Trust the next chapter because you are the author!

This is a quote, by an unknown author, I found from a friend’s LinkedIn post. It triggered me to writing this article.

Many years ago, I had the vision to help people future-proof themselves. When lockdown happened a year ago, I felt it was time to put ‘future-proofing you’ into motion. Here I am, a year later about to launch my first real action to making future-proofing you a reality.

I am facilitating my flagship masterclass next Tuesday 30th March, 2021! It’s been a journey!

I have arrived at my future self’s major milestone. I am taking a moment to pause and take it all in.

The chapter I sketched out last year with scribbles, corrections, has now found its form. The images and words that seemed like they were floating have structured themselves and transformed into a chapter and they are now getting bolder in intensity.

Yes, this chapter is finally published, and I am the proud author.

The journey

Don’t get me wrong. The work till now has been real too. From creating a website to house my thoughts, insights, tips, to writing weekly. It has been anything but a breeze.

I have been outside my comfort zone much the year to bring all of this to fruition. It has been a journey of continuous adaptation through courage.

Let me explain.

With lockdown, I had to rely on social media to get my thoughts across to others. I was not social media savvy a year ago. I had to learn anew. I had to adapt.

I was so hesitant to post my thoughts and ideas on LinkedIn, it took courage to get started. So, I started by commenting on others’ posts and articles first. I had to adapt.

After a while of productive procrastination and asking myself ‘what have I got to lose?’, I found the courage to post my thoughts. That was A moment. And now I post weekly!

I felt (still feel) fear and inertia! It is real. But what I also realised that the only way to move forward was action. Right or wrong, succeed or fail, I had to act.

As Col Fink articulated in his fantastic article last week, I had to put myself in danger of success. I could not allow fear and inertia to control me!

So much is possible when we just get out of our own way!

Another major hurdle was overcoming my default setting about writing (voice in my head saying I can’t write). I had to work hard to mitigate this belief AND I did it. I had to adapt.

And the irony is that as I got into the habit of writing, I had a spanner thrown in the wheels.

With technology making us instant consumers of information, a trusted LinkedIn pundit I follow said long-form posts (articles) are a thing of the past, and 1 to 2-minute videos and short posts were in.

I had to rethink my writing strategy. So, I created different versions of my articles to cater to my different audiences to consume it the way they wanted to. And my readership increased. I had to adapt.

I wanted to reach out to individuals and solopreneurs. Not a group I had immediate access to. I had to network. Lockdown and technology were a boon and bane. But I had to choose how I could leverage it. I had to adapt.

I had to test the hypothesis that my vision was based on. I ran interviews and mentoring sessions to talk to my target audience. I had to think on my feet and get creative (not my strongest skill). I had to adapt.

Then there was the technology (software and applications) to support all this. There were days I would spend 2 hours to figure a (small) problem and other days when I could not find a solution and had to find other ways. Simply exhausting and numbing. I had to adapt.

And of course, there was the greatest adaption of all, 2020! The anomaly of a year that will become a year for the history books! We all had to adapt!

The courage to continue

I am not writing this to boast about how far I have come. Far from it. There were some dark moments through the year when I felt the imposter syndrome, resignation, pessimism (I am an optimist by default), and more. All were happy to visit me.

But I had to push through it. And I know all of us have experienced some version of this.

I write this article to say that all that you have thought, think and will think are real but they are not you.

There are many voices in your head. Some are just noisemakers to disturb/distract you, some are pure gem (scarily good) and others are little nuggets floating around until you give them a home.

So, choose wisely when deciding which of these voices you listen to. Pick the gems and little nuggets and give them a home. They may become content for your next chapter.

And for the noisemakers, in my mind’s eye, I send them flying with a bat! I have my virtual bat available at all times in case they return. And give it a good whack too. I do!

And please take a moment to appreciate how far you have come too. We are so fixated on how much more there is to do, we forget to acknowledge where we are! The new chapters can wait whilst you appreciate the current chapter.

I wish you the best with your next chapter. Trust yourself, get out of your own way! Put yourself in danger of success!

‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts’ – Winston Churchill

I am here to help!