Michelle Engelsman, Olympic swimmer, experienced this in 2008. She had at one time been ranked as #1 in the world, had travelled extensively for her country (Australia) and was a finalist in the 2004 Olympics.

Then as the Beijing Olympic trials approached, she felt deeply challenged. “I’d always been motivated by creating a more equal society and now I felt split between achievement and my awareness of the human rights abuses in China. I really felt the universe saying to me: ‘Yes, you’re good at this… but we need you elsewhere now’. I’d had the opportunity to engage with people through following my sporting dreams – and now felt my energy was needed in a different arena: a politically campaigning arena”.

Although most of you reading this aren’t Olympic athletes, many of us can identify with the feeing of achieving highly in our profession and yet feeling pulled in a different direction – one which aligns more fully with our values and with our bigger-picture purpose. For Michelle, it was time to say: “I love what I do… but I’m ready for something else”. She retired from professional swimming after the World Championships. “It wasn’t that I wanted to leave. I had a great time doing what I did. It was that I was ready for a new challenge, a new horizon.”

With extra time on her hands, she volunteered to help Amnesty, briefing Olympic governing bodies on human rights abuses. She also completed her Masters degree in International Studies and lent her voice to aid organisation Bodhi. She went on to land a full-time role at Greenpeace, campaigning on issues like GM food, whales and climate change – work that she says brought all her passions together.

Fast-forward to what she’s doing now: living in Cambridge, England (having relocated to be with her partner) where she is the tireless campaign manager for Green Party MP candidate Tony Juniper. As we enter Election week, she says: “It was impossible not to jump at this opportunity. I am so inspired by putting my efforts in to someone who exemplifies what matters deeply to me and who actually represents my voice. In a time when politics can be very depressing and disingenuous, I’m proud to be behind someone who lives what he says and is taking my values and priority issues back in to parliament.”

Do you find yourself at a crossroads, called in a different direction? Perhaps it is less risky than you think to hear that call and respond to it. You may well find, like Michelle, that there is a clear bridge between your current work and where you want to go next. Although on paper an elite athlete and a political campaigner seem worlds apart, Michelle has found there to be more similarities than differences: “Both involve strategic planning, discipline, motivation, team work, and continually building momentum towards an immoveable target date”.

What would it be like to transfer your skills to a new challenge? To apply them to a different form of work, that is deeply fulfilling to you? Perhaps it is time to ask yourself: What else am I passionate about? What other directions have my experiences and studies been nudging me in? What other ways of earning an income could align with my deepest-held values?

Michelle believes there’s a point where it’s more of a risk to stay put; when “staying a bud is more painful than turning into a flower”. Maybe you sense it’s time for you to do something different – time to be brave, time for a change.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Whether you’re in employment or self-employment, how is your current role working out for you? How aligned do you feel with it? Make a list of the reasons you are staying in your current role. You might list aspects of your role that you love and/or fears of what would happen if you left. Now: what’s it like to look at that list? What feelings come up?

2) If there’s been a nagging sense that it’s time for a change, what other directions are calling you? Michelle loved swimming; she was also passionate about international politics. What are the areas where your attention is being drawn? What feels like it aligns most clearly with your values?

3) Make a list of next possible action steps in a new direction. Speak with someone? Research a possible training course? Negotiate to part-time hours? Take one of those steps today.

4) Leave a comment on this blog post, letting us know: What’s it like to achieve highly in one field and now consider different directions? What’s it like to hear the call – and either respond or resist? What have been your experiences in the past, when you’ve gone in a direction you’ve felt called by? And when you haven’t?

Have you heard the call but are finding it hard to make the shift?

Whether it’s lack of confidence or uncertainty about how you would earn money by taking a different path, book a consultation to discuss how you could be supported in following your passion. Click here > >

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2010

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Photo credits: Angelo Gargaglione & Jean-Luc Benazet (with thanks).

Why is it so hard to dedicate a few minutes a day to still, reflective time? Virtually every client I have worked with has come with the belief that some kind of meditation would be beneficial for them yet has found it inordinately difficult to set it as a daily practice.

Here are three of the most common blocks – which can you identify with?

“It’s only ten minutes, how can that have any useful benefit?”

We seem wary of the simple approaches; we somehow have more trust in complicated, hard-to-reach remedies, like a retreat halfway around the world.

“I don’t HAVE ten minutes to spare. I’m a busy person and must use my time productively”

With our fast-paced life, any time off the treadmill and away from the to-do list can feel like professional suicide.

“It’s dull and boring”

Behind this is often a fear that WE are dull and boring; we panic about spending time with ourselves in the dark with no distractions.

So here are some strategies that my clients (and I) have found helpful in creating a daily practice:

1. Prepare a designated space the evening before: perhaps with a cushion, a candle and matches.

2. Use a timer so that you can relax into a finite ‘zone’.

3. Make a conditional rule for yourself. Hate that morning taste in your mouth? Set yourself a ‘rule’ that you have your ten minutes before you are allowed to brush your teeth.

4. Build it into your existing routine and ritualise it. If you always set your alarm for a five minute snooze in the morning, extend it to fifteen and move to a seated position for ten of those minutes, or decide that the first ten minutes of your commute is for your practice.

5. Use a prop. I listen along with an audio recording by business mentor and Sufi teacher, Mark Silver.

6. Give it a different name. Perhaps ‘Meditation’ feels serious and dutiful whereas ‘My Free Gift’ sounds sparkling and delightful.

7. Make it delicious. Burn vanilla incense and wrap a soft blanket around yourself.

8. If it all feels too indulgent, make it about others. Focus on it making you calmer in your work life or with your partner.

9. Buddy up. Ask your child or colleague to join you every morning.

10. Do it now. I have sat with a client in reflective silence in a coaching session, or asked my client to put the phone down and take a ‘time out’ chi kung break and then call me back. Having that visceral experience can make you more likely to want to repeat it.

It can also be helpful to remember that an agitated mind is repelled by anything which might calm it. Knowing this means we can acknowledge the resistance when it comes up and remember what our purpose is in instilling this habit – be it more calm, more effectiveness or more spiritual connection.

The World Needs Your Passion, So….

1) Would you like a daily practice? What would be its purpose?

2) What is your most common block?

3) Experiment with one of the ten strategies (and then another…. and another…..) and with other strategies until you find a ‘click’.

4) Leave a comment on this blog post, letting us know how you are doing with creating a daily practice. What are your struggles? What strategies suit you?

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

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Too often, we find ourselves trapped in patterns which are painful and frustrating. I found myself caught up in one last week and grabbed the opportunity, using my experience as a laboratory in order to offer us this step-by-step guide:

1. Identify The Discomfort, Give It A Name

Your intention is to have a calm, peacefully productive day. A few hours in, however, you notice that you’re stressed. You’ve been on the computer for too long, your to-do list has doubled, your office is becoming increasingly chaotic and you no longer feel in control. Internally, call ‘time out’. Examine your physical experience in this moment. What is literally happening inside you? When I did this, I found a pervasive sense of anxiety, even panic; I was tense, like something was gripping on inside, and my breathing was shallow. I called this Get A Grip.

2. Identify The Intention

Get curious about what’s happening; see your experience as a strategy to meet some intention. A certain part of us is in charge in this moment, using this strategy. What could be its intention? With my Get A Grip, this part of me wants me to do well. It wants me to meet deadlines. It wants me to be in action. It’s doing it in a painful way but that’s the intention. When I reflect, I can see that I’m someone who never misses a deadline. Throughout school, university, post-grad and coach certification, all my assignments were in on time without fail. Now, being self-employed, without the pressure of external deadlines, I can see that this part of me believes I have to exert internal pressure in order to keep being successful. That’s its intention and whether we like it or not, currently this is the strategy it’s employing to meet this intention.

3. Thank This Part

We could call this part of us our Guardian. Wanting me to be successful is a healthy intention so I can thank it for all the times in my life when it has enabled me to get pieces of work in on time. The truth is: something here really works. While I might not enjoy the strategy my Guardian is using, I can acknowledge and be grateful for the intention.

4. Separate The Strategy From The Intention

This is where it starts getting interesting. Our question now is: In order to meet this intention (e.g. achieve success), what strategies are there? We already know our default one e.g. my Get A Grip but there are many others. How could we meet the same intention… in a different (preferable) way?

5. Scan For Evidence Of Other Strategies

I can now explore: When else in my life have I met deadlines but used a different strategy? One example is that I never miss a train but here I use a different strategy: I look at the timings and I book a cab at a specific time in order to meet the train. There’s no emotion involved, no anxiety, it’s clear cut and simple. I can call this strategy Plan And Book. We can keep looking for other possible strategies.

6. Experiment With Another Strategy

This is the time to implement one of the alternative strategies. We may want to place sticky notes around our home or office that remind us of the new one, or we may want to acquire structures to assist e.g. I have a new diary which gives me more space to plan and book. Give the new strategy some time, see if it’s effective. If not, move on and try a different one.

It’s very easy to make the Guardian part of us ‘bad’ and treat it as if it’s unwelcome. My premise is that if we can meet its healthy intention with a different, more preferable, strategy then the Guardian part of us will be reassured and work with us, rather than seemingly against us.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Choose an area of your life where you feel that your best efforts and intentions are generally subject to self-sabotage. Use this step-by-step guide to gain relief.

2) Leave a comment on this blog, letting us know how you find this process….

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

* You’re Not Alone *

Identifying the different parts of us and their intentions and strategies is an integral part of the coaching journey. Visit that page and book your Discovery Session…

I’m giving up speed for Lent. It’s losing its appeal. More and more, I’m experiencing the benefits of slowing down and creating space for breath, for inspiration.

I came back to my emails after a gloriously relaxing and nurturing week away with a commitment to process them fully. I am allowing myself time to engage fully with the person and ideas behind the words, instead of feeling I have to frantically catch up.

Then my pace changed. In the last couple of days, I’ve received three HUGE and fantastic pieces of news (I’ll reveal all soon!) and the latest, this morning, just sent me buzzing with excitement. After a good amount of running around and squealing with joy, I sat down to write this blog post. Adrenalin was rushing round and my mind created ten possible drafts in as many minutes and promptly discarded them all. My pace was too hectic; it wasn’t comfortable.

Later, as I walked in the beautiful Botanic Gardens, I realised that one of my Saboteur’s most cunning strategies is to wind me up so fast that I start stumbling and no longer hear that quiet, still, secure inner voice – that part of me which breathes in excitement, which basks, floats and savours.

This week, I’ve also received emails from several of my clients sharing their big news. Outer achievements such as an album launch and a TV interview, inner shifts such as relationship breakthroughs and realisations about their evolving Contribution Footprint™. It’s been a total pleasure to really ‘meet’ each one – to slow down, sink deeply into that encounter and respond from my heart.

My speedy Saboteur loves to tell me that life is a race and the faster I go, the safer I am. In calmness and steadiness, I can see that my inner voice is continually wanting to lead me and I feel so much more secure listening to and following that. I am making a resolution to go a new way. Old Saboteur with his rollercoastering and brake screeching can’t compete when I remember I get to choose my pace.

The World Needs Your Passion, so…

1) Right in this moment, what pace are you moving at – internally and externally? Speed up 10% for a few minutes and then slow down 10% for another few minutes to get a sense of where you are on the full spectrum of possibilities. Which animal, vehicle or aspect of nature is your pace like? How does this current pace serve you? What does it make possible and what does it hinder?

2) Let us know whether you’re someone who could do with a jump-start and acceleration or whether you need to take a breather and move slower. I’d love to get a sense from these blog comments of what the most common challenges are – and what speed settings YOU might like to give up for Lent! And if you’re craving more slow, take the opportunity of this moment to do that right now: re-read this blog post at a languid tortoise pace and notice what’s different.

3) Resolving to pursue a new way is often a process of forward-movement and slip-backs, rather than a done-and-dusted one-off event. Let my New Way Resolution e-course support you through that process for a whole month for just £7.50. Visit the E-Products section of this website for full information.

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

* Workshop: Fail Is NOT A Four Letter Word *

If you know that fear of failure blocks YOU from moving forward, commit to change that today. Book on to the next Fail Is NOT A Four Letter Word workshop - full details here