Vessel Projects Newsletter is In! (with a Sentiment on Summer??)

Hi everyone, It has been a while since you have heard from me!???

?I have been in a bit of a creative storm preparing a lot of new, exciting content that I hope can amplify our engagement with one another!!???

Nonetheless, I am back with a thought (or two, knowing me and my long windedness).?

?? Take a second and think about all the exciting, thrilling, engaging physical activities you have done so far this summer or may have ever done in your life...

Just to name a few: surfing, swimming, sky-diving, skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, biking, rock-climbing, back-packing, spear-fishing, hiking.

The list goes on…

?? And why do so many people enjoy these activities? Well, usually they all have some specific, visceral reason(s) as to why they enjoy them so much: freedom, excitement, challenge, engaging, community, flow, centeredness, etc.?

To go even deeper psychologically and emotionally, each one of these actions requires serious, legitimate choice and action.

?? Think about it - dropping in on a skate ramp, flying down the face of a snowy mountain on a set of skis or snowboard, taking that wave that was a little too big but you took it anyways, charging down that hillside on your road bike.

All these experiences involved the classic Nike slogan "just-do-it" action…

?? It is a fact in these activities that:?

Sitting and waiting gets you closer to?nothing, not closer to any of those experiences, none of those feelings of freedom, thrill, engagement, flow, challenge, excitement, etc.?

Why do I bring all of this up during this active Summer month of July?

?? Well I have had so many recent dialogues with people who I know actively experience these engaging activities and hobbies?constantly?but then conversely, constantly are distraught, upset, and victimized over their careers, professions, “work”.

Why is it that so many people are willing to experience their lives in this action-oriented, exciting, engaging, challenging manner in one sense but refuse to consider the possibility and potential that the same vein of experience could be experienced within a career, a profession, work.?

Even further, they feel it is unrealistic, impractical, not possible to have those types of feelings in one’s work because well, it's one’s “work” and work could not just possibly have any of those elements.?

??To summarize the limiting belief, collective rule for many:

Work is not freedom; work is not excitement; it is not challenging, engaging, community-enriching; work is not flow or centeredness.?

Work is work.?

It’s a means to an end.?

It gets the bills paid.?

It's boring but it is what it is.

How many of you feel this way? How many of you know people who feel this way?

If you are feeling stuck in a career, position, job that you just find so boring, not engaging and not fulfilling then please adhere to this insight and perspective:?

You are not actually STUCK - it is that you FEEL stuck.

You just need to take that first small, miniscule step and action to spark the rest of the descent, journey, and ride: sending a LinkedIn message or email to that company, journaling what is that you are truly passionate about and brainstorming on the potentials for making a financial living off those passions, having a conversation with your supervisor about adding a different responsibility or taking on a different type of project.

The list of small steps goes on.?

Waiting outside the breaking of the waves, waiting on top of the snowy mountain, waiting on top of the hill, waiting inside the plane, waiting on top of the ramp gets you nowhere.?Sitting and waiting does not produce ANY of the feelings that one experiences when you take ACTION, when one takes that step, that movement forward.?

You have to just commit and GO…

Think about it, the actual?first?action in any of those above-stated activities are very, very small and minimal in terms of actual bodily movements.

1. Surfing - it's that first stroke with your arm and hands to reposition the board?
2. Sky-Diving - taking that literal small step out of the plane
3. Snowboarding/Skiing - nudging the?
4. board/skiis just a little bit and moving that upper-body just slightly in front of you
5. Biking - releasing your fingers from the handle brakes
6. Rock-Climbing - reaching one hand up a few inches to set into a divet in the rock-face

When we think of awesome experiences such as these we rarely think that such tiny actions were required from literal tiny parts of our bodies: fingers, hands, feet.

But those little occurrences were vital to catalyzing the descent, the journey, the ride.?

ALL of these are actions, ALL of these little, tiny, minuscule small steps are?still?STEPS and ACTIONS. We get so caught up in the literal space between that first action and coming to a halt, that journey, that path, that ride and all the potential errors, mistakes, failures, mishaps that could occur, and we disallow ourselves from even taking that first SMALL step, that first hand motion, or foot motion, or swaying a little bit of your body weight.?

QUESTION: Why are we able to push ourselves past that ledge of fear in all those activities but when it comes to taking that leap of self-faith in our careers and our professions we sink into our doubts, fears, self-limiting thoughts?

I truly don't see a difference between decision-making in these activities and decision-making for your life and career. Both contain possibilities and potentials for mistakes, and “failures”; both can be scary and nerve-wracking at first, but so incredibly rewarding and fulfilling when action is taken; both involve believing in yourself, your passions and abilities for a greater purpose, for a greater journey.?

This may be a harsh sentiment but I truly believe that if you are living in fear (especially fear of failure), if you are living in hesitancy, if you are living in waiting, if you are living in doubt (self-doubt especially), you are failing more so than if you took legitimate action and missed the mark within that action.?

I say this because when one lives life in waiting, in sitting, in hesitancy, in fear of failure, you miss and?fail?at grasping all the opportunities that would be laid out in front of you if you just committed and acted on a go-impulse.?

You are disallowing yourself from reaping the benefits of all the opportunities that would arise if you just simply TRIED something different, if you just simply took action towards that aspiration, goal, dream, passion, experience you desire.?

Release the fingers from the handbrake, pull the water with your hand to reposition the board, scoot the snowboard at your feet closer to the edge, take the small step out of the airplane, reach that hand up and grab that next divot in the rock-face.

Find that small step you could take and go for it, and the rest of that beautiful ride will follow.?

??And look if you feel you need the support, that's what a coach like myself is here for. I can help you find clarity, discover creativity, apply actions, and live through a sense of higher awareness, into design not default.?

Click the social media links?below?to follow me and Vessel Projects on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn!??

??If you want others to be a part of our Vessel Projects email community, feel free to have them email me directly, message me on social media, or just share their email with me to add them.

Energetically,

Jens Cole, MDR, iPEC Core Energy?? Coach