Does this ring bells with you? Ready for some demystifying? Here’s a great real-life example…

Back in January, two trainee yoga teachers and a meditation teacher* ran their first full-day workshop. On the big day itself, the yoga space was full of eager participants, the atmosphere was one of like-minded community and the feedback for the organizers at the end of the event was overwhelmingly positive.

Would you love to experience that with a workshop YOU put on?

Then get your listening ears ready…

I was lucky enough to participate in the yoga day and spoke with one of the three collaborators, Katrin Heuser, about how they pulled it off.

- Why collaborating with others works

What do you do when things go pear-shaped?

Many of us have been feeling an abundance of challenges lately with the recession and with environmental and societal crises. There’s a lot that doesn’t feel safe about our world and it can be tempting to withdraw and struggle along quietly and alone, which in turn can increase our sense of isolation, despair or panic. All this, of course, on top of the usual challenges of being human.

Danielle Mills felt the impact of the recession on her business, BrightSpark Recruitment. After a brilliant initial two years, which she describes as “everything I thought it would be”, times got tough. She found that cash-flow became very difficult and she was terrified that she wouldn’t be able to pay her workers; she saw many others in her industry fall by the way and she would wake up with dread, wondering: “What do I have to face today?”

She is now breathing a tentative sigh of relief; work has dramatically picked up and she is celebrating her fifth year of self-employment. So what kept her going through what she describes as a “painful, awful time”?

Well, she made some classic business-savvy manoeuvres like watching trends in her industry and diversifying accordingly. She made her motto: “In the quietest time, make sure you’re shouting loudest”. She also kept a long-term perspective so that when the current day was hard, she thought forward to a time when it would be easier again.

But what struck me most about Danielle’s story is how human she allowed herself to be and how able she was to acknowledge that she was really struggling. She leant into her networks, both offline and online, and directly asked for help. She was able to say “This is massive and hard – anyone else feeling that?” and she received both empathy and practical advice. She surrounded herself with what she calls “realistically positive” comrades and as well as receiving help, she also looked for opportunities where she could help others. She was honest with her workers, explaining how difficult the situation was and not promising anything, and she went the extra distance with the companies on her books – reaching out and offering her expertise to help them. She invested a huge amount of time and energy, without immediate financial gain, in order to ease others’ situations and build relationships.

Underneath all of this is the foundation that she is passionate about what she does. She has been fiercely persistent and doggedly determined because she knows that her work helps people and brings them peace of mind. She gets immense satisfaction from the impact she has on people and says that while there are still “loads of challenges”, the benefits outweigh them.

No-one said that following our passion would be easy. Turbulence and turmoil are part of the course, even before you’ve thrown in the economic challenges and others around us. If we want to do what we love, we would be wise to develop our resilience and our unique approach to hard times. What do we want these struggles to mean? Perhaps they bring us closer to others. Perhaps they help us become more compassionate and understanding of others’ pain. Perhaps they reveal to us qualities we hadn’t realized we had. Perhaps they simply remind us that we are all human and we’re all in this together.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Where are you really struggling? What do you need to ask for help with? Who can you ask and how can you ask them? What would stop you from doing this?

2) What about the people around you who are struggling? How can you help them? What would stop you from doing this?

3) Scroll down and leave a comment on this blog post and let us know: Do you find it easier to ask for help or to offer it? How are you with admitting that you’re struggling? How easy do you find it to witness other people’s struggles?

What are you fearful about struggling with that would stop you from starting your own venture? In the Kickstart Your Venture workshop, we explore possible obstacles – both internal and external – that you and the other workshop participants have. Together, we then find ways for you to approach these so that they don’t stop you from creating the venture you’re passionate about. Find out more & book your place here > > >

Not around for the workshop or prefer one-to-one support? Find out how individual coaching can help you here > > >

Danielle was interviewed recently as part of my Inspirational 100 project. Find out more & get involved here > > >

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2010

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