October
2006
In this issue...
- From earning a living to living your dream - finding
your ideal vocation.
- Gaian Leadership.
By Stephen Powell.
- This month's exploration
- Quotes of the month
- Want to comment or contribute?
- Teleclasses and personal coaching
News and Events
I
am now offering a NEW, FREE teleclass called “Want
to get out of the Rat Race? – how to downshift
in 6 steps." It’s
a 45 minute introductory class and will give you a
chance to sample a teleclass at no cost (other than
the price
of the call) and get a feel for this easy and sustainable
method for group learning. If you would like further
details, please email
me with “Rat Race teleclass” in
the subject line.
1. From
earning a living to living your dream - finding your
ideal vocation.
Do you find yourself trapped in
a job you don’t
enjoy but which you continue with in order to pay the
bills? My experience from coaching individual clients
and from running teleclasses on downshifting is that
this is a very sticky issue with many people. “Earning
a living” is what most of us do, isn’t it?...and
then “living your dream” is some kind of
pie-in-the-sky stuff, right?
Our culture attempts to persuade
us that duty, ability, status and a kind of unwritten
hierarchy of job type
are all more important than working from the heart and
yet we know that being in a situation where we feel forced
to spend much of our waking hours doing something we
dislike can be highly stressful. We also know that this,
sooner or later, takes it’s toll on our health
and wellbeing. According to a recent report from BUPA,
80% of Doctor’s referrals are for stress related
illnesses.
So where’s the compulsion coming from? There are
some collective limiting beliefs that abound in our society
that, for example, professions are more important than
trades; science, engineering and IT are more worthy professions
and command a higher value from society than the arts.
I think we absorb these beliefs from childhood and end
up convinced that, however much we enjoy our particular
passions, wherever our heart is leading us is the place
where we’ll never be able to earn a living.
Of course, assuming we are lucky
enough to have a passion, to be able to articulate
our dream, our heart’s
desire needs to be balanced by a sense of groundedness
and realism. What I’m suggesting though is that,
for most of us, our lives are ruled by our heads and
we have lost touch with having our hearts in our work.
What’s the alternative? How do you move from “earning
a living” to “living your dream”?
Firstly, articulate your dream and own your passion.
Some people like to see themselves as a vessel in order
to do this. What role does the universe want you to fulfill?
In what capacity can you give of your best? What unique
gifts do you have to offer the world?
Secondly, take the money earning
concerns out of the equation for a moment and ask yourself
what you would
do if you didn’t need the money? What does “meaningful,
fulfilling work” mean to you?
There are various ways in which you can articulate your
dream and add clarity and definition to your vision:
Visually: Create a theme board. Collect pictures, photos,
sketches that depict your dream vocation and stick them
on a large piece of cardboard. Hang this somewhere where
you will see it every day. This will help you focus your
efforts.
Aurally: Speak
your dream into a tape machine. Don’t
worry about quality of recording, grammar, eloquence
etc just get it out there! :o) Ask a trusted friend or
relation to hear you without interruption as you explain
it to them. Notice how this increases your level of commitment
to your ideal vocation.
On paper: Make a journal of your dream vocation. Write
everything down, stream of consciousness style. Notice
how this helps you gain clarity and some alternative
perspectives on how to manifest your dream.
Believing it's possible and accepting it into
your life.
Look carefully at other businesses. A great website
about businesses run by those pursuing their passions
is www.authenticbusiness.co.uk.
Each of them started as a collection of thoughts in someone’s
mind, as a dream which someone turned into reality.
Try this exercise. Imagine
yourself in ten years' time happily working in your
new dream
vocation. Imagine that
person (the future you) being able to talk to and advise
you on how to reach that point successfully. Imagine
and write down the conversation that “Future You” has
with “Present Day You”. What does “Future
You” have to tell you about how they got there?
What were the first steps? What was most important to
them on that journey? What pitfalls would they tell you
to guard against? How did they manage financially? Who
helped them along the way?
As many have proved, living your dream is a real possibility
when you are prepared to examine your beliefs and do
the work necessary to overturn those that are holding
you back.
Suggested further reading:
Authentic – How to Make
a Living by Being Yourself. Neil Crofts.
The Work You Were Born to do.
Nick Williams. (I have written a book review for this
one, which you can read
here.)
2.
Gaian Leadership. By Stephen Powell.
The 20th century bequeathed to
us two particularly rotten stories – environmental decline and nuclear-tipped
nationalism. We need new stories of healing. Human perfection
is no doubt an impossible dream. But that doesn’t
mean we’re going to live through an endless Groundhog
Day of environmental pillage and nationalist nonsense.
We do have a capacity for learning.
A wide variety of initiatives are busy trying to instil
in people a belief that humanity can have some control
over its future. One such initiative is the Gaia Coach
Institute, a trans-Atlantic alliance of life coaches,
leaders and life scientists seeking to nurture the leaders
brave enough to take us into a better world.
The institute will be launching
its first Gaian Leadership course in the Black Mountains
of Wales in June and September
2007. Our intention is to create a new “turbulent
network”, people from different backgrounds who
come together to study Gaian leadership -- the maturing
of our species. The chief focus will be on your legacy,
on how you show up as storyteller, community-builder,
strategist and coach.
Putting the words “Gaian” and “leadership” together
causes some people to raise a sceptical eyebrow, but
the phrase has become a big part of my soul energy and
my intuition tells me to go for it.
Gaia, of course, is our home planet.
It is also a synonym for a way of thinking capable
of bringing together science,
ethics, education and all major areas of endeavour. The
very best of the literature on Gaia has a magnificent
life-giving energy. One beautiful new book that captures
both the science and the spirit of Gaia is Dr Stephan
Harding’s Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and
Gaia.
We have made a short film called Uncovering the Future
which introduces you to the venue for the course and
to some of the key concepts. If you would like a copy,
please email me at stephen@gaiacoach.co.uk. Bringing
the spirit of Gaia into leadership will change the world.
©Stephen Powell
Gaia Coach Institute
www.gaiacoach.co.uk
3. This
month’s exploration.
In your working life, who do you most admire and why?
List three ways in which you could become more like them.
4. Quotes
of the month.
“If I
get to pick what I want to do, then it's play...
if someone
else tells me that I
have to do it, then it's work.”
Patricia Nourot
" What every man needs, regardless of his
job or the kind of work he is doing, is a vision of
what his place is and may be. He needs an objective
and
a purpose.
He needs a feeling and a belief that he has some worthwhile thing to do. What
this is no one can tell him. It must be his own creation."
Joseph M. Dodge
5. Want
to comment or contribute?
If you would like to comment on any aspect of this newsletter
or submit an article for inclusion in it, please contact
me by email.
6. Teleclasses
and personal coaching..
“How to step off the treadmill”
A series of three teleclasses, each one hour long, exploring
the elements of downshifting, the reality of living a
sustainable lifestyle in a consumer driven society and
how to motivate ourselves to make the switch.
A teleclass is a straightforward,
low cost and sustainable way of taking part in a group
learning session. It’s
like a conference telephone call.Each participant is
supplied with a phone number to call at the appointed
time. When you call, you will be welcomed to a virtual
classroom where you can listen to the class leader present
the teleclass material and you can participate by asking
or answering questions if you wish. So it’s just like
being in a real classroom or workshop setting except
that you can take part in the comfort of your own home
without having to travel anywhere!
To view the current teleclass schedule, click here.
Personal Coaching
One-to-one coaching can help you:
• let go of your old, stressful
way of life, find a new path of vitality and an improved
way of living.
• deal with fears surrounding financial responsibilities, your relationships
with others and other consequences of making a major life change.
• improve your health, wellbeing and spiritual life.
• further your personal growth.
• achieve balance, clarity and peace.
You can view further details on personal coaching here.
7. In next
month's newsletter.
From “Earning a Living” to “Living
your Dream”. Finding Your Ideal Vocation.
Gaian Leadership. By Stephen Powell.
And more…
8. Subscriptions
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Have a fruitful
month!
Sally
Sally Lever
Sustainable Living Coach
+44 (0)1749 674842
sally@sallylever.co.uk
http://www.sallylever.co.uk/
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