I was about to write a blog post here based on something I wrote quite a number of years ago, well actually I was simply going to cut and paste that bit of writing, but then I changed my mind. As I read it through I realised that what I was saying was valid but how I was saying it wasn’t.
I wrote it many moons ago (12 years to be precise) when I was in the middle of my ‘study’ period, when I had my head in books and research and essay writing and that’s the way the writing comes across – all dry and academic.
So, what was it all about, this bit of writing?
Well, I wrote it the year that I turned fifty-two. It was a couple of years since my divorce and I was at a point where I wasn’t sure exactly where my life was going or even what I wanted out of life, and a friend had suggested that I find a rock to sit on. I know he meant it figuratively, he knew I needed a quiet space in which to think and set my world to rights, but I actually found myself a real solid rock to sit on down on the beach where I used to walk.
So this bit of writing was all about how I did my soul searching sitting on that rock and walking along that coastline during the winter and spring that year and how ultimately I came to a few decisions.
I’m having a bit of a laugh to myself as I’ve written this because what I’ve just said in one sentence originally took me four pages to explain. Obviously I was used to padding out my writing to reach the word count of assignments.
The point of that story though was that I needed some space to figure things out, to make a few decisions, to gain some clarity and some direction in life. I needed to spend that time finding me and being me.
And guess what, nothing really has changed. There are times now when I catch myself trying to do what everyone else is doing, following the successes of others and trying to figure out what I need to do to succeed, both in life and business.
And it’s at those times that I suddenly realise that what I need to do is to simply be me.
When I originally wrote those four pages, that was me, I was immersed in the academic world and loving it.
And then I moved on.
The me of today is the independent and adventurous woman who loves nothing more than setting herself a challenge and then getting out there and achieving her goals, her way. The academic of those years has been replaced with the relaxed and light hearted, action taker version of me.
I guess the moral of this story, if there is one, is to do whatever it is that makes you you.
Trying to be someone you’re not is never going to work.
