Learning to be a Creative Philosopher

When I coach people I am often trying to look for the honest comment they make in amongst a bunch of self criticising talk, ‘have to’s’ and external voices.

I try to mirror this brave idea back to them, that they feel miles away from, and show them that they are a lot closer to it than they may initially have thought, and that the cost of not aiming towards it is greater than that of the potential ‘failure’ anyway.

As we all know, it is a lot easier to help others take these steps than it is to acknowledge or embody these steps in our own lives.

For 10 years I evolved through the roles of Sole Trader then CEO then Serial Entrepreneur. Slowly biting off more creativity and less management with each step. In a podcast in 2016 I remember they referred to me a Creative Entrepreneur; A way of trying to capture; in a title, the range of stuff that I was producing with friends and through business.

Then, when I went to the woods the need for labels, titles, and in fact language itself dissolved as the process was a de-robing of the power of the goals of ‘doing’ in favour of space for ‘being.’ I couldn’t even understand why anyone would write or sing songs of worship as heaven was fully present with every step, it would be like speaking on zoom to someone who is lying in your bed next to you.

Even less required was ‘professional titles’ to explain my productive potential as I didn’t want speaking gigs or job offers or clients or partnerships or money. This is after all, the primary reason we project these signals out to the world, and anyway it was kind of a lost cause, trying to summarise trees…..thinking….space — doesn’t really jam with linkedin! :)

So now at 35 as I begin to get dressed again, I have been asking myself what are the right clothes for the job?

If you ask my friends they would probably say I am a ‘Social Entrepreneur at Heart.’ but they didn’t know this when I was 17 at school, they only say this now from watching me act in the world. No-one really thought I would make a success of starting my own company at 19 and sure as hell no-one thought I’d sell it at 21, including me!!! lol.

It is lovely and vital to be known, but success to any degree can be a challenge in becoming who you desire to be as we forget these identities are not ‘true’ simply learned responses to how we show up in the world. exaggerated by our digital footprints, dust in…