Like you, I have been receiving tons of emails in the last few days reminding me that the restrictions are lifting – email subjects such as Welcome Back, We are Open, Welcome Home and one of my favourites - Get out of the house now!!
All geared to remind me that we are beginning to leave the first stage of hibernation and will be able to feel a little more free and a bit less restricted in our everyday lives.
We might feel excited, we might feel anxious. Remind yourself that it’s all at your pace.
After a year of restrictions, little things that we took for granted, like being able to sit in a pub or a restaurant, or going into a shop that doesn’t just sell food, don’t feel that little anymore.
As we have been denied those everyday things, we now realise how much they mean to us and combined with the feeling of connecting with people again, even the most normal and perhaps mundane things are going to feel pretty special.
More free, less restricted.
That got me thinking about my work and how it’s related.
During conversations if clients tell me that they aren’t happy with the way things are going in their lives it can start off in two ways.
Sometimes it could be a specific challenge they are unhappy with and we can talk further about it, see what all the options are and then discuss how they would like to deal with this thing going forward.
Or it might be an overall feeling of dissatisfaction and the client can’t pinpoint exactly what in their life is making them unhappy.
At that point I know I have to get in there with the questions so that I can help them to open up in the hope that we can uncover whatever this ‘thing’ might be.
Together we might find one thing or it could be made up of a few different things.
One of the first questions I ask them is what would they like their life to look like, what do they really want in life.
From there the answer could be anything but the ones that I hear most often are:
I would like more money
I would like to have a bit more time in the day
I hate my job, but I don’t know what job I would like to have
So, then we talk about what they have said and I go deeper with the questions and we see what we can find out.
You might now be wondering where I am going with this.
The post started talking about lockdown and now I am telling you about how I work with clients.
There is a link – it’s about being free.
Because the most common desire is freedom – each one of those answers above is linked to a different kind of freedom that the client is longing for.
Let’s take those answers again and this time look at what they might mean:
I would like more money = I would like to live my life in a more authentic way, creating memories and experiences with those I love and care about and feeling a bit more freed up from responsibilities.
I would like to have a bit more time in the day = I would like to have more joy and fulfilment in my life as I don’t feel I am getting any time for myself. I seem to be on a treadmill doing things for others all the time.
I hate my job, but I don’t know what job I would like to have = I would like a job which I can feel passionate about, make a proper contribution to and feel able to express myself. I want to feel that I matter and I want to make a difference.
Each one of these answers is either freedom to do something, to be something or freedom from something.
There are so many examples of freedoms that we could be looking for and we may not even realise we are searching for them.
Mental freedom is another big one – if we can free ourselves from overthinking or having destructive thoughts, perhaps looking at our limiting beliefs, the things that we fear or the blocks that we put up – imagine how we could feel when those restrictions are lifted?
So, my two questions to you are:
What does freedom in your own life look like?
What could you unlock that could make you feel more free?
We live in a world where mostly we have freedom to choose how we live, choose what we do and that includes how we choose to present ourselves to the world.
But we don’t always know what personal freedom means to us.
Before we can create the freedom within to create the life that we really want, we need to know what our ideal life looks like.
Once we work out what that is, then finding and creating your new life is the exciting bit.
And that can come at any age, it’s never too late to find what you really want. Now is always the perfect time.
I’m not saying that working it out is easy, especially if you don’t know where to start, but that’s where a coach can come in (with all the questions) to help work it out alongside you, providing support wherever you want it.
If you are interested in finding out what you really want, I know a coach who offers free 20 minute chats if you are interested and she loves asking questions.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
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