Last week, the members of the Cloud Coach community received one of the most personal emails I've yet sent.
Inspired by my experience at WDS, I shared my thoughts on vulnerability and my plans for the future of Cloud Coach.
It started with a question: “How do you turn a weekend of extreme inspiration into a year of action?” and ended with a call for advice:
What are some ways that you have channeled an inspiring experience into a lasting call to action?
My original plan was to keep this whole thing private and personal, and I still don't intend to share the original message on the blog.
However, I have never received as many responses to an email as I did this one. And it wasn't just a quantity thing- I have some seriously insightful readers with really excellent advice. I reached out to a few of the people who responded and asked them if I could share their words with you. I got a resounding yes all around.
So, how DO you turn a weekend of extreme inspiration into a year of action?
Make Inspiration part of Daily Life
Erin Kurup writes:
Figure out a couple of concrete ways you will make your favorite lessons from WDS part of your daily life. Don't pick too many at first — just a couple you know you can keep up with. Having them there will remind you of the lessons, and you'll slowly start to do more and more things according to their guidance. Or at least, that's what happened to me!
Journaling
Carol White writes:
Nothing beats writing an action plan. Journaling and also creating a repetition of that inspiration.
Your Community can Hold You Accountable
Aaron Thomas writes:
My current solution: voice to those close to me that I am making a change. Put myself out there (in true vulnerability fashion) as someone who wants to make an effort to be more open and transparent, and allow others to hold me accountable.
Channel your Heroes
G. Watson writes:
I've been in business for myself for 25+ years and I still get nervous when I present a set of drawings to a client. Will they like them, did I understand their requirements, did I leave out some detail that the builder is going to nail me for, is the design going to be way too expensive to build, etc…
Usually I just breath into it and see what happens. So I really resonated with your comments on vulnerability. I'm not so sure that for some of us it ever goes away completely if that is any help.
Now as it turns out what I've been supporting myself in the world doing is possibly an example of channeling an experience into a lasting call to action. Actually now that I think of it perhaps there have been more than one, but the two that come to mind in this moment are:
Robin Lee Graham. Likely not someone you have heard of. He was a young man who sailed solo around the world. I followed his exploits in the pages of National Geographic as a child. I was enchanted with his journey and inspired to learn to sail. I reveled in his freedom and self reliance. I learned how to fix and maintain things, bicycles, skis, household things when I was younger and how to build things as I got older, boats furniture, houses.
If I didn't think I could fix something that came into my life I often wouldn't adopt it. (my own version of minimalism you might say) This also lead to me being slow to adopt certain technologies like computers, cel phones and GPS.
But it also lead me to my second major inspiring event:
Hank Schubart, Again likely a name you will not have heard before, but you may be familiar with his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright. I had been working on homes that Hank had designed and was contemplating returning to school to study Architecture. Hank challenged me to just start and see where it went. I've been designing ever since.
What's your advice?
I left WDS feeling ridiculously inspired. It was a weekend where I got to spend the majority of my waking hours with 1000 like-minded people, in a setting designed for learning, sharing experiences, and connecting.
I also left WDS feeling nervous. I was afraid to return home; Afraid to let my everyday life creep back in and wash away the feelings that I was experiencing. I can say that I'm carrying forward that inspiration in new ways that I wouldn't have thought of myself, thanks to intelligent people like you. So, I'd like to ask you to add your voice: If you have something to add to the conversation, please leave a comment below.
P.S. So you don't miss out on these types of emails in the future, you can join the Cloud Coach community by entering your email in the box below. I'd love for you to join the conversation.
