In a previous blog I wrote the following as one of my first posts about 3 years ago. I thought it fitted quite well with this blog so I have copied it exactly as I first wrote it:
Can I?
I wanted to share with you some thoughts I had recently.
I was talking with a group of people who were all at stages in their lives where they feel they needed to, or wanted to, make a change of some kind. One person there wanted to change her career completely but said several times "I don't know if I can do it."
It then occurred to me that we all ask that question a lot:
Can I have more time to do what I want to?
Can I afford a holiday?
Can I work part time?
Can I be paid for what I enjoy doing?
and so on - the list of "can I's" in life is probably endless, especially with the demands on everyone now and the fast pace of change in our society.
Most people think of "Can I?" in the sense of "Am I able to?" but I realised that equally important is the sense of asking permission. When we say "Can I open the window?" we are asking permission, not if we are able to do it.
So it is important that we give ourselves permission to do things sometimes. There are times in our lives when we need to allow ourselves to take a risk, to be scared, to go against the grain of what is often accepted, or even to just stop for a while and think, while the rest of the world is rushing madly by.
Next time you are thinking about making a change in your life, find a quiet place, stand there and think to yourself - "Can I do it?"
Hi Paula
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me about Omsk - I'd forgotten about him!
My interest is that I'm writing a travel book about the places from which the Wombles got their names. I'm not covering every single place - there isn't enough time or money - but I did get to Tomsk last summer (and enjoyed it very much).
How did you get to teach in Nizhnevartosk? Do you plan to stay there long?
By the way, I see from your blog profile that your hometown(?) is Chesham. I live in Prestwood and worked in Chesham for eight years, not so long ago. Small world!
Best wishes
Neil
Granting oneself permission is an important ritual mostly forgotten in today's world. I appreciate your post. Myself and three others created a full day to work on granting permission; each of us had time to share and create our own ritual around this theme. It was a powerful day and we have each moved in different directions since. When embarking on a new journey one of the first steps is to open up the feeling that we are fully in our right. Self-permission is vital. Your new friend from Twitter.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments - Julene that is fantastic, thank you!
ReplyDeleteHey Mspeekay, I think the questions you should ask yourself are the following:
ReplyDeleteHow can I have more time to do what I want to do?
How can I get paid to go on holiday?
I want to work part time, how can I get handsomely paid for that?
I love doing xyz, how can I get handsomely paid to do it?
I have been asking the right questions and I have come up with a hell of a lot of ways to do what I want to do :)
Hope to speak to you soon anyway! xxx