“At the risk of  …”

How often have you found yourself staying quiet because you are concerned how your contribution may be received or interpreted? Sadly you are not alone. But Charlie Green proposes a great device to overcome this. He advocates that when you next find yourself worried about saying something to someone, that you learn to say ‘At the risk of …’ and then state your concerns of the thing that needs saying.

So the Green (pun intended) challenge this week is to take three opportunities to say what might otherwise remain unsaid. Three steps that make you a bit more open and vulnerable than you otherwise would be. And see what happens.  Key tip, they can be encouraging rather than confrontational.

“Prodding your spirit awake!”

Watch the 6 minute video about ‘That is not me …’

Draw a line down the centre of a page. On the left, make a list of a few of your daily habits and routines and how you do them.  And on the right, write down different, unconventional, zany alternatives. Things that will feel awkward, are difficult to justify, or less efficient. Things that are purely about YOU and expressing yourself differently.

Then, take the courageous step of doing a different one of those things each day for the next week. And see how it feels to proclaim to yourself: These are conscious choices I am making! I have the freedom and the courage to make them! I am not asleep here!

“Introduce us to the person you will still be!”

Listen (again) to The Rose.

If you were to die tomorrow, what would your soul most regret not having been brave enough to ‘live’. Do it. But you don’t need to take the steepest face. Sometimes our narrative paints the most difficult path, with the worst downsides, just to justify our inaction. But if you commit to doing it, then you can organise an easier route, with way points and steps, and a safety net if you need it.

As Eleanor Roosevelt would tell you: It is never to late to be the person you might have been!