Welcome to Episode 20. It's me, Pete Clark, the Whispers Guy. And so in Australia, where I live, it's the end of the financial year, which is a great time to pause and reflect on what's gone, well, what's the year been like? Pretty chaotic! What plans do I have for next year. And so, over the next couple of podcasts, I'm going to share with you some of those reflections about some of the processes that I've gone through, some of the distinctions that I've come up with for me, and in so hoping that might help or instruct or inform or provoke you into some of your own reflections on what the second half of 2021 can bring us.
And so, three key things to share with you. The first is a distinction that a facility through colleague of mine shared with me as I was reflecting on some of the wins and learns from the last financial year, not just 2020, but the first six of six months of 2021. And it's a hackneyed tool, that with the wheel of life many of you will know of it, or I've come across it, and it basically asks you to determine the four or five, six or seven key areas of your life, and how would you rank them scale of one to 10? One being not very good, 10 being very good stuff can I've done that process.
One of the questions that came out of it for me was - in an ideal world, 21 Whispers should be a vehicle for me to get what I want. To allow me and my family to have the lifestyle and the life that we want to live for ourselves and for others. The business should be a mechanism to help me and my family achieve that. And it did make me wonder whether I am a servant of it, or it's a servant of me? Is 21 Whispers the Whispers the podcast, the facilitation the clients that I have - are they in some way serving me to provide the lifestyle that I dream of? Or is it the other way around? Am I good enough, am I focused enough to make the business a servant of progress towards that lifestyle? And it was really quite a confronting question for me to ponder, because the sense I got was that I'm a servant of the business. And that's partly driven by the way the business operates, the way it's set up, it's predominantly me. I'm the business if you like. I don't really have a business because I can't really step out of it at the moment. And so you know, if I don't turn up for six months, there will be no income. So part of my goals for the next 12 months is to try and create some sort of online revenue, opportunity, sales, whatever that might be. So it starts to build that pipeline of revenue and opportunity that will lead to the lifestyle. Where I would still be a geek about the development stuff and the books that I read, and you know, doing this, for example, but I wouldn't be behest I wouldn't be servant to it. And it might open up some more creativity. So I get a don't know answer. But it's a question of - the reflection process caused me to consider to what extent am I a servant of the business, or to what extent is the business a servant of mine? I don't mean in a selfish mine way, but for me and my family, my friends and the lifestyle that I want to, I guess live and lead. That's that's my first pondering for the week.
The the second pondering was when I did this wheel of life exercise and I rated things like relationships, health, friends, the things that were important to me apart from the obvious situation with the pandemic as it continues, and all of challenges that that brings. I'm very grateful. Extremely grateful for some of the opportunities it's presented. And some of the things it's caused me to focus on. And partly because I'm not travelling as much, I'm much more focused this year on my health, and my own well being, as some of you may know, I meditate probably five, six days out of seven. And so the scores I would give myself were some of the highest scores I've ever given myself. And I don't know whether that's because my standards have changed. One of the reasons I think is is because I'm much more grateful. I'm much more grateful for the things that I have. And then it made me ponder, I wonder if at all, or in how much or in what ways my current gratitude is diluting my ambition. My gratitude for what is and what I've got - I wonder to what extent is that causing me to take my foot off the gas? And again, I don't have an answer. But it's got me really pondering and a couple of the things that I wondered whether I need to break some of these beliefs in my head that time or time spent or invested, means I can achieve more. There's more ambition to be achieved, if I work harder. Which is partly the principle behind these Freedom Friday podcasts. We know that work tends to expand to the time we give it. So there's probably some sort of underlying belief in me that the harder and the longer hours I do, the more successful I will be towards my ambition. So I probably need to bust that a little bit. The second belief that I might have is that ambition might be singular, it might be in a selfish way for me and my family. Whereas when I looked at one of the segments, on this wheel of life, it was contribution. Now, you could argue, I've put more content out in the last 12 months than I've ever done up to this point in my life. So you could argue, as best as I can, I'm contributing quite a lot. But it didn't feel that way. The feeling that I got was that I could contribute in a different better. And I don't mean scalable from a revenue perspective, it's but scalable from a reach, and a voice and a hearing perspective. And I wonder if the ambition I was thinking that I was diluting was an ambition for me and my family. Whereas if I raised the bar a bit, and extended that ambition, as an ambition for others. So I wonder if I could get, you know, ridiculously 1000, a million, a billion 21 whispers rattling around the world.
So that was certainly something that struck me on my reflections. Without coming to any hard and fast conclusions. I wondered, one, whether the business was a servant of me, or whether I was a servant of the business. And secondly, was my gratitude diluting my ambition. And that second one caused me to reflect on something that I probably shared somewhere online is, I saw a quote recently, and it said, "Remember when you dreamt of what you have now". And if I reflect on that, it would be not that many years ago, where I would have been so, so pleased and delighted and just overwhelmed with some of the things that are present in my life. And so maybe I've forgotten how to dream. Maybe as i reached some of those previously held heights I've got to that point and gone well, this is it, this is as good as it gets. Maybe I've forgotten to dream a little bit bigger. Be a bit bolder in in my ambition for how I can contribute to the planet. And that feels really uncomfortable. And so maybe that's the space I need to lean into the discomfort about the extension or the scalability of my ambition. Maybe there's some some journaling in there, I'm sure there is.
The third thing I'll share with you is for the next six weeks on Friday, I'm investing in my own craft. I'm doing a facilitation programme, of which I will share some of the insights. But this insight struck me on the first programme and I just had to share it because it was such a mind blowing pivot in my head. And let me sit back and explain. One of the, I think it's a strength, is that I have been known and quite enjoy pushing people, nudging them provoking them beyond what they think is possible beyond their limited or perceived limited potential. Which generally works out pretty well. One of the challenges with it and I have been caught out, you know, with family and with clients and people that I coach is, if I keep nudging, we're going to get to the line. We're going to get to the line that crosses into their, you know, scary zone. The challenge with that is I don't know when that line, I don't know where that line is, until I've crossed it. So I don't know how far I can push until it's too late, almost. And whilst on a few occasions when that's happened, the response has been well, it was uncomfortable, it was confronting, I didn't like it at the time, but I'm so glad you did. Which, which unfortunately feeds my, I guess, paradigm and ego, that it's still a good thing to do, and it is a strength. But I do wonder, as I master this craft of facilitation, and, you know, helping build people's potential. I wonder if there's another way, I wonder if there's a way of handling that crossing the line in a different way. So that was the challenge that I presented as something I'd like to work on. And the lady, one of ladies that I'm working with a lady called Lauren, who is part of a company called 10 directions. Such an inspiring human being. She just blew me away with a couple of questions. And the questions were, first of all focused on me. What is it in me that wants to go farther? And that was such a good question. Because I realised that part of the nudging and the provoking and the edginess, and I guess the pushing to learn beyond the line, that's my motivation, that's what energises and gets me out of bed and I love being stretched like that. I'm quite happy to in most situations, you know, being competent and be the learner and be the worst on the street at it. And so when she asked me that question, what's in me that wants to go farther? As I reflected on that for me, I could answer it. And then when I reflected on that, for others, it was my inherent and almost unshakable belief that you can do more, you can have more, you can be more, there's a bit left, there's a gap, there's a, there's something else. And we wont know what that is until we hit the line. Then she said to me, and this was the the one that just sent my head spinning, it was a brilliant question, which I will use in the context of what I do. And she said, so what's being asked of me or us or you over the line that's different to this side of the line? And that was just for me, that's one of the best questions I've been asked in memory, because what caused me to think about was not whether I should or shouldn't nudge people across the line, because sometimes I don't know when it's going happen. Sometimes I don't push far enough. But when I do experience that, and I'm in a situation where I have, or what I've said has provoked someone beyond the line. Finding a space in myself, where I can ask the question, what's different this side of the line? What's it asking of me versus the other side of the line? And, you know, it's a construct in my head, you might be listening to this going, I don't even understand the question. The question means nothing to me, that's cool. But for me, my unique take on that was, that was just such a beautiful perspective to take when being confronted with being outside our comfort zone, being the other side of the line, when suddenly, I might be upset, or it's caused me to think about something that's hurtful or painful or traumatic, that rather than avoiding it, and rather than trying to fix it, just one, finding a space in myself where I consider what's different this side of the line for you and for me in this scenario. And finding a space in myself might help someone else to you know, I guess be comfortable with the discomfort, be comfortable with the or at least detach a little bit from the overwhelm and look at it from a different perspective. And so that that blew me away. I thought in this solo episode, I would share that with you.
And so that's it for this week. Three main things. One is my business, so if you reflect this for yourself, are you, the work that you do the job that you do with the business that you have, is that a servant of yours or are you a servant of it? Number two is your gratitude, diluting your ambition. And that's something I'll be pondering on. And number three, what's in you that wants to go farther? And when you do go farther and you cross that line, what is being asked of you that's different?
I'll leave you with those three questions to ponder. I'll see you next week. Cheers.
