Moving “Out of Your Head”
I have been writing these blogs for quite some time now, almost 5 years to exact. My writing actually started from a different perspective. In April 2010, my New Jersey chapter of the International Coach Federation held an all-day workshop for entrepreneurial business people. Many coaches by the nature of what we do are entrepreneurs, although our workshop was also open to owners of other small business ventures. Our keynote speaker explained that when one has a business, (especially when it is a small business), people need to get to know the business owner. There were 3 ways suggested to accomplish that.
One was through internet presence, (website, social media pages, etc.). Another was through speaking and presentations. The third was through writing. While a business person could use more than one of the three, or use the three methods in one way or another, they needed to do at least one of them. I had enjoyed writing while growing up, (wordiness of what I wrote was always my biggest challenge). After taking a writing workshop, via teleconference, I was ready to get started.
When you write weekly, for 52 weeks a year, for nearly 5 years you sure put a number of thoughts out there. And, while at first the means behind my writing was to attract others to who I am and what I would be able to offer them as a coach, a transformation started taking place. I found that the writing I was doing was helping me to get to know myself better. My ideas for what to write often came from experiences I had in my day to day life. Sometimes they came from my emotions to the way I had reacted to things around me, (not always proud of how I had reacted especially given my coach training), but from a perspective of learning from what had happened, and how the principles I had learned in my studies had actually played out in my life.
While certainly those who read my blogs and newsletters still are able to learn about me through them, I find that my mindset for writing them is less about “attracting” them to work with me as a client, and more of sharing what I have learned through my experiences. Individuals have commented often, (and I must admit I feel good when receiving such comments), that a perspective I have shared has helped them in moving forward in their life. For others, it has made it easier for them to reach out and approach me since they can identify with similar experiences. For me it has brought out of me thoughts that not only have helped me, but then subsequently make them easier to share with others particularly when they occur in day to day life shortly thereafter.
We all have a lot of thoughts going through our heads constantly. Many are of value to us and may be helpful to us as we deal with the day to day occurrences of life. However, how many do we lose as we bounce from one thing in our life to another? How many keep us lingering with the “emotions” of the feelings we experienced when we were moving from occurrence to occurrence but with no “real explanation” of how the emotions we are carrying became a part of us in the first place?
What is your method for “getting out of your head?” Is it writing like me? Is it to speak, whether it is prepared formal talks or workshops, or possibly sharing your thoughts with a trusted confidant or friend? Perhaps it is through creative means such as in drawings? Or maybe meditation is what works for you. If you don’t believe you have a method, I challenge you to explore what is best for you. I’m sure there is some approach that aligns best for you to get those thoughts out there. And, when you have them out, explore them, and see what they are trying to tell you. It may open the clues to provide you the perspectives on the approaches you would like to take next in moving your life forward.
