Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Or if you're saying, how did this person raise this investment to, you know, to back this project? Or how did this person get this company off the ground? Most of all, it just comes down to the fact that they did it. Like they just, they just did it. They took the risk. They took the steps, like one foot in front of the other. This week I have been feeling overwhelmed at the scale of the challenge to come and I know I'm not alone in that because it's a conversation that I have with clients and with fellow builders all of the time. The fact is that it is truly difficult to step off of the conventional conveyor belt of a career path and choose to do something different. And when you bring into the mix things like regenerative principles, stewardship, different models of ownership, reimagining the relationship. between work and life. I mean you're essentially rewriting the script and I think it's really natural that you will always feel the kind of pull of the current of conventional culture and of the dominant extractive capitalist model and I guess I'm sharing this to normalise that feeling because when we carry it alone it feels like personal failure but when we share that together, when we recognise that we are not alone in feeling that and that there are very good structural and systemic reasons for the challenges that we face. I think it becomes a little bit easier. I think there is a kind of companionship that we can find in that. For me, I know that since I sold my company, that whole period, so I guess we're at three years now, has felt like a lot of getting lost. And there's a recurring thought to me of I'm lost. And this kind of fear, to be honest, of getting lost or of spending excessive amounts of time wandering. And that's looked like, you know, I've done a lot of different things. I did my coaching training, my hypnosis training. I held retreats. I dabbled in forest bathing. I've done life coaching. I've done professional coaching. I've done team building and team retreats. I've done kind of business advisory work. And actually, I've loved all of it. But there is this kind of background thought, if you will, of like, what is like... you know where is the sort of accumulated impact Alyssa like where is this the direction where is this going when are you going to stop playing around and actually start getting serious and that's something that I hear so much from my clients this fear that by allowing themselves to believe in their idea by kind of backing themselves to build something for themselves What they're actually doing is kind of making themselves irrelevant, is like just messing around, becoming kind of childlike, becoming naive. I hear these kinds of words all the time and when I'm on the receiving end of that as a coach and I hear people talking like that, you know, my reaction is always like, no, I absolutely know that this is possible for you and I know that you have the capability to do it. and I feel the necessity of what you're creating. I know that the world needs what you are building and it's so strong for me as the coach. But I know that on the other side, as the client or as myself on my own building journey, I just, I know how shaky it feels. I know how scary it feels. And I really recognize that feeling of kind of, I don't know, it's almost like I'm looking up at this mountain and looking up to the peak of the mountain and thinking, what on earth makes me think that I can climb this mountain? Like, I'm not fit enough. I haven't trained enough. There are loads of people who are, you know, stronger and, you know, have better navigation skills. And I haven't got the right tools with me. And I probably haven't packed enough food and all of this kind of thing. And, you know, in whatever guises, this is what I hear from people all of the time. This kind of, this fear of like, am I the right person to do this? What makes me think that I can do this? And, and also this kind of, you know, this, this fear that it's just too big. It's just, it's too radical. You know, it's, it's too ambitious. It doesn't fit with my life. It doesn't fit with the experience I have before. I'm not that kind of person. You know, other people can do this. I can't. And I guess I want to just share all of this because I believe, like, in my bones, that if you have an idea that won't let you go, it deserves to be taken seriously. It deserves to be built on. And the only difference, and I speak now from like concrete life and career experience, like the only difference between people who go out there and build something, people who get a company off the ground, people who bring a technology to market, people who make a complex novel project happen. The only difference, well maybe there are two, there are two differences. One is of course luck. or privilege. Like, I want to be clear about that. Of course, there are all kinds of reasons why some people are in a position that they can even think about doing that and making it happen. And other people unfortunately can't. But if you're listening to this podcast, I'm going to assume that you have a certain amount of luck and privilege on your side, that you are in a position where you can even conceive of stepping outside of the dominant system and trying. something different. So let's start by acknowledging that fortune that we have. And then the second difference between things that stay as an idea or a dream and things that become a reality, the only difference is your willingness to believe in it and to commit to it and make it happen. That is it. That is it. If you are looking out there and saying, I don't know, how did this person go and build the life that they wanted and integrate the kind of work that they loved doing and like make it all work for them? Or if you're saying, how did this person raise this investment to, you know, to back this project? Or how did this person get this company off the ground? Most of all, it just comes down to the fact that they did it. Like they just, they just did it. They took the risk. They took the steps like one foot in front of the other. I am quite sure that I have shared this analogy before, but when I was, I once ran the London Marathon, amazing experience, like best day of my life. And let me tell you, when I started training, I couldn't have been further from being fit enough to run the London Marathon. I had never really run anywhere apart from maybe for the bus. And my husband helped to train me and he, used to always say to me like when I'd get to like you know mile 18 and I'd be crying and coming up with all kinds of excuses for why I should stop and so stuck inside my own head and my own story about my own limitations and he would say just put one foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. He was like, and as long as you are physically capable of putting one foot in front of the other, you're going to be moving forward. And I think that that is the answer to all of this kind of mental chatter that is going on for so many people who are building something meaningful. And I don't mean by using the word chatter, I'm not trying to diminish it. I'm not trying to gaslight. You or myself, I'm not trying to say that it's not real or valid and that it isn't important to make some space from it and be aware, but we need to be really careful about over-identifying with that chatter and like making that the work. That is not the work, that is just, that is the barrier between us and doing the work that we love and want to do and believe in. And so I come back to this idea. of putting one foot in front of the other. Because if our attention is on that micro step, putting that foot in front of the other, the answer is almost always, yes, I can do that. If we're looking, okay, I've gone from a mountain to a marathon, pick your favorite analogy. If we are looking up to the summit of the mountain, if we are... at the start line and we're thinking about mile 26 and we're asking ourselves the question, can I do this? There is a lot of room for doubt there. There are a lot of questions that can come into play. It's pretty natural to look up at the summit of a mountain and question whether you can do that and feel unsure and feel overwhelmed. That's just quite a healthy, rational response. But if the question is, can I lift up? my foot and take my first step? And then can I take my second step? And then my third? And can I keep going one foot in front of the other? And when I feel tired and when I feel hungry and when I've got blisters and when I need to pee and when I'm not quite sure if I'm going the right way, all I have to do is put that next foot in front of the other and keep asking myself, can I take the next step? This is like I don't know, this is like coaching 101 and I'm saying that because I need to remember this as well. Like any big change that we want to make, anything that we want to create, all we have to do is break it down into manageable steps. So there are two components of this. One is you need to know what that step is, you need to know what your next step is and you need to make it small enough that It feels easily manageable. I was working with a client just this morning and the step that we came up with, I won't give all of the story in the background because that's hers, but she was feeling a lot of overwhelm, a lot of doubt, a lot of fear. And the step that we came up with was buying a domain name. Like so easy, right? So small, all she has to do, buy that domain name. But that is a huge step forward. in bringing to life her vision, in making it concrete, in making it visible and putting it out into the world. But what a small step, it's like a few clicks of your mouse and you're done. Like that is, I believe, what we as builders and we as people who are trying to do things differently and are feeling the natural overwhelm that comes with being ambitious and with, you The tide is focus on the next step and then just keep taking one step after another. And I know we can kind of, we can get complicated about this with ourselves, right? And we can think, okay, but is it the right step? Am I taking the most kind of strategically impactful steps? Okay, we don't, this is not a time to get into that level of complication. If you are successfully taking steps day after day, Like... In my marathon equivalent, you're up, you're running. Like, if that's all feeling quite manageable, then great. Then we can start, you know, working on our gait and thinking about optimising our breathing, right? But if we're just in the position of like, ah, can I actually run 26 miles? All we're doing is putting one foot in front of the other. And actually, it doesn't matter. We can do that clumsily. We can do that inefficiently, by which I mean you can pick the wrong steps, right? You can take inefficient actions. You can take actions and then pivot and go in another direction. Forward moving momentum is what matters most. one foot in front of the other. I really believe that is the answer. Getting out of our heads and all of this noise and all of this chatter, shifting out of that feeling of overwhelm and thinking, okay, right now in the limited time I have, because almost everybody that I work with is also dealing with like quite strong time limitations and other responsibilities in their lives. Like what is the next step that I can take? However big the ambition, the idea, the concept in front of you. All I want you to think about, just try it out, is what one step you can take today in that direction and take that step. And once you've taken the step, pick the next one and the next one. And before you know it, you're up and you're running. And that is definitely advice that I am really primarily giving to myself because Yes, I recognize that feeling overwhelmed by the scale of what I want to build is a very natural step. You know, sorry, it's a very natural response. It's a logical response. You know, it is challenging. There is a reasonably high risk. It won't work. There is a possibility that I will spend, you know, a lot of time and a lot of energy and it will not come together. in the way that I want. But just sitting at the start line, letting all of those thoughts get in my way, that doesn't help anyone. You know, it doesn't help me. It doesn't help the people that I believe my work can serve. It doesn't make any tangible difference in the world. It's just me doing battle with my own brain. Not helpful. So this week, and... It's interesting this week I'm on my own with the kids, we have two days off school and suddenly I realized like I'm gonna have like literally a handful of working hours this week and that just kind of led to my feeling of like oh that this it's not possible like it's just too big you know it's too big a chunk of thing that I'm trying to break up into these tiny little pieces and that's just not viable it's never gonna work I'm not putting in enough. hours. I'm not working hard enough. Stop, stop. One foot in front of the other. I have one really important and exciting meeting with a flower farmer this week. There you are, I'm dropping even more hints. And that's what I'm focused on. Like if that is all I get done this week, that is my step this week. And then I will choose the next step. And maybe I'll just finish with Like one more layer to my perhaps burdensome, burdensome, and maybe, and maybe I'll just finish with one more layer to this mountain or marathon analogy, because I think it can help us around defining those steps, particularly if we're feeling like that's just too kind of chaotic, or we actually really can't even think what the step would be because it feels so big, is like mile markers. You know, so on a marathon, each mile is marked out and I certainly found that like, psychologically, I just really kept my focus on like, I'm getting to one, you know, I'm getting to two. And then, of course, all the steps that came in between that. And I think, you know, on a mountain, the equivalent might be the kind of, you know, the little cairns, like the little piles of stones that are left to sort of mark the path. up the mountain and just getting to that next marker. And so that can be something really helpful as well is to break down this like big project, this big scheme, this big roadmap into just a handful of markers. So right now for me, that is having as many conversations as possible with smallholders and new entrant farmers and land workers. So I'm trying to have I should set a more concrete goal, at least 20, if not 30 conversations with smallholders and new entrants in my region. That is one of my main markers right now. Another is kind of like financial modelling piece that I need to do. And again, it's not, that is not, that could not possibly be one step. Doing the financial modelling for my concept is... like a huge piece of work. But it's a kind of marker for me. It's like, is this a step on the way to that marker? And I don't think you should have any more than three markers or this just becomes kind of completely unworkable. I can't quite think what my third marker is right now. But let's say I have three, three markers, which would be my conversations with land workers, my financial modelling. And there's, I guess, probably my third piece is like, just defining the whole concept and bringing that together into like a working document that I can share with people. Those are my three markers right now. So every step moves me towards those markers. I'm just offering that because it's quite a practical approach that I'm finding very helpful. And it's really all about anything that shifts me away from this feeling of enormity, because when something feels enormous, it's It's also kind of amorphous, right? It's very difficult to have clarity and focus within something that's just huge and overwhelming. Looking up at the mountain, like if you're just looking at a whole mountain thinking, how do I climb this? Pretty difficult to answer that question. But if you're like, okay, I know I need to, you know, I need to head right along and follow the riverbank, you know, up to the first marker, and then I'm going to cut through the meadows. to the second marker and then there's the steeper climb on some scree and that's up to the third marker like just breaking it down in that way it makes it manageable it allows us to build practical uh systems around it but also i think my main point is just psychologically it it gives us something that we can actually work with whatever it is that you are conceiving of i am 99% sure that it is viable and that you have the means and the tools to do it but you've got to shift out of that overwhelm you've got to shift out of that chatter give yourself some clear markers and just keep coming back any time that you feel lost any time that you feel stuck in your head or just caught up in too much story one foot in front of the other because that is the way that we run marathons and climb mountains and build amazing businesses and projects and work that really is meaningful and makes a tangible difference in the world. And that is what we're all about here on this podcast. If this episode has resonated with you, if you are on this kind of journey, if this concept has landed, I would love to connect with you. Please do email me I'm at alissa, A-L-I-S-A, at regenerativeworklife.com. I'm on LinkedIn, Alyssa Murphy, and you can always book a call with me if you want to discuss working together so that I can support you on your journey. Thank you so much for listening. I'm going to just pause here to say genuinely how much it means to me that people listen to my podcast. I know that sounds like, well, Obviously, unless you have a podcast, people. listen to it. Yes. But I only, all I see is like listener numbers or download numbers. You know, that is the full extent of the visibility that I have over who is actually receiving this podcast. And then every now and then I'll bump into someone who says, oh, I was listening to your podcast, or I'll get an email from someone who says, I was falling asleep listening to your podcast, or I've been listening to your podcast for a while. And it's inspired me as I'm making these changes like that is an incredible gift and privilege and thank you so much for being here and I'm really glad that that the podcast does help me to connect with people who we can share that kind of companionship that I talked about at the beginning of being builders in a pretty difficult world. All right I'm going to stop talking now, I'm going to focus on my one next step and I'll see you back here next week. If this episode of From Corporate to Calling was helpful or inspiring, follow the show so you don't miss an episode. And if you know someone who's questioning their career, send them this podcast. Lifelines are meant to be shared. Remember, you don't have to tolerate burnout or misalignment. You can redirect your skills into meaningful work that brings back life to you and to the world around you.