I did not want them to hear how bad I was.

For years, I preferred to hide and play quieter than others.

Walking past a busker today reminded me of my musician days.

I played trumpet for 10 years in a carnival band home.

The contrast was so clear:

– The busker is loud and proud yet I remember hiding
– Hiding by practising at home when no-one was around
– Hiding by playing less loud than my fellow musicians
– Hiding by not wanting to play a solo

Interesting choice of instrument to hide through – the loud trumpet.

Anyway, the lessons that resonate most with me are:

-> The busker offers their gift to whoever is ready
-> They play for all – yet not everyone may like it – they still play
-> They play as a practice – regardless of their mistakes
-> The busker liberates energy and feels alive
-> the person hiding suppresses energy and feels stressed

Guess what – yes, hiding stops us from being seen for our ‘bad’.

BUT, hiding also stops us from being seen for our GIFTS – our passions, strengths, talents etc.

whilst putting frustrated, stressed energy in our body.

There is something to learn all around us when we are ready to look.

And so being inspired by the busker, I ask myself:

-> How can I step even more in the open and share my gifts?

Something to ponder on.

I want to invite you to look at vulnerability from a completely different perspective from how you may usually think about it.

Do you struggle to be vulnerable because you think of it as a weakness?

There is an increasing awareness about the power of vulnerability.  One of the top 10 most watched TED talks in the world is the Ted Talk about vulnerability by Brene Brown.  Brene is a social researcher with the University of Houston who has researched and written extensively about vulnerability among other things.

Brene Says “Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose; the level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection.” Brene Brown – Daring Greatly

It’s in our vulnerability that we are our most real and authentic.  The raw, honesty expressed in vulnerability is when you allow others to see the real you – to see into your heart– to the core of you.  

Allowing your true self to be seen is actually an act of tremendous courage.  When you truly own who you are and what you feel, and you share that – you take an emotional risk.

I encourage you to be open to the possibility that your vulnerability is actually the place of your greatest strength. Being vulnerable takes courage.  But the effort is worth it. If you want to achieve what you really want in life, if you want genuine connection with people – there is usually a risk.

To love someone is to be vulnerable.  To say I love you first is to be vulnerable.

To leave a job and start a business is to be vulnerable.  

To feel is to be vulnerable.

To shut down on our emotional life out of fear that the cost will be too high is to walk away from the very things that give purpose and meaning to living. If we are never vulnerable – if we stay safe – if we risk nothing – we live a life half lived.  

To keep the mask on – means true connection is lost.  People connect to the you that you allow them to see. But is that the real you?  So many of us fear that if we truly allow ourselves to be seen for the truth of who we are – we will be rejected.  What price then is acceptance when we have to be false to achieve it?

If we want to reclaim the essential emotional part of our lives and reignite our passion and purpose, we have to learn to feel the emotions that come with it.

Yes we are exposed when we are vulnerable – we are in that painful state of uncertainty and yes, we take a huge emotional risk when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.  But there’s no equation where taking risks, braving uncertainty, and opening ourselves up to emotional exposure equals weakness.

What is the price if you never allow yourself to be vulnerable?  

The first time I came to camp was as a Team Leader and I remember walking into the main room for the first time and seeing the affirmations on the walls and seeing the colours and the space and thinking “What an incredible environment for a group of young people to explore more about themselves!” I just wanted more and becoming a Facilitator kind of seemed like the next step for me. I’m a High School Teacher and hanging out with young people is what I do every single day of my life and I just couldn’t imagine a better place to spend my holidays than to continue hanging out with young people and helping them step into the best versions of themselves.

There’s so much about camp that I love. We teach a whole bunch of different academics from Quantum Strategies, Quantum Reading, and Quantum Writing, and all of these skills can be applied in any classroom no matter what that looks like. I think as a teacher I understand in our education system currently, we’re not necessarily catering as well as we could for every single child that we have entering the room. Teachers are doing their absolute best with what our system allows, but if we can empower our young people to take responsibility for themselves and their learning then w are setting them up for success. What SuperCamp does is prepare each of our young people, that regardless of who their teacher is or what the subject might be, they can take these skills and use them in order to get their best outcomes and be the best versions of themselves within their classroom context no matter the school they attend.

I know what we are doing here is making a difference and if one person leaves this program empowered and ready to step into who they are well they might be our next Prime Minister! We don’t know and I think that’s really special in itself.

Our default drama is our core limiting belief. It is the negative self-talk that gets stuck on repeat inside our heads. If ever you are in a world of pain/upheaval/some kind of epic life drama, or even just an off day, you can be certain your default drama is front and centre.

Learning about this part of our company framework was like a huge, iridescent light bulb going on – boom! Lights on, everyone is home, yes including you default drama.

During the weekend event the Power Of You where I met my default drama, there is an activity where you have to grab a stuffed toy that then becomes your default drama. For the rest of the weekend you have to carry your default drama around with you. Yes, 20 odd adults carry around their stuffed toy everywhere – to the bathroom, the kitchen, if you are going out to a restaurant, even to bed. Your default drama is with you, ALWAYS.

I chose Shrek – the green lovable ogre from the movie. Shrek and I had a lovely weekend together. Anytime I started to doubt or have issues I just asked myself, how is Shrek (my default drama) playing a role in this? Because once you know that it is playing a role, figuring out what the real problem is, is much easier.

On the final day of the Power of You, we were allowed to put our default dramas to the side whilst we did an activity. I put Shrek down to the edge of the room and told him, “Watch Mummy be awesome.” It was said in jest but it was also a bit of a metaphorical “up yours” to my default drama.  A “yeah, I know your there, but you know what, I can still go out and rock this even with you hanging around.”

The most impactful element of the TEC Framework for me is the Big Why. The essential energy we bring to each day in order to experience joy and flow. This concept initially blew me away…. Fancy there being a one word answer to the question “Why are you here?” And fancy that word, and the meaning behind that word, holding such an incredibly deep place within my very being….

When I first attended the Power of YOU back in 2013, I identified my Big Why as PURPOSE. I must admit I got a little caught up in the concept of what my ‘purpose’ was…. Which had me stewing over and trying to clarify the answer to the age old question “what is my purpose?” My “aha” moment was when I was asked how I could BRING purpose to each day. This was a simpler concept for me and was much less daunting. So questioning myself around: “How could I be purposeful about what I am about to do?” really helped me get clear about the energy I could bring to each and everything I do.

Shoot forward 12 months and I repeated this exercise and connected with a new Big Why of GROWTH. Bringing an energy of growth to my day was reasonably easy for me as growth is one of my highest values and I had already had some action attraction plans in place around living in alignment with this value. This Big Why led me on all kinds of adventures (both personally and professionally). I began to adopt an outlook of any challenging, confronting or uncomfortable experience being an opportunity for growth, so instead of giving in to my fears and anxieties automatically, I would question… “what opportunities for growth are present in this situation?” This new habit of questioning was paramount in my decision to join The Elevation Company…. A Company which is ALL ABOUT GROWTH!

At a Team Training 12 months ago, I again repeated this exercise and have connected with my new Big Why of IMPACT. Believe it or not, I initially repelled against this word, previously I associated it with statements like “the force of the impact” so it seemed quite pushy, forceful and even violent. Until….. I started to consciously bring the energy of IMPACT into each day…. My new question being “how can I make a positive impact here?” Or “what kind of impact will this have?” It really is all about perception!

As a reminder to connect with our Big Why, we were also encouraged to assign a colour to it, and to consciously bring things into our lives that reflect our Big Why colour. My Big Why colour is purple. I loved this concept…. Once connected to my Big Why and experiencing the power and flow from bringing that energy into my life, I began to bring lots of purple things into my life, and they bring me that same joyful feeling when I see them. A few months ago, I even painted my front door purple (inside and out)…and I LOVE it!!

If you do not yet know your Big Why, I highly recommend you coming along to one of our events to go through the process to find it. It can be utterly life changing.