The Beginning
There is no real beginning to the unfolding path of course since life was always unfolding. But in order to create a context for what is happening now I’ve written a tale for you which describes the story from the point this website was created in October 2012.
The opening post, ‘The Adventure Begins‘, described my excitement at finding myself creating art and setting up this site as a place to “showcase my paintings and record the stories behind them”.
The initial blogs were focused on the art but as the painting activity dwindled, so did the posts describing it. More coaching, business building and general life was thrown into the mix and without noticing I was shifting to another paragraph I wrote in that original post – describing this as a place “to tell the story as it unfolds as a testament to what is possible when you take little steps in the unknown, following what feels right and not thinking too much about it”.
In fact, I’ve written a number of posts over time, on 3 different websites, that express a similar sentiment – living unknown and following what is already here. It’s taken me years, however, to finally give up following the crowd and jump right in.
The Mastermind
In January 2015 I joined a business building Mastermind group (my last attempt to build a coaching practice in a more conventional way) and switched to posting more on Facebook. Around May the writing here dried up altogether. I was struggling to work out what I wanted to focus on and trying to fit the teaching of the Mastermind into what I felt naturally drawn to.
I was looking for the bits that fit my worldview but none of them did really. However, in the process I got clearer and clearer about what I didn’t want and got to practice speaking out in groups where I felt I was way outside the status quo.
I also met some wonderful people who supported me in my ‘bizarreness’ (my word not theirs) and even paid me money to join a Facebook group I named ‘The Unfolding Path’, despite not knowing what they paying for.
The Unfolding Path FB Group
This came about as a result of my sitting in one of the Mastermind workshops and watching my energy plummet as all the usual tactics and strategies were reeled out. It came to me to invite anyone in the workshop, who felt called to do so, to join me in an experiment, for a wager of $15. I used the term wager because it was a leap of faith for all of us. I wasn’t really offering anything in return other than access to a FB group and a different kind of game. 🙂
It was a very scary moment and I was amazed and humbled when 9 people signed up. It felt so right compared to the other stuff I’d been trying to do all year. But still I found it hard to walk away from the Mastermind and from the conventional way of doing things. I continued to have “enrolment conversations” and continued to feel confused about what I was offering.
Eventually I stripped away everything I thought I knew and everything I’d been taught and asked myself “If I didn’t need to do anything what would I be left with?”
The answer: Conversation
I love being in conversation with people and something magical seems to happen during the process. So I decided to keep things really simple and invite The Unfolding Path group to monthly 1:1 conversations.
When hearing myself speak out loud, an inner knowing gives me courage to keep moving forward in a way that feels right even though it’s challenging not knowing where it will lead.
My Bag of Book Bits
At the beginning of 2016 I felt the urge to start something new and I was drawn to the idea, it being a leap year, of doing that something for 366 consecutive days. 21 days later an idea come to me to post stuff that, if I was writing a book, I would include in it. I’d been collecting quotes, ideas and notes that resonated with my thinking, or made me ponder or see things in a new light, for a number of months and thought I’d start with those.
At the time of writing the Bag of Book Bits project continues, albeit in a more haphazard fashion than I had envisaged at the start!
The State of Play Today
– April 2016
My most recent focus has been on upgrading this website to make it more user friendly and express more of what I’m up to. I’m itching to get back to sharing on social media so I can attract more visitors here and increase the number of people enjoying the conversation.
As for “the business”, for the time-being I’m focussing on the ‘Get It Done Fun Days’ and, slowly getting back into creating some art. But that could all change at any moment. This time last week I had no intention of offering the ‘Get It Done Fun Days’ but, after getting a very positive response when they came into conversation at a dinner party last weekend, I decided to add them into the mix again.
The art was very much on the back burner too but when I posted a picture of my return to the attic (studio) I was amazed at the number of uplifting comments and felt encouraged to paint again.
I’ll be updating this page as the story continues to unfold but rather than having to check back here to find out what’s going on, you can stay up to date more easily by signing up below for: