Whats going on Trainwrecks its Friday and it’s time to get ready for the weekend! This weekend a buddy of mine is having his annual Oktoberfest celebration and I volunteered to pour beer. This is an incredible time in my life because I now intentionally insert myself into large and unpredictable crowds with little to no place to escape. Trainwrecks, this has taken years to get my anxiety under control. I have no doubt I will at some point feel like I will want to run away or burst into tears. After years of work I think I’m going to be okay. Earlier this year I volunteered for an event like this and I ended up balling my eyes out in the basement until a female member of my brew club talked me into getting my shit together. It was embarrassing.
My anxiety simply got the best of me. I knew people were waiting on me and I got upset because I forgot to write down what I was supposed to be doing and I knew everyone else was really busy and it is annoying for people to repeat themselves. It was hard to focus that day and was one of the most difficult days I have had in recent times trying to control my Agoraphobia and anxiety. I realize it will never truly go away, the feeling of wanting to run out of the room and hide from everyone who scares me will never go away. But I now have it back under control for the most part. My fear is mostly up there in my head. Where a war continues to rage. I go out in public by myself once again. I’m talking to people the way I used to once again and it feels amazing!
My biggest news has to do with my coach training and the developments in my coaching psychology work. I have recently been invited to join a collective of coaches in a developing group that focuses on both personal development and organizational development. I believe I have reached the next step in my efforts to learn more in the field of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. The group is called “The Values Conversation” and has a growing history in working with companies to improve communication and efficiency. My coach trainer, Lisa is a fireball. She’s an organizational development professional, a wealth of knowledge and quite an enigma. I know I’ll have fun working with her and the others I have been introduced to.
So how does this impact A Beautiful Trainwreck? Well, for starters I’m getting exposure to a wealth of knowledge and capability. For another I have gained another organization to draw upon as well as contribute to. My time in the service beat into my brain the fact I could get some very small and specific things done very quickly by myself. However, when we link up with other people who are after a goal similar ourselves, we can move mountains! I have a VERY lofty goal of setting up a conference in about a year. A summit. A mastermind. Call it what you want, I have decided this is a huge goal of mine.
My plan is to fill a conference center with minds eager for knowledge. I’m meeting other coaches who I think will jump on board and share their expertise as well. People with better education, more resources and a mastery of marketing have put together events that have fallen completely flat. I think the key to making this happen will be content and our delivery. I think putting on an event is like anything else we do, the first few times will be learning experiences. This is the life I have desired to live. My biggest takeaway will be the exposure to other professionals and the unlimited resources available through networking an event like this could create.
School – what can I say other than I took 10 years off after I finished Grad School and I’m learning just how much things have changed while I was obsessed about that war thing. I have been pushing myself really hard to learn as much as I can about Social Media. Being a gen Xer, I’ve been apprehensive to a lot of technology over the years because it really had little to do with me. I’m learning how to market myself. I’m learning how to be a strong team member again. It’s really not difficult to learn new things, just be willing to fail a couple times. Things are going awesome!
Its crazy to think less than a year ago this was all just a side thought. I had no idea how to get started and even worse I couldn’t properly explain my biggest dreams. There were so many unknowns I just didn’t know where to start. Trainwrecks if you find yourself feeling lost and don’t know where to start to move forward with an action plan, my greatest suggestion is to start with what is most familiar to you first and then begin building off that. I believe we are capable of truly anything if we can just learn to get over ourselves and leave our lazy habits on the couch where we found them.
I encourage all of you Trainwrecks to think about something we are working on and ask ourselves why we are not more excited about it? What is stopping us from making it the most amazing project that has ever been worked on? The answer is US. We hold ourselves back by not believing in the one person who matters more than anyone else on this planet. STOP giving a fuck what other people think about you.
Lets chase our dream. We can do this.
You’re Welcome. Interent.
References:
The Values Conversation
