Being Open...
Paula Kensington
My focus at the start of this new year is all about setting the right foundations.
Whilst this is an important step when starting out something new, it’s actually a worthwhile exercise to re-visit consistently. We should all be asking ourselves… “Have I got my foundations set right”. Consistency is key to success and being consistent in our own Self Reflection work is imperative.
You see, my point about ‘being open’ is this….
It’s important to consider the value and relevance today of an investment that we have all made into getting to where we are today. That investment may have been made into yourself and your personal brand, and also into your business or career/organisation. That investment might represent your effort and time over the past 10 or 15 years invested into a career in finance, but it also represents the opportunity cost of not following a different path. Perhaps not living your real purpose, not spending time with loved ones or not spending time putting yourself first.
Being open is about whether you can hit the pause button on your life. Be open to consider whether you are on the right path. Whether what you do each day is serving you well and whether this is the life you want to live…Being open to review and decide if you should forge ahead with gusto. Being open as to whether you should stop and pivot in a different direction or perhaps be open to stop chasing a dream that is no longer important….?
Being open can have other meanings, as I write this BLOG, the Australian Tennis is on the TV in the background. Now why do they call sporting championships I wonder – ‘The Open’ such as Golf, Tennis, snooker, darts, volleyball and chess! It’ s because the championship is open to all contestants regardless of professional or amateur status. Now, that’s interesting…
Imagine if we were open to anything that we wanted to achieve irrespective of our professional or amateur status….. Could we achieve anything that we set our minds to do?
When I think of being open – it means to me whether I have an open mind, whether I have an open heart and do I approach situations and challenges with open palms. Am I open rather than shut, do I have room in my life for something new, rather than knowing the whole time…?
Now that I sit down to write this blog about being open, my meaning is this:
How easy and malleable are we to change or are we set hard and fixed in our thinking? Are we really making regular self-check-ins to ensure we are living the life that interests us on a daily or annual basis. Are we being open rather than closed so that we can demonstrate strong self-leadership.
Perhaps more importantly, the question we should be asking of ourselves is this… Are we open to diversity of thought…..Have we thought about the things that we don’t know. Have we thought about the importance of others thinking and others knowledge. Are we setting ourselves on the right trajectory for success. Maybe we can practice be a little more open in our conversations, our interactions with others and even in our own thinking.
“Nothing great was ever achieved without being open to change” – Perla Sierra – Snr Director of Data Analytics – Assurant
Go ahead, give yourself permission to try and be more open this week and see what happens. Go-on get outside of your comfort zone and try something new and maybe a little bit scary….
