'The Thinker' - Auguste Rodin
Do you like what you do each day? I asked myself this a few years ago - having had a very successful 30 year career in advertising and marketing non stop.
I began to realize it was time to realign my goals with what's on the inside now. I wanted my career path to better reflect the values closest to my heart. I wanted time to set new goals differently and to listen to that inner voice of mine and to find a new career that was fulfilling and meaningful. Don't get me wrong I was always pretty headstrong about being true to myself, my values and my drivers and I had much to be happy about and producing had been my first love, but you move on - time, you and goals change..........
I do think knowing that I was on the right track for me, doing what I had been put here for and to believe that you will only be truly satisfied when you find your place in the world was important. That is the place where your skills, ability, personality and dreams all come together. I'd found that in producing - I loved it - but it was now time to set new goals which might include producing skills too! There was a need to connect to other personal talents and passions.
I found clearing space in my head was very important, to think clearly, dream, make concrete plans and also just to have restful thoughts was very beneficial. I would often have to physically remove myself from my house/environment in order to get the space and peace I needed - phones, e-mail, household noise are very distracting from deeper thoughts. I found reading books like 'Finding Your Element' by Sir Ken Robinson helpful - he shows that age and occupation are no barriers to discovering what makes us happiest and once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. The breakthroughs that happen in our lives are the breakthroughs that happen within us.
Being good at something is not enough, you have to have a natural aptitude for it and you have to love it! I believe the new celebrities are the one's who inspire, who know how to link the inner world with the outer world and who make our lives richer in the deepest sense of the word. Those who inspire by speaking with feeling - from the heart, moving others emotionally, perhaps moving them to action, to change or to happiness. That's where my new career began...........
As Sir Ken Robinson says: "Recognizing your own dreams and the conditions you need to fulfill them are essential to becoming who you can be. It will give you a deeper sense of who you really are and the life you could and maybe should live."
I'm now inspiring other people to find their element and much more too! I love being involved in The Arts - hugely important to my spirit and soul, being positive in a negatively orientated world and stepping outside your comfort zone are all important and treating self-doubt as a hurdle to overcome, not a stop sign!
'What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The visual is of course Auguste Rodin 'The Thinker' which I have always loved - very powerful isn't it? (Two early casts of The Thinker have just sold in New York on May 8th 2013 to a private collector for £10.3 million - a record price - you see always a marketing girl!)