guerrilla blogging
 Well, we’re Guerrilla, aren’t we. So you wouldn’t expect any of the usual New Year New You stuff. I’ve never made New Year Resolutions. In the same way, I’ve never waited until Monday to start a diet, or taken part in dry January or grown a moustache in November (I do that all year round ;-)). But even so, this time always feels like an opportunity for me to think about new beginnings. The question I wrangle with, is why begin in January? And why are overt gestures necessary to make seemingly epic life adjustments.
I’m talking about goals here. The grand prize of some coaching practices. We’ve heard the spiel: Think of a big goal you ‘d like to achieve. Break it down into baby steps. Take the baby steps. Seek accountability and voila you head towards your destination fixed, sorted and ebullient from putting a big tick on the ‘to do’ list. The thing for me is … there’s always the next thing on the list. The list never whittles down. My life could be boiled down to one long tick list of destinations and achievements. What about today? I’m alive NOW. A goal presumes that the actual good bit of lives won’t start until we get there. And perish the thought, if the goal doesn’t come to fruition. We are all aware of the 80/20 rule. Oh my goodness! The judgement ... that open invitation to my inner critic to have her field day. I need that like a hole in the head! Can you live a goal-less life? And, if you didn’t have any goals, ever, would your life grind to a halt? And that’s it for me. It absolutely hasn’t. I do stuff and sometimes I don’t do stuff. I’m just living and the beauty of living is being present and learning as I go. The big plus is I can ebb and flow, go forwards, backwards, change direction, stand still. All of that is great for me. It’s exciting. Even more exciting than putting a tick in the achievement by 2020 box ;-). Happy New Year. Teresa x “Everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end” John Lennon
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 It’s December so forgive me for feeling reflective. I’m actually feeling well proud of everything that Guerrilla has achieved in such a short space of time. And I’m wondering why that is?
So, just as we’re compiling ProperGanda, I notice that on 10 December it’s the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Convention of Human Rights. How timely. So today Matthew, I want to talk about one of those fundamental HUMAN RIGHTS: Autonomy - our right to independence. Our right to choose our own shits and gigs. Our right not to have to OBEY a higher authority. The freedom for us decide for ourselves. And I’m now getting very excited as I’m realising that all of that stuff is close to my heart. More than that, if there was such a thing, autonomy would sit at the centre of a ‘Guerrilla Manifesto’. For me, the shameless desire to be autonomous runs through my veins and the drive for this, is what connected me to Barry and what we both resolutely want for everyone. This is why we are coaches. This is why we set up Guerrilla. This is why we want freedom for every employee to connect with the essence of who they are and to recognise that they have choice. This is why it works. Because along with the now visible seeds of change within the culture of work, Neuroscience also tells us we’re not wrong. According to Research by Dan Cable, our brains operate on a ‘seeking system’ which when activated, enables us to find joy in the jobs we do. In other words, to find stuff out for ourselves; to be led by our ideas; curiosity and passions. We become ALIVE when we’re empowered and rewarded, especially in the workplace. Autonomy is a human given. The trouble is, organisations, the more traditional ones anyway, get a little nervous of giving their people too much autonomy. We might mess things up, waste time, waste money, have bad ideas or start trying to take over. Well I say this to you traditional organisations out there, autonomy will enable your people to GET THINGS RIGHT, SAVE TIME, MAKE MONEY, HAVE GREAT IDEAS and TAKE OVER! These are great things for innovation and growth. Great things for moving things forward. It IS a Human Right to be allowed to express your ideas, see your ideas through and be rewarded for the added benefit these ideas bring. It’s actually not rocket science. We have found that by having ‘in the moment’, positive, empowering conversations with all sorts of people in organisations, their light bulbs have been firing up. Their eyes look up to the left and they start imagining. They start creating. They start thinking. And I’ll tell you this. It's THE MOST BEAUTIFUL thing to watch, and an absolute honour to be able to facilitate. Let’s get this Human business Right. Peace and Love Teresa x  I don’t do stress. I see everyone else doing it and I’m thinking ‘NO THANK YOU!’ I would rather stick needles in my eyes than have a big moment shrieking, drawing attention to myself and deal with all the angst that would follow. I ain’t got time for none of that. Life is waaaaaaaaay to short. Its not that I don’t bump into stressful situations, but when I do, my reaction is to decompress. To go calm. To lock down, observe, learn .. say nothing. Of course, there are exceptions to this. But I seem to skip the whole stress thing and go straight to anger. Like when I’m driving the car. I know, I know … my very, very bad. I think I ‘don’t do stress’ because I grew up with my mum stressing left, right and centre. Everything was a drama. Voices were permanently raised, fear and put downs reigned. I didn’t like it one little bit because, in all the sodding, bloody drama, I was lost. Invisible. My voice was not only never heard, it never even featured and I decided for my life to be a happy one, I was going to do the opposite. No drama. No stress. Listen to the underdog. Great. My plan worked! Or has it? Nooooo. Obviously not. By not overtly showing my stress, I internalise it. Without telling a soul. Keeping it to myself. There is no open valve to extinguish the pressure and guess what. I have now got an auto immune disease, had two knee replacements and inject myself weekly with a biologic drug and take lethal tablets to lower my immune system. Recent studies show that stress is a key indicator in waking up cells that cause inflammation and disease in the body and in avoiding acknowledging that stress even exists in my life … my body has called my bluff.
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AuthorsThanks to resident Guerrilla Barry for kicking us off with our first blog. Amongst all the Coaching and People Development we do, we're taking on Identity Coaching as our personal crusade. It'll all make sense when you've read the blog but in a nutshell ... why not live the life you deserve to live? Be the person you are? Everybody else is taken. Archives
December 2018
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