Education for Empowerment

Sick of feeling like a square peg in a round hole and not wanting to be directed by others? It’s too easy to allow ourselves to drift and let other people affect our path through life. Why do we do this? Is there a comfort in the status quo, safety in the knowledge that a bill is covered every month, the regularity and consistency of our lives creating a sense of security in a modern world that feels increasingly chaotic and uncertain? Is this what our lives become and what, ultimately, we strive for? And how others can take advantage of this, manipulating the fact that people feel scared to upset the apple cart and try something new.

I came to realise that aspects of my life, specifically within my career, required a change of direction. My mindset has always been one of positivity (glass half full) and I believed I was a reflective person but actions speak louder than words and I felt the need to prove that to myself and step into an area of the unknown.

So, after 16 years at the same organisation, I left. Stepping off the cliff. Certain reasons pushed it, not least the sense that, consciously or not, I was being held back by the dynamics of people around me. Leaving this unchallenged allowed it to dominate my day to day narrative and I found myself being weighed down by the burden of unfulfillment. You can’t underestimate the damage that can be done to individual belief through leadership that is coercive and undermining, removing any individualism and creative thinking.

I found myself thinking about the plethora of non-fiction dramatisations there are available and the fascination that people have with others’ lives. What if your life was documented after you’ve gone, which increasingly it is now with SM and technology? What would be written and said and who would be the ones to write it? It’s a common enough exercise to provide support when making life changing decisions or reflecting on who you feel you’ve become as an individual. But daunting, if we feel the answers won’t be to our liking.

The number of people who questioned the wisdom of giving the safety net up, compared to the potential freedom, mental clarity and excitement of forging your own path and focussing on becoming a better you, actually surprised me when perhaps it shouldn’t. The number of people who have since decided to change part of their path, or try something new, certainly pleased me.

I’ve held back on this post several times, but New Year feels an apt time to move forward. Learning to go with your instincts, back yourself with confidence and believe in better possibilities feels like a privilege when it actually should be the norm.

Carl