careers we should have had?

Lives I could / should have lived

At school, I never felt encouraged or recognised by my art teacher - but years later, I heard they told my parents it was a shame I didn't take the subject to GCSE and beyond as I'd showed great potential in the subject.

And as I matured in my personal faith when I was younger. I decided to 'change churches'; in doing so I found out the leadership team of that first church had all felt seperately convicted to ask me about considering a youth worker/ministry - but none of them did, as they thought I was too busy at the time with my studies at university.

These experiences (along with others like them) have led me to now try to listen carefully for any whispers that others may make about me, that suggest unrealised potential I could release for the wider benefit of others (as well as myself), but which I might have otherwise never considered.

What can happen when people tell you what they really see in you

Case in point: my first book, 'Loving your doubt'.

It moved from being a collection of semi-disparate notes I'd created to satisfy my own curiosity to a book, because several people all encouraged me to do so independently of each other. And I'm glad I listened to them all, because of all of the unexpected outcomes for others and myself that have subsequently happened - but that's a separate blog post for another time.... 

Prompts for new adventures don't just have to come from people 

Recently, I've started to notice the LinkedIn algorithm starting to forward me suggested jobs its seeing listed by others, which it thinks "i might be a good fit for"; and some recent examples are as diverse as they are ambitious/ambiguous:

- West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Executive Director of Economy; as well as their Change & Transformation Lead

- HMRC’s Deputy Director of Transformation: with a special focus on Enterprise Narrative, Assurance and Governance

- The National Federation of Young Farmers'​ Clubs’ Board 

- Professional Success Consultant (?)

Please don't refrain from sharing that idea you have about someone to them

I think my point in this post is that there are people around us who aren't verbalising or telling us about the potential they see in us to take on new things (for all sorts of reasons which seem perfectly reasonable and legitimate to them) - but this is holding us back from lives we might otherwise be living because we'd simply never otherwise considered the option or idea, or lacked the encouragement from someone else through their recognition of our potential. 

So don't be another one of those people who's discounting the possible new adventures others might have, just because you think someone else has already told them, or you think they wouldn't be interested...