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personal reflections

SHIFTED

SHIFTED was: “five entrepreneurs and leaders telling refreshing stories about challenges they’ve faced and the choices they made to achieve success”. I decided to attend because of this: “We’re exposing the gritty truth of achieving success. It’s all about the moments where hard decisions are made and fears are faced head on.” Plus all the ticket sales were going to imagine1day. Loved the philanthropy in this creatribution.

During the night I was reminded of one of my favourite poems, The Invitation. This excerpt captures the night’s theme for me:

I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

Janice Tomich has a lovely post about the evening so I won’t attempt the same. Instead, here were the tidbits that resonated with me…

From Danielle LaPorte: “Whenever sarcasm brushes up against your dreams you better pay attention.” Reminded me of Dr. John Gottman’s four horsemen of the apocalypse. I learned this the hard way and any signs of the horseman will forever have me on high alert. I’ll add my dreams to the territory where I watch out for those ominous four.

From David Bentall: “Where are you critical? In your career, are you a critic or an encourager?” The four horseman appear again, and this time I felt some ah-has around where I’ve been critical at work (and how it feels to be on the receiving end).

From Andrea Baxter: “I was afraid of making my decision and letting people down.” Years ago I often reflected on a small symbol for balance. Initially it represented my holy grail of work-life balance, and then I SHIFTED and it meant exactly what Andrea and The Invitation described (I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul)… the balance of disappointing another to be true to yourself.

From Tyler Mosher: “In the middle, you don’t know where it ends and it’s hard to get going.” Ever been in a rut? Been lost in your life – stay or go, accept reality or change? Tyler captured that feeling exactly.

From Joel Solomon: “We’re going to have to answer to future generations even if we’re dead.” Reminded me of Yvon Chouinard describing how “As part of their decision process, the Iroquois had a person who represented the seventh generation in the future.” How powerful to think about our life’s purpose and the impact on that future, seventh generation. Get serious about your purpose, Joel told us.

Finally, a question from the audience that we all loved: “if your younger self was in the audience, what would you want yourself to know?” I’ll be adding that one to my question bank. What would your answer be?

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