A new podcast: The Tension
A short-form podcast series on noticing, embracing, and harnessing the tension that shows up in the work we do, so we can get where we want to go.
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In September 2017 I moved from London to New York.
Whilst I arrived with a whole load of luck, love, and privilege on my side, the journey has still had more than a few bumps in the road.
Two years on from pretty much starting over in a new city, country, and culture I find myself looking back at what’s happened, what I’ve noticed and what I’ve learned:
From dissolving pre-conceptions, making missteps, learning things the hard way, getting lost in the idea maze, making unbalanced comparisons, telling myself stories, feeling the dark clouds loom, getting that sense of pushing towards the edge. Of seeking…something.
Of finding new tribes, seeing completely new ways forward, broadening horizons, and surfacing undiscovered, hidden, and maybe some previously silenced pieces of myself. Of seeing things in others I just didn’t see before.
The thing I’ve noticed the most is the tension.
As a coach, teacher, and guide helping people to get where they want to go, a lot of what I see happening in the work many of us do boils down to working through the tension: the resistance, contradictions, trade-offs, and opportunity costs we all have to tussle with.
I’ve seen it in my work with senior executives at some of the world’s most prominent companies; with creative entrepreneurs seeking to grow their businesses; with professionals entering career transitions; with young people taking their first steps out into the wider world.
The Tension could be deciding how to best Fit In or Stand Out; figuring out when it’s time to Create or time to Capture; or how to go from Employee to Entrepreneur, and maybe back again.
In fact, whatever we’re doing, the tension will eventually show up.
Sometimes we know when to expect it; other times we have no idea when it will appear, or how it will manifest.
When we think about tension it’s usually in an uncomfortable or negative way.
It can get in our way or hold us up.
It tells us we can’t do it, that this won’t work.
It’s weird, they’ll hate it, we’ll fail.
What’s the point.
Why bother.
But it can also hold us up and support us, and can even drive us forward.
We just need to recognise the tension, and find ways to utilise it.
So this is a podcast series on noticing, embracing, and harnessing the tension that shows up in the work we do, so we can get where we want to go.
The episodes are deliberately short.
There are no guests, no glitz, no gimmicks.
It’s just an exploration on the tension we feel and what we may be able to do with it, so we can get out of our own way and go and do the work we want to do.
This is here to provide some career fuel for your journey, whichever way you’re going.
Hope to see you on board.