“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
E.L. Doctorow, Author
I'm currently putting the finishing touches to the first draft of my new book so this week we're continuing or re-run series with another of my most popular articles. What occurs to you after reading this article again? Please let me know in the comment section below or on my Facebook page. I'm looking forward to re-connecting with you next week!
I came across this beautiful quote from the prizewinning author, E.L. Doctorow, when I was first starting my business in January 2003 (“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”) I loved what he was pointing to, and used this idea as the basis not only for how I wrote, but for how I developed my business. You see, there are three powerful things implied by this simple quote:
– You have a “good enough” sense of the destination you’re heading for. You may not know exactly how to get there, and you may not be clear on every single detail of what your destination looks, sounds and feels like, but there’s something you know for sure: You have a sense of your destination that’s “good enough” that once you get there, you’ll KNOW that you’ve arrived. This mean you’re already in a position to begin. You don’t need to know what every step of the journey will look like in detail.
– You have a power source and a means of moving forward. In the case of the car, this includes the engine, driveshaft and wheels, as well as the fuel in your tank. The fact that you can sense the destination means there’s a way for you to move forward.
– You can sense your terrain and respond accordingly. The combination of your headlights, the instruments on your dashboard, your controls, your own senses and your understanding of driving mean you can respond to the ever-changing environment and make adjustments where necessary. We’re capable of so much more than we think we are, and we’re better than we realise at responding in the moment.
These three implications are probably why Doctorow’s quote resonated so deeply with me when I first read it. I wrote my first newsletter in January 2003, and have written an article pretty much every week since. But the resonance was even deeper than that. I intuitively sensed that we all have this “inner guidance system” capable of guiding us through life. As I’ve grown my business, I’ve often taken paths which looked unwise or even insane to others, but that I intuitively knew were the right move for me. For example…
– Calling my first business “Salad”. I received incredulous messages from some of my colleagues asking “Are you serious? Have you really called your personal development business Salad?” But it turned out to be one of the best business decisions I’d ever made.
– Launching my first card deck in 2004. I had a real sense of urgency because I somehow got that these cards were just what people in my community needed at that time.
– Leaving the field of NLP at the height of my success to explore something that seemed way more “out there” to many people in my community, the principles behind clarity.
Each of these decisions was guided by insight and intuition.
Of course there have been mistakes along the way, but it turns out that the decision to deepen your grounding, attune yourself to that inner wisdom and take the next step is one of the best things you can do.
To your increasing clarity!
Big love
Jamie
PS. Over the past year, we’ve run four sold-out Coaching Package Power Conferences for professional coaches and 1:1 workers. You won’t have seen any advertising for these conferences – we’ve done it all under the radar on an “invitation only” basis – but at the last one we were joined by 120 people who are passionate about making a difference as Professional Coaches and Changeworkers.
And here’s a cool thing: 60 of the people joined us from 12 countries around the world via our new, leading-edge live-streaming facilities, while the other 60 joined us live in-person in London. The conference is focused on exactly what has to happen for you to migrate to a “coaching package” model so you can increase your income and make it more stable. The results our clients are getting are far beyond our expectations, so…
We’re running the next Coaching Package Power Conference on 28-29 May. Once again, we’ll have people joining us live in London, and via our live-streaming facilities. We’ll be sending out a call for applications in the next few weeks, but for now, we just want you to save the date and indicate your interest, so email us at info@jamiesmart.com if you want the chance to apply for a place when we open the doors in the next week or so.