How to imagine the future
When asked where I want to be in the future or what I want to achieve, I freeze. The answer is too hard. I can only imagine what I know. That makes me sound really dull, but it’s true. Right now my life is so full of kids, family and work that imagining bigger things just feels too hard, and quite tiring. But at some point in the not-so-distant future the kids will need me a little less, and I’ll have a little bit more time for me. I will want a plan.
So how do we expand our vision? How do we make ourselves see further than after-school swimming lessons or what’s for dinner? I think the answer lies in finding people we can relate to who, who have found themselves doing extraordinary things in extraordinary places.
Sally Johnston is a woman I contract to. I’ve worked for her on and off for a few years now. We chat before meetings, I’ve complimented her shoes, I can relate to her. Then one day while I was waiting for her, I looked around her office. Not in a creepy way! I mean I looked at what she had hanging on the walls. There were Commonwealth Games banners, and not just the one - she had three. She arrived just as it dawned on me what this meant. I silently pointed to the banners and spluttered “did you… are you…Commonwealth Games…?” She smiled and said yes. I regrouped, and we moved on to the meeting. Later that night with the help of Google I discovered that, yes, Sally had competed in the Commonwealth Games in the sport of shooting (good to know when you’re a contractor with deliverables,) and that she’d won gold in Glasgow. She’s someone I can relate to, who I can talk about clothes with, who has achieved things I couldn’t imagine achieving.
Jo Cribb is my career coach. We chat and share stories of kids and life, and I can relate to her. I follow her on Twitter. One day she posted a tweet about how she was going to facilitate a panel at the CHOGM Women’s Forum. That in itself blew my mind. And then Helen Clark replied to her tweet (turns out she was another panellist.) That completely blew my mind. I wondered, is Jo excited? Or is it just exciting for me, who can’t comprehend being invited to do something like that? Maybe this is just a normal event in her pretty impressive work life? Turns out she was excited too. I got to watch it all play out on Twitter with the CHOGM and New Zealand High Commission twitter feeds posting pictures of Jo and Helen and three other panellists (I imagine they are fairly impressive as well) sitting next to each other in an auditorium in London. They were discussing the place of women in leadership, and the world was listening.
These two women would both say ‘hi’ to me in the street. They are women who are getting on with it, like we all are. They’re women who have the same things going on that we have. They are relatable. They’re like us, but they have opened the world up for me. They’ve made me see beyond swimming lessons and what’s for dinner. They have allowed me to think bigger, to imagine more. If you haven’t already, try to find your Sally and Jo. Find the women who you can relate to who are doing incredible things, and allow yourself to contemplate extraordinary things for your future.
Do you have inspiring women in your life? What about them inspires you? What have they taught you?