peppering this blog with true stories of everyday heroes and heroines who are dealing with their own resistance, showing up, expressing themselves and making their contribution, in spite of their fears. If you know people you think should be featured, drop me an email – I’d love to hear their story.
So you’re trying to figure out what’s important to you and WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE… Such H-E-A-V-Y stuff!
And if you’re a Gen-X or Gen-Y member, then you’ve probably been told that you must find “meaning” in your work, and you must be doing what you *love,* in order to be happy. Aargh! Extra pressure!
And the worst part is when you read those personal development books about finding your passion, and they say, “Here’s 3 steps to doing what you were born to do: 1.) List 3 things you’re good at, 2.) List 3 things you love doing. 3.) Make a business out of that.
Many of you know that Andy and I took up cycling this year, and we’re preparing to do a 150 mile ride through the Lakes District, called the C2C in June. So we’ve been cycling most weekends, and occasionally during the week as well. Well…I started, and then got a bit distracted over the past few weeks…
So last weekend, Andy, myself, and two good friends of ours took a ferry across to the Isle of Wight, where we stayed for the long weekend and participated in a cycle tour of the
I’ve been referring to “Agile Living” for a while now, and in conversation with someone the other day, I realized that the words “agile living” are loaded with meaning for me. And I got to thinking that perhaps it’s time for me to unpack the meaning of Agile Living by writing something of an “Agile Living Manifesto.” I also wanted to start our journey of discovery around leadership and contribution by sharing what I’ve discovered so far about the contribution I want to be making in the world, and to tell you a bit about myself and what’s shaped my thinking along the way. This is a long post again – don’t worry, we’ll be back to shorter ones and getting into the experiential stuff I spoke about next week. So here goes…
