Often, acting from passion of conviction takes us into the unknown. We take actions blind, not knowing whether they’ll have impact or even if they’ll feel good. And yet these actions can take us down avenues we’d never have dreamed of and can lead us to unimagined bounties.

Ruthie Collins, who founded Positiveworld Studios in Cambridge, shares with us her experience of what can emerge when you do what you believe in:

“Two years ago I made a pledge to stop buying fashion from the High Street because I couldn’t go on supporting the manufacturing of clothing in sweatshops. I care about gorgeous clothes. Frivolous, yes. Uncommon in young women, no. And I also care about staying true to your principles and following your passions – and I believe what you wear is… well, political.

I started it as a six month experiment; it felt a bit like going on a diet… exciting, liberating, with that dizzying sense of possibility. Only with my new diet of sweatshop-free fashion, far from feeling denied, what actually happened was that a whole new world of uber-green style and abundance opened up to me. It was one of the best moves I’ve ever made.

I’ve discovered the joys of supporting small ethical fashion designers, knowing that my custom makes a difference. I’ve researched sustainable fashion blogs, books, campaigns, portals, writers and magazines and discovered the sheer joy of thrift shops in New York. I’ve found myself at workshops at the London College of Fashion – offered free to anyone interested in sustainable fashion. I’ve been invited to take part in a fashion show as a model and go on the telly to take part in a massive live clothes swap. I was even offered a little PR work for an eco-shoe designer AND the chance to write for the Ethical Fashion Forum’s soon-to-be-launched online magazine, Source.

I had no idea that any of this would happen when I made my pledge. I just did it.

Whatever injustice is unsettling you, you can do something about it. You might not feel that baby steps can smash the system but without them, change will simply flutter off out of your grasp. My boycott has taught me that the best way to change something in the world is to start with yourself. Revolutions start from within.”

Look at the language Ruthie uses – “discovered” “found myself” “was invited” “was offered” “a chance”. Once she made a pledge in line with her principles and when she allowed herself to be driven forward by her passion, opportunities she couldn’t have planned for came her way.

If we can leap without a net… If we can bear the unknown and the unplanned… If we can trust that what our heart tells us to do is the right thing to do… then we break away from the tyranny of having to know how it’s all going to work out before we start.

We are then on our very own treasure hunt; we pick up the first clue in front of us and trust that it will lead us to the next and then the next and so we find that we are on our path.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) What is your impulse? What has been playing on your mind? What do you want to just do – without being strategic and without an ‘end goal’ in mind? Consider these questions now.

2) Trust in that passion enough to take one step. Notice what happens – what the first clue is that you stumble upon and where that clue then leads you.

3) Leave a comment on this blog, letting us know about times when you’ve acted from your passion and principles and what the outcome was. Also let us know: How are you with the unknown? What stops you from taking that first step?

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2010

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Kickstart Your Own Treasure Hunt

What are you passionate about? What’s that seed idea, that one clue you’re holding in your hand but not yet making any moves about because you can’t see the end goal?

The Kickstart Your Venture workshop has been designed to both bring your end goal more clearly into focus AND to build upon your passion at this starting point. It’s next taking place on Saturday 24th April in Cambridge.

For more information and to book your place, click here.

It was very thought provoking indeed – I was surprised at the extent to which it expanded my idea. I could actually have left at lunch time and been satisfied! I’m now a lot further down the development process and feel a lot more confident about it being a viable idea. I felt reluctant to leave, I don’t ever want to go back to where I was before today.

– Ben Marsh, South East London, Archive & Technical Assistant at the British Board of Film Classification

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 other women like her, challenge the stereotype that at age 60, we’re meant to bow out and ‘retire’ out of involvement. Instead, these women 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

When I scan my life for experiences of this feeling, I can quickly find dozens: bungy jumping, telling my friend I had feelings for her, the first time I gave my The World Needs Your Passion talk, sky-diving, handing my notice in at my teaching job, singing a song I wrote in front of 300 people at a conference, our wedding day, hand-gliding.

It’s no coincidence that these are also some of the events I land on when I scan for the highlights, those experiences which have brought the most richness to my life.

Why no coincidence? Well, as Susan Jeffers outlines in her classic ‘Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway’, we are guaranteed to encounter fear every time we take a risk. It makes sense that moving out of our comfort zone won’t be comfortable. The critical point is that we take these actions because we want to have a more fulfilling experience of life – we want to say that we have truly lived – and so that feeling of fear is worth bearing. Jeffers’ point of view is that we need to accept that fear will always be there and decide to take it along for the ride.

Or we could not. No-one is forcing us to take risks or leave our comfort zone. BUT staying where we are is not the pain-free option. I’m sure you know as well as me that when we stay stuck, we experience that gnawing sense of a wasted life, the silent panic as time ticks by without achievement, that dread, the regrets, the hopelessness and the helplessness. I don’t want that feeling – nor do I want it for you.

Invariably with my clients, a motto emerges. “Get on with it”, “Just do it”, “Go for it”, “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. These women are brave; they adopt their motto because they are committed to moving forward, knowing that encountering the fear is far preferable to living a half-awake life.

You’ve probably seen that there’s a workshop running on Sat 10th October called Kickstart Your Venture. This is a heart-felt plea for you to pause and honestly consider whether this would help YOU move away from a life of regrets. Do you have an idea for a project or business, a charity or community venture, that you’re not currently acting on? How does that feel – that gap between idea and reality? My guess is that it doesn’t feel good.

Now take a look at the Kickstart Your Venture workshop. Can you make the date? Can you afford £35? Now scan for fear; if it’s there, it’s a good sign! It indicates that this could actually be an opportunity for you to finally move forward. I want to clarify: It doesn’t matter how vague and higgledly piggledy your idea is. It doesn’t matter that you have no clue how you’d actually make it happen. That’s what the workshop will help you with. You just have to turn up, willing to talk about your idea, and willing to support the other participants as they share theirs.

Please don’t wait for the fear to dissipate. It won’t. As Susan Jeffers says: “We can’t escape fear. We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures”.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Inquiry: Where do you find it easy to move forward, despite the fear? In which area(s) of your life have you taken risks so often that the fear has lessened and a previously daunting experience now feels normal and comfortable?

2) Inquiry: Where are you stuck because you haven’t been willing to experience the fear? What’s that like?

3) Action time! Based on your findings in 2) and encouraged by the evidence you uncovered in 1), commit to taking action TODAY that feels scary. You know that you will feel fear; take a deep breath and decide to do it anyway. And as you feel the fear, acknowledge yourself for how you are able to handle it. It may not feel pleasant but nor does it kill you. You can deal with it. How much freer does that feel, how much more is possible for your life?

4) Leave a comment below, letting us know what you experience when you feel the fear and do it anyway…

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

The Global Climate Wake-Up Call

Monday 21st September, 12:18pm onwards, EVERYWHERE

Unprecedented grassroots action in our communities to demand that our leaders sign a fair, ambitious & binding climate treaty at the final UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December. Click here for more information; find your local event or feel the fear and put yourself forward NOW to host one!

That first morning, I struggled. I was in entirely foreign territory, overwhelmed by possibilities, painfully aware of my own incompetence in this arena. I didn’t know what to do with these materials in front of me, I didn’t know what to do with myself. In my head ran a mantra: “I am not an artist. Why am I here?!”

I allowed my frustration and my discomfort and I stuck with it. And at some point, I’m not sure when, I became an artist. I felt at home in my overall, I started picking up materials instinctively, and caught glimpses of myself with paint splatters on my face and my nails caked in clay. I walked amongst the other artists and we reflected on each other’s processes and products; I was welcomed onto house boats and enjoyed the background clang of boat-workers welding.

On my return home, I felt alive and more whole. My whole being had been engaged and I felt bigger; there was more of me, because I was now this too.

Someone made this possible for me. My client, Sarah Preece, is a working artist who has just launched MakingSpace, a venture to reconnect us with materials, with making and with innately creative ways of seeing our world. She is passionate about everyone having access to this aspect of the human experience, one which she sees as being so often neglected.

As we go through life, we knock off parts of ourselves. Ignored by our PE teacher? “I’m not sporty”. Don’t organise the way our friends do? “I’m scatty”. Our talents don’t align with the school curriculum? “I’m not clever”.

Now, many of us notice ourselves claiming back these identities. I’m so satisfied when I see this with my clients: one sticks to her daily walking routine and claims back “I am disciplined”; another launches a newsletter and recognises “I am a writer”. Vegan cookbooks have helped me claim “I am a whizz in the kitchen”, Five Rhythms classes have helped me realise “I am a dancer”, meditation teachers have guided me to find “I am peaceful”.

Many of us, like Sarah, have the resources and the generosity to offer others the space to experience different versions of themselves. What might you like to claim? And what might you be able to help others claim?

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Make two lists: Firstly, who you think you are. Secondly, who you think you are not.

2) How might you give yourself a different experience, whereby you claim a part of yourself that has lain dormant?

3) How might you give others a different experience so that they can ‘try on’ an unclaimed aspect of themselves?

4) Found this blog post helpful? Irritating? Challenging? Inspirational? As ever, let us know by leaving a comment….

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

** Want An Experience Like Mine? **

Sarah is running her workshop again on 1st & 2nd October 2009. 10am – 5pm, Twickenham, London (20 minutes by train from Central London) Two-day workshop: £100 (£80 concessions) Contact Sarah: makingspace@sarahpreece.net, 07891 662 227

I went to a talk by a highly articulate, charming and entertaining speaker. The topic was exactly my field of interest, his words were beautiful and I made copious notes. His core message made sense to me… and yet I also felt a nagging unease. It later became apparent that his governing agenda was to sign people up to become members of his global networking ‘nation’ which would cost a few thousand pounds. I happily pay to be affiliated with wonderful organisations so this wasn’t the problem. No – here’s what bothered me….

The more he talked, the smaller I felt. His promise was that if I joined his organisation, I would feel big, important and connected. If I joined his team, I’d be ‘in’, if I didn’t, I was ‘out’. His talk was about a more equitable world and yet when I looked for evidence of him walking the talk, I couldn’t find it. His air miles, his choice of breakfast provision and large corporate hotel venue did not reflect the sustainable future to which he was referring. I tried to ask a question during his presentation, but I was ignored amid all the cheering, whooping, “Yes!” shouting and raised hands he was encouraging. I went over to speak one-to-one with him twice. He was like plastic. He wouldn’t hold my eye contact and seemed entirely uninterested by me and my desire to connect. He didn’t hear my acknowledgement and he batted away my questions.

I actually cried when I’d got far enough away from the venue to take a breath. I realised the feeling I had was of being violated – taken away from my own truth and whipped up into a ‘bigger, faster, better’ frenzy, so far from the message he ostensibly was conveying. Beautifully juxtaposed was what happened next. I hopped on a bus and asked the driver whether he went to Angel tube station; he looked at me with a smile and said, “YOU’RE an angel”. I glowed for the next half hour. That’s my compass – how I feel when one-to-one with a person and how I’m left feeling afterwards. A true leader is one where you come away feeling inspired to find YOUR way, YOUR possibilities. Where you feel big enough to lead, not scared enough to follow.

I’ve had my beloved grandmother staying with me the last few days and I am always fascinated by her tales of growing up as a Jewish girl under Nazi oppression. Perhaps I get so passionate about this topic because I still cannot understand the herd mentality which allowed such atrocities to take place. In a time of fear and uncertainty, charismatic leaders undoubtedly emerge, promising us wealth, safety and freedom – IF we go their way. We must keep thinking for ourselves. Healthy criticism and discernment are imperative. When a new idea comes our way, let us chew it. See how it tastes, see how we feel. Only then, let’s decide if we want to swallow.

[And please chew, taste and feel THAT suggestion before even thinking about swallowing.....]

The World Needs Your Passion, so…

1) Inquiry: What is everyone jumping on board about… but something in you tells you otherwise? What would you have to do if you let yourself trust those instincts?

2) Action: Next time you hear a broadcast, read an article or blog post (yes, including mine!), engage head and heart fully and feel whether this is true for you. How do you know? How do you use your body, your instincts and your rational brain to decide? How do you ensure fear isn’t speaking, or your Saboteur? What’s your compass? Challenge: Be bold enough to say when you don’t feel aligned with someone’s message. Speak out in a crowd if no-one is questioning the status quo. Dare to do things differently, for the sake of freedom of thought.

3) Leave a comment here, letting us know your take on thinking for yourself. Refreshing? Challenging? Have you needed to be brave, put your neck on the line, stand out from the crowd or lose friends? Have you gained new respect, realised others thought the same, or felt more fulfilled because you were living your truth? Let us know….

Ooh – and do look closely at the picture. Herd mentality…..?

(c) Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009