For something like 12 years, every October I spoke at a national medical conference, about career change.
The delivering of the talk itself I used to love, but I was always really nervous about having chats with people afterwards, when they came at me with their specific career-change questions.
I just didn’t feel qualified to offer solutions, and any time I spent contemplating the post-talk milling around period, was deeply unpleasant. It was the only thing that might have stopped me saying Yes to participating in these conferences.
Minds are bonkers, they really are 🙄
Anyway, I’ll never forget, one year, after a particularly effective keynote, I had a huge crowd standing around afterwards, all wanting my advice.
I’d over-run (as usual!) and been kicked out of the seminar room, so it wasn’t like an orderly queue, where I had one conversation at a time. It was just this massive free-for-all, with everyone asking their question and everyone else listening in on the pearls of wisdom this inspiring speaker was about to deliver.
Put on the spot
And then, in front of all these people, I got asked The Most Difficult Career Change Question Of All™
“But what about financial security?”
Oh shit.
This was the biggie that I’d been fearing, all along.
The threat of this question looming was an insecurity of mine that towered above all else.
It was the question I thought I just didn’t have an answer for; the question that used to keep me up at night, because if anyone found out that I didn’t have a good response to it (because I didn’t)… well then, I’d be seen as a charlatan and all the inspiring words I’d said up on stage would be utterly worthless.
I would never be invited back again, and that would be that.
My speaking career would be over.
(For real. Minds truly are BONKERS 🤨)
And then, something amazing happened. There, in the moment, put on the spot without any preparation, not knowing where it came from, I heard myself delivering the only answer to that question of any substance; something I’d never even seen for myself as being true, until I spoke the words:
“Security doesn’t come from money. It’s a feeling that comes from inside of you. I suggest you work on your inner security instead.”
😳
👊🏻🎤💥
Everyone kind of went quiet after that, and I could feel a sort of electricity in the huddle of people, out there on that balcony.
Realising principles in action
Because unbeknownst to me (this happened before I came across the 3 Principles/Innate Health understanding that helped me put a name to it) I had just pointed to a fundamental, inarguable truth about how life works, and it connected all of us, in that moment.
That’s simply not possible. They come from within, and it’s only ever that trickster-magician we call Thought, that makes out it could be any other way.
It was quite a big moment for me on my own journey, because the fact things turned out like that—that I'd delivered a truly grounded answer—after my incessant worrying about the question, just went to prove the point.
All the insecurity I’d been feeling in the run-up to the conference wasn’t coming from the conference, or the question – it just doesn’t work like that! It was coming from me 😮
And the answer that my intellect could never come up with—causing me great stress as it tried!—had been there all along.
It came out when it needed to.
It’s the same for you.
The answers you don’t know—that you feel like you’ll never know—will be there when you really need them. You don’t have to ‘think them up’, because they don’t come from your intellect.
So look, let’s not mess around here.
Just take a moment, slow down and genuinely consider this coachy-type question:
What next steps do you think you would take in your life, operating from a place where you’re safe in that knowledge?
Give yourself some space to ponder this question - it’s a worthy use of your time!
And as always, if you’d like help with it, that’s what I do.
💟
Giles
Know that it's time for significant life change? Had enough of reading and now ready to sort the problem out once and for all, with 1:1 support?
I help you get the change you need, in a way that's just right for you.