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).

It’s over there but I’m not looking…

Yeah yeah, some day…

These are some of the ways people describe procrastination, along with the accompanying feelings of frustration, disappointment, dread and overwhelm. Procrastination doesn’t feel good inside and it means that we don’t get to contribute as deeply or impact as greatly as we want.

Here is a six-strategy approach for overcoming procrastination:

1) Eat It Like You Would An Elephant

“How do you eat an elephant?” “One bite at a time”. Often we aren’t moving forward with a project because it’s just too big and overwhelming; it can help to break it down into bite-sized tasks. “Sort workshop” means nothing – what is the next tangible step? And then the next? You may be surprised by how many itty bitty actions are involved.

2) Find The Missing Piece

As you create a plan of clear action steps, it becomes easier to identify where there’s a missing piece. One client was struggling to record her album and when we went through her action plan, we stumbled upon a piece of technical knowledge that she was lacking ten strides down the track. Often the missing link is a piece of technical, logistical or legal information; resistance can set in if you know you have to deal with that down the line and don’t yet know how.

3) Find The Fear

If you actually DID this, what might happen? Identify what you’re resisting, what you’re wanting to avoid. Perhaps it’s fear of failure – or fear of success. Fear of being wealthy, being visible, having expectations made upon you. Fear of being busy, fear of the unknown, fear of change. What potholes do you fear this journey will take you into?

4) Set A Deadline

If you’re a natural starter, this practical strategy can help channel your energy into completion mode. When you’ve got a messy house, does inviting people round catalyze you into action? A date in the diary commits you, it holds you accountable. The deadline anchors your good intentions in reality and provides external motivation.

5) Clear The Clutter

Declutter coach Sue Rasmussen maintains that 75% of the ‘stuff’ in our world is not moving us forward. Whether it’s appointments in your diary, files on your computer, paperwork on your desk or stress in your body, if you are living with a lot of clutter, you are blocked. Do you need to get a shredder? Have a car-boot sale? Or shelve less meaningful engagements to make space for what really matters?

6) If All Else Fails, Picture Your Deathbed

Firstly, what if nothing ever changed? What if you procrastinated on this forever? Connect with the horror story sense of huge regrets and dissatisfaction. What would you have missed out on? And who else would miss out? This is the stick approach. Secondly, imagine yourself having actually accomplished this. How does this feel? Really connect with the wish fulfilled. If your project currently exists as a bland, one-dimensional imperative e.g. “Write a book”, then it probably has no juice or fuel about it. However, if you can feel it in your hands, picture yourself at your book signing, imagine someone approaching you in the street and telling you the impact you had on them, then you’ll connect with why this is so important for you.

Which leads us to: If this project is NOT deathbed important, perhaps it’s not really worth doing. Perhaps all that procrastination is there for a very good reason – protecting you from wasting your time. In which case, practise that all-important skill of being able to say NO. You can then put these overcoming-procrastination strategies to better use, on a project that you care passionately about.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Identify an area of your life where you notice you procrastinate. Go through each of these six strategies with pen and paper to hand, or with the support of a coach. Be honest, be thorough, and make shifts.

2) As you work through, you may notice you crave support at various stages. See below for suggested pathways forward and take advantage of these opportunities.

3) Leave a comment on this blog, letting us know what helps you to overcome procrastination. Which of these strategies is new for you? How does it help? What have you missed out on because of procrastinating in the past?

Does accountability and structure appeal? Click here to find out more about group programme and 1-1 coaching options > >

Want me to give a talk/workshop on How To Overcome Procrastination for your group? Contact me here > >

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© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2010

Have you experienced that? You’ve had that same idea nagging away at you for a fair little while now, tugging at you to take a closer look.

But when you do, it all just feels too overwhelming. You stumble when explaining it to others, you freak out when you think about whether you’re up to it and you have no idea where to start with all the practical and logistical aspects of this idea.

And finally, the biggest of all, the grandmother of all fears: MONEY. How on earth will you make a living out of this crazy idea?

Fear not, there is one very good solution: Forget about it. Put this idea out of your head – in fact, pretend you never had an idea at all. “La la la, I can’t hear you….”

This works very well. It means you get to stay right where you are and not deal with any of this, including with any of that fear.

It also means that you won’t get four years in to running a business, like me, and feel that scariness still showing up. You won’t schedule a workshop and find that less people sign up than you’d expected; you won’t experience fear gripping you, you won’t feel “Oh my God, no-one wants what I’m offering” shudder through you.

As I’ve been experiencing this fear and these doubts first-hand, I’ve been reminded of how very scary this whole offering-your-passion-to-the-world thing really is. You are putting yourself out there, on the line, on a regular basis. It can feel incredibly vulnerable and it can be very tempting to chuck it all in.

And because I’ve been experiencing this myself, a suspicion has dawned on me. As I look out on this frosty day, I have an image of all these ideas out there, frozen under the ice. Ideas that are so exciting and yet so daunting that they’ve been hidden away, determined to avoid being thawed out. Ideas for community activities… small businesses… projects… workshops… charities. Ideas that you would love to get into action about but which just feel way too big and clumsy and complicated and downright scary.

Well, guess what? I’m not standing for that. I know what that fear is like and I know that it feels horrible. I also know that it is absolutely worth it to do it anyway. Yes, you need to be courageous. Yes, you’ll need to overcome challenges. Seeing an impassioned idea into reality is certainly not always easy, but it is absolutely worth it.

I absolutely love what I do and I am so grateful that I get to follow my passion. This is why I want to share with you my fears so that you know they’re part of the journey – and that I would choose it again and again anyway. As I read the emails from those who’ve already signed up to the Kickstart Your Venture workshop, I am struck by the bravery as they take those first steps, and I urge you – if you’re in ‘can’t thaw/won’t thaw’ mode – to find that bravery yourself.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Sign up for the workshop. If you live within 200 miles of Cambridge and you have an idea that you’d like to get out of your head and just a little bit more out there in the world, sign up now. The workshop is taking place in central Cambridge on Sat 16th January, 10am – 4.30pm, £40 per person. You’ll receive a workbook and leave with clarity, solutions to some of your key challenges, energy, motivation, contacts and possibly even a few new friends.

Click here, scroll down to the ’Buy Now’ button at the bottom and pay for your place today.

2) Laugh at the scariness. Put on some dance music or whatever rocks it for you and move. You’re not abandoning that scared part of you at all – in fact the opposite – you’re standing eye to eye with the fear and going “Yep, there’s a whole lot of scariness right now… and you are NOT going to win”. Then dance and laugh some more.

3) Leave a comment, letting us know whether my suspicion has any truth… Has the scariness been getting the better of you? What’s it like to freeze an idea because it’s just too scary to think about? How much evidence do you have of feeling the fear and doing it anyway – and it being worth it? (and if you don’t have much, what could you do to find some more…?)

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2010

What does ‘respecting our elders’ mean for us today?

Meet Pippa. She’s 59 next month and while many women nearing 60 may have settled into a comfortable rut, heading for retirement, she’s out there looking for ways to make a difference.

A freelance writer and editor, she’s also heavily involved with the Transition Town and Be The Change movements and is perpetually busy dreaming up, organising and helping hands-on with events. This summer found her in Tibet trekking to 16,500 ft.

I was curious to find out what motivates her to stay so involved when she could be excused for reaching for her slippers and a TV guide…

What inspires you to be so active?

I’ve had a very full life, rich in experience with lots of change and some huge personal challenges so I’ve never developed any expectation of how my life ‘should’ be as I got older. Seeing my mother – who is now 90 – in poor health for many years, makes me all the more determined to be as fit as I can for as long as I can. I’m very committed to a daily kriya yoga and meditation practice, which means I have far more energy for the things that are important to me.

You certainly seem to be passionate about making a difference in the world. What is it that drives you?

Drew Dillinger wrote a poem that begins:

Those words haunt me. If I become a grandmother, and perhaps a great-grandmother, how could I face those young people when I’m 90 and their world is falling apart – knowing that I haven’t done whatever I could to raise awareness and inspire people to work towards an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on the planet?

What are your toughest challenges now?

Letting go of self-doubt and a preference for supporting others while staying in the background myself; finding the will and commitment to keep on doing the next thing that needs to be done, without being too tough on myself; keeping a sense of humour and lightness so that people I talk to feel inspired and not beaten up; getting out of my own way so that, in Ghandi’s words, I can BE the change I want to see in the world.

What would you say to a 20-30 year old struggling to find her way?

Get in touch with what really excites and inspires you and then give it everything you’ve got. Make sure you find ways to resource yourself so that you can stay grounded and connected to your purpose. Spiritual connection, in whatever way you find it, is invaluable.

Pippa, and others like her, challenge the stereotype that at age 60, we’re meant to bow out and ‘retire’ out of involvement. Instead, these people inspire us with their continual dynamism and well-earned wisdom, suggesting to the younger ones among us that perhaps life is just beginning….

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) What stereotypes are there about what you should be doing at your age?

2) What do you want to be able to say about your life at age 59 (and 69… 79… 89… 99)?

3) Leave a comment on this blog post, letting us know how you feel about your age. What does it help with? What do you feel it hinders? What inspiration do you draw from people around you of different ages? Who are the elders that YOU respect?

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

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Want A Different Kind Of Christmas Present This Year?

I’d like to make it easy for you to avoid the same-old nothing-really-changes presents under the tree.

Simply copy and paste the message below, deleting where applicable and with links intact, and send to your friend, family, colleague or partner to receive a gift which you actually want.

“Hello! If you’d like a Christmas present idea for me this year, I would love this:

- An e-course to help with my new year resolution

- A place on a workshop to combat my fear of failure / to kickstart my venture

- A one-to-one coaching session

- A coaching journey of eight sessions

When you buy this for me, mention in the Comments section that this is a present and then you’ll receive a voucher back which you can give me for Christmas! Thanks in advance”.

Now sit back and wait hopefully

I’m leading my first teleclass series at the moment. My experience before the first class was decidedly uncomfortable; I was full of nerves and a torrent of concerns; Would the conference line work? Had I given everyone the right number? What if my phone battery died? What if my printer ink cartridge ran out and I couldn’t print my notes? What if… What if… ?

After the first call, I ran around my house, shrieking with euphoric relief. I loved it and could hardly bear that I had to wait a whole week until I got to do it again. I’d broken the seal on a brand new bottle of delights: a new experience, a new territory I’d opened up for myself.

Often, people hire me because they are fed up of being stuck in same-old land, where there are no firsts and indeed great fear of firsts.

What helps them break the seal and crack open the new?

Here are five strategies I’ve seen work:

1. Create a deadline. Publicise a date and commit to some accountability. Manoeuvre yourself into a hard-to-back-out-of situation where you don’t want to let someone down who is depending on you. Let go of the tendency to overanalyze the deadline – you may be surprised by what you can achieve in a short time-span; as Parkinson’s Law states: “Work expands so as to fill time available”. There can be a tendency to over-prepare for a first experience which is why casual deadlines get pushed back and back until they fade away and become forgotten about. And catch yourself trying to back out of deadlines with seemingly valid excuses. Only one person has signed up? Go ahead anyway.

2. Acknowledge that fear is normal. We don’t often see people doing things for the first time. The actress on stage, the seasoned teacher, the accomplished public speaker all seem so polished. But they had a first time too and back then, they were probably terrified. When your fear kicks in, take that as a sign that you’re normal and that you’re moving into new territory.

3. Think ahead. Get out of the now. It’s easy to get blinkered tunnel-vision when all that surrounds you is the fear of doing this for the first time. Ask yourself: What will it be like in an hour? At 6pm? Next week? That future version of you will be on the other side of this situation, having done it and for that future you, this experience will have been worth it.

4. Rely on a champion. If you were the captain of a ship and announced that you were taking the ship into unchartered territory, your crew might become justifiably anxious. They might even mutiny. You want someone there with you, as your unconditionally supportive mate, steadying your hand and believing in your choice of new direction. At the moment, the odds are stacked in favour of the familiar; you need someone to help tilt that balance.

5. Grow your evidence. Every time I do something new for the first time, I sit there with the fear and ask myself: “Corrina, why on earth are you doing this to yourself again?!” I imagine it’s the same question a long-distance runner asks themselves half-way through a race. Why do we do it? Because ultimately the pleasure and satisfaction are far greater than the discomfort. As your bank of evidence grows, you’ll see more clearly that the pay-off from a new first-time is worth that initial discomfort.

Familiarity is a tempting comfort blanket, wrapping us up in the boundaries that we’ve marked out for our existing life. Deep down, that’s not where we really want to stay. We want to be the person who has done the new thing, who has it behind us, and who is now basking in the new territory.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) The action this week is simple yet it’s no mean feat. Use the five strategies above to support you in committing to do something for the first time. Set a deadline that it’d be hard to get out of, expect the fear, project to the future satisfaction, choose someone as your champion, and watch your evidence start growing.

2) Leave a comment on this blog post, letting us know how you find first times. Which of these strategies do you already use? What else might help? When have pay-offs been worth the initial discomfort? And how do you remind yourself of that when the fear kicks in?

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

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Simply subscribe here.

Want A Different Kind Of Christmas Present This Year?

Fed up of the same old CD, book and pair of pyjamas under the Christmas tree?

You might like to ask for a present from You Inspire Me this year. You could get an e-course to help with your new year resolution (£7.50), a place on a workshop to combat your fear of failure or kickstart your venture (£35 – £45), a one-to-one session (£75), or a coaching journey of eight sessions (£600).

No snazzy vouchers as yet but simply send an email to your loved one with the relevant webpage link and a little ‘pretty please’ note at the bottom and they can fill out the relevant booking or enquiry form and play Santa.

I recently watched The Waitress, a highly recommended film about a woman’s journey to escape an abusive relationship and create a more fulfilling life for herself. It was with shock that I discovered that Adrienne Shelly, the writer, director and a cast member of the film, was murdered before the film was released; she did not see her project premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, nor see it go on to win its many awards.

Her husband set up the Adrienne Shelly Foundation in her memory, providing grants to help young women pursue their film-making dreams. One of those grant recipients, Cynthia Wade, won an Academy Award for her documentary film, Freeheld. I feel raw to my emotional core as I watch the trailer of this film, which I urge you to do here.

The knock-on effect of Adrienne’s work is a reminder to us that our actions never exist in a vacuum. When we tell ourselves that we can wait until ‘one day’, when we fritter our time away and procrastinate, we are depriving others as well as ourselves. If Adrienne had waited even another year to move her project from idea to reality, the film and its legacy would not be with us.

We all, like Adrienne and Cynthia, have stories to tell, messages to convey, gifts to share. Our uniqueness is such that when we hold back, our piece of the collective jigsaw is simply missing. Life is too short to procrastinate. Life is also too long to procrastinate. There are hopefully too many years ahead of us to spend with shelved dreams and regrets.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) How would you define procrastination?

2) Investigate your own procrastination strategies. Do you play “What celebrity are you most like?” on Facebook or colour-code your nail varnish? Do you take up an honourable new hobby? Or spend hours on ‘very important’ internet research work? Keep an honest list this week of activities you engage in which don’t move you forward in the direction you truly want to go.

3) Inquiry: What is underneath my procrastination? This is a BIG question so just note your instincts as they come up. Do you detect fear of failure, fear of success, lack of organisational skills, fear of the unknown, fear of change, lack of support, fear of visibility, lack of self-confidence…?

4) Leave a comment below and watch as others join in, creating between us a supportive online community.

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

** Do You Dream Of Creating A Film Which Matters? **

Or an event… pieces of art… workshops… a retreat… an album… a healing centre…. ?

Then join us in Cambridge on Sat 24th April 2010 for Kickstart Your Venture, a community workshop. Click here for more details.

Also see Recommended Resources on my website for films, books, people and resources to inspire.

NB Copies of the featured book Be The Change by Trenna Cormack will be available at a special rate at the forthcoming Kickstart Your Venture workshop.

I was the columnist in The London Paper last week, suggesting that the recession is a good thing. Readers vote on whether they want more of you… and 96% did. I also had many comments calling this point of view “refreshing” and “inspiring”. In this, I hear a whispered hope for a move away from ‘business as usual’ to a more enjoyable and equitable way of running our economy.

At its best, this shake-up wake-up call will prompt us to re-prioritise and re-allocate resources. It will make us more aware of where we use money as an excuse to see ourselves as separate from others. Instead of this isolation, we will find ways of leaning in to human energy as our most precious resource and recognise our interdependence.

A great example of this is liftshare – an organisation that works to bring about sustainable change by encouraging individuals to do things together. There are now 290,000+ people registered and several inspirational stories have emerged.

Sandra from Clacton-on-Sea started car-sharing as a way of saving petrol and impact on the environment and found that “two people who led separate lives have now become great friends, with all the benefits and opportunities that new friendships offer”. They socialise regularly, found they had tons in common, and get to chat, laugh and sing along to 60s and 70s music on the way to and from work.

Similarly with Emma from Swindon, her initial motivations were financial and environmental and says “I have benefited in ways I never imagined, including socially. The company is great, we share ideas, and we exchange knowledge about the local area – where the best markets are, what’s on at the theatre. As I know we have to rely on each other at a particular time of day, I’m much more efficient at work. I can no longer stay late to get things finished so I don’t faff about any more, I just get it done.

And there are wider community benefits, as Clare from Herefordshire describes: “We also pick up and drop off a regular prescription for a friend who has retired and finds it difficult to get to the doctors”.

With liftshare, we see the Triple Bottom Line of a solid, sustainable venture – intending to bring about economic, environmental and societal/inter-personal benefits through its activities. As we tighten our belts and make changes economically, perhaps we’ll also tighten our belts as a community, finding afresh how fulfilling it is to need each other.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) If you had 50% of your current income, what would you do differently? Make a list. Then assess: in what ways would any of this be preferable? What could you gain as side-effects of these changes? Plato said “Necessity is the mother of invention”. In which ways would your decreased income increase your creativity and innovation?

2) Now return to your current level of income – but keep those new ways in place. What would you do with all that extra money?? Which deeply fulfilling lifestyle benefits would all that abundance bring you?

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2008

* Why The Recession Is A Good Thing *

Read the article here.