Anticipation
The month of July is set to be one of the most important in my life so far. I know that sounds dramatic and to be fair there are probably other times in my life (being born, finishing school, getting married etc) that are more significant. However I feel like a lot has been leading up to some things that I have coming over the next few weeks.
Some things I can talk about, and others will be announced in due course but the reason I wanted to write about this today is becuase my head is spinning a bit with all of the possibilities that lie ahead of me. I actually just completed my third quarterly reflection for the year where I assess everything in my life from my purpose, to my values and my goals and try to plan for the next 3, 6 and 12 month periods. One thing I’ve realised is although everything feels and appears to be on track, there is still a lot of uncertainty involved in what my future looks like.
This uncertainty is something that gets my thoughts running at the times I should be sleeping. Part of this is due to the job and the life that I’ve chosen to live and while I can’t complain about that, there is a feeling that these moments, these forks in the road hold more weight than if my circumstances were different.
Writing is one thing I’ve found can help when it comes to dealing with these feelings but I will always know that you can’t judge the outcome of something until it’s actually happened. The only thing I can do to influence the outcome is the work I put in today which does give me a chance to tell you about one of the things I’ve been putting a lot of time and energy into lately.
I’m lucky enough to be speaking at the Future Of Leadership series of events running in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne later this month. In isolation, it’s just another stage, another audience and another opportunity to share my story. But in reality this is a huge opportunity for growth on this journey of mine.
The brief called for “Your best 25 minutes” and I do have a comfortable 25 minutes that I could easily roll out but with a little encouragement (thanks Janika) I decided to step things up a bit, to challenge myself and to step outside of my comfort zone. As a result of that, I’ve spent the past month working on providing a different angle, some powerful anecdotes and some captivating visuals that make up this new presentation of mine.
To say I’m excited for these events is an understatement that can only be matched by my nerves that tell me my videos won’t work. Regardless of how well things go, I know I’ve lived up to my values of doing something to become a little bit better today than I was yesterday in preparation for this event and I can’t wait to see how we go.
If you’re interested in coming along, you can still purchase tickets for each of the events. Hopefully I’ll see you there and you’re being pre-warned now that the highlight of my presentation will be the panic on my face the moment my slides freeze up…