When You're All Out Of BS Excuses (magic happens)
We've all come up with an excuse, or many excuses as to why we shouldn't do things in life. Time is usually one of them and for me often the biggest, but I've realised over the last year or so, that every excuse I have for not doing something is met with even more reasons as to why I should. And then I make the time to make things happen.
Last week I launched kellyswingler.com and I can tell you it was scary. It was scary, mixed with a lot of excitement, a lot of apprehension, and no excuses as to why I shouldn't do it, I had no more left.
I left internal HR in 2013 to start The Chrysalis Crew at the beginning on 2014 and in 2015 I had this niggle that I also needed something that was me, so I bought the kellyswingler.com domain, and did nothing with it. Over the years this niggle has gotten bigger and bigger and I've continued to ignore it. I told myself I didn't have the time. I told myself it would detract from Chrysalis, I told myself it would be too much hard work, I told myself I couldn't do it, I told myself every possible reason I had as to why I shouldn't do it and why it wouldn't work, but I also had a list of reasons why I should do it. I ignored the list of 'shoulds', until now.
What's changed?
Lockdown has given me time to reflect, to get clear on what I want for my family, for me and for my work. And I realised that over the years I've been trying to shoehorn the stuff I really love to do into the Chrysalis brand and in some ways have watered down the strong work we do to drive change with companies who want to put people first to try and make it fit with me and what I love.
I've also, always been a generalist. And a strong generalist at that, I loved the variety, I loved being able to turn my hand to anything, and keep learning and keep up to date with lots and lots of things. The thought of becoming a specialist in anything didn't really appeal.
Yet over the last few months I've come to love the simplicity of life and the slower pace. I've spent so much more quality time with my family and online with friends and loved ones. I have loved my morning routine and my early nights and the constant learning and I've loved that most of my client time has been spent coaching. I've always loved coaching, I'm a great coach, and yet in my head I always had an excuse that 'coaching' wasn't enough of a thing to keep me motivated and to pay the bills.
This was the BIGGEST BS excuse that I've kept in my head for years, and it's just that, BS.
So stopping and reflecting and talking it through with my square squad, and getting clear on my offering and splitting coaching from the Crew, has been one of the best things to come out of lockdown for me. And, thankfully, I've already taken on my very first kellyswingler.com clients and have more discovery calls booked for this week and next.
So you can imagine that I spent a lot of Friday in the 'why didn't I do this before' mindset. But I'm good with that. I needed to sit with the BS until I no longer had a reason to let that stop me. I've grown so much more over the last few years than I could have imagined, and so I'm in a better place to be able to help 'my' clients.
I cannot tell you how incredible it feels to let all of that BS go, and just to do what feels right. Ultimately I believe that everything happens exactly as it should and at exactly the right time, and if we could let go our excuses sooner perhaps that time might come sooner.
What excuses are you holding onto? How would it feel to let them go?
Kelly
P.S - I'm not leaving the Crew, I'm taking on a different role to let the fantastic team keep on delivering the incredible work that we deliver for our clients, so we're still going and we're still going strong.
P.P.S - If you want to keep up with a different kind of my writing focused much more on coaching and some personal reflection, you can subscribe to my blog updates at www.kellyswingler.com
