Life Update
It has been a hot minute, gentle reader.
I sat down two months ago to write my twice-monthly bloggo, and found myself distracted, thinking of the other things I needed to work on.
Life has been busy, hectic, chucka-feckin-block – and happily so – hence the wee hiatus.
Where to start!
There has been a few interesting things going on:
- I took a leap of faith this spring, establishing a social enterprise to do the work that needs to be done with disadvantaged young people in Guernsey (intense, challenging, indescribably rewarding).
- I am half-way through a counselling skills qualification (intense, interesting, applicable to my roles in work and life).
- I completed a 3-day kettlebell instructor certification (intense – especially with one working arm – drinking from a fire-hose of information) and have been personal training half-a-dozen clients (intense, rewarding).
- I am one term into a part-time pastoral support role at Elizabeth College (intense, rewarding).
- I am coaching and training alongside a super group of both beginner and competitive amateur boxers (intense, rewarding, cathartic).
I cannot wait to share some stories and reflections on all of these adventures with you over the next few weeks.
This year has been quite the ride.
The mots du jour for me, you might have guessed, have been intense and rewarding.
As intense and demanding as things have been – physically, cognitively, emotionally – it has been so intensely rewarding in all of these respects.
This has been a growth season: physically, cognitively, emotionally. I have been challenged every single day, and have grown as a result.
I bumped into an old colleague the other day who said, “You certainly haven’t waited for the grass to grow under your feet, Liam!”
Received into the once ignorant ears of a reformed coaster, this was, shall we say, validating to hear.
It is a far cry from the exhortations and bollockings my ears were once so used to and tuned out from throughout my teenage years.
A Letter Addressed to Me, to You, to Me, to You…
I repeat variations of the following in this blog often, about life-urgency, intensity, boldness, chirp.
I write these words to ‘you,’ but that ‘you’ is ‘me’ – past-me and present-me.
I share them with you in the knowledge that I am not the only human with whom they may resonate, and they are worth sharing for the reader who gets the same sense that life is precious and fleeting, and we should not squander this most precious and finite of resources.
Do not mistake me for preaching.
I am practising, reflecting and sharing.
In a frightfully preachy manner.
Life-Urgency
Life is short. Often, brutally so.
Being oblivious or complacent in this regard, misspending your time on inconsequential squabbles and petty interests, comes at the cost of the very life-urgency necessary to live, properly, to the fullest.
You are not guaranteed a single minute of your one and only life.
Each second with which you are blessed is a precious and irretrievable gift, which you can use to vote for the person you want to be, or fritter away, knowing in your deepest self you are not doing what you want to do or becoming who you want to be.
Understand and realise: life is short, you will never be as young as you are now; what is special and unique about you as a human needs to be recognised and valued, firstly by you, then worked on and brought to bear on reality so it can be recognised by and bring value to others.
Reality will be lesser for your refusal to do that work, to recognise your value, to become that person you could and should be, and make your unique impact on the world.
Stop planning, start doing.
To be, you must do.
Once done, you become.
Planning and researching and mapping out your opportunities with every possible contingency and disaster scenario is procrastination dressed up as action.
Cultivate your life-urgency and chirp and boldness and intensity through relentless action in the direction which you want to travel.
No child learns to walk by lying on their back and planning how they are going to engage each muscle, plotting how they might use their parent’s hands as supports, and mapping where they are going to take each step, how to catch themselves before they fall, and how to tumble safely if they do.
Children learn to walk by trying to walk, falling several hundred times, and the support, for the most part, appears along the way.
All of your wonderful ideas and grand plans and thoughts for the future are of themselves meaningless; without action, futile.
– I am going to do this when…
– I am going to start this after…
– I am going to do this before I can do this…
All self-imposed obstacles, cheap and convenient excuses to avoid the work that needs to be done to get to the place you want to go, to become the person you want to be.
The sorts of life-affirming ‘I am’ statements you might want to substitute these excuses with, in my ever-humble opinion, are:
– I am going to work on this until I achieve this.
– I am committed to doing this.
– I am becoming the person I want to be by doing this.
Take Action
Enrich your life with some life-urgency.
Funerals are not just for family and friends, honey.
You are going to be pushing flowers.
Take action.
Take risks.
Time waits for no-one.
Your time is a-coming.
Death whispers in your ear, daring you to live.
Why not commit to living with shamelessly bold intensity?
Do not waste words about your intention of doing this or that – just do it.
Balance your newfound intensity with good chirp.
And enjoy the ride.
Let me know if you resonated with this piece. Some of the messages I’ve received – people restarting exercise, starting their own blogs, reevaluating their relationships – have really inspired me, as well as spurring me to keep writing and publishing.
Huzzah.
The Works and Chirps of a Guernseyman 