I have to admit, I was a bit unsure when my partner suggested digging up our little grassy garden and chucking down a load of wildflower seeds instead, but look at it now!
It got me thinking about our work and how, so often, we can be conditioned to think we need to do the sensible, conventional thing – to be a neat and controlled lawn – when actually there is so much colour and variety available if we let our wild selves go.
Every day, I’m speaking to people who are stuck in lawn-mode, doing what’s expected of them and curbing their true nature. They are doing everything “right”, but feel like there’s something missing.
Does this sound familiar?
Do you notice yourself going through the motions to climb the corporate ladder, despite the fact that those higher rungs don’t look that appealing?
Has it been a while since you feel your true self at work? Have you always felt like you were wearing a mask?
Do you feel disconnected from what really matters to you, what makes you feel energised and alive?
If so, you might need to go the way of my garden, and start sowing your career some wildflower seeds! How this might look in practice…
Do one thing outside of work each week that is new and fun – not because you think it will directly lead to your new career, but because it will jolt you into a different headspace and allow your brain to start creating new connections.
Get curious and speak to a whole load of random people about their work – not because you definitely want to do their job, but to free up your mind to new possibilities.
Carve out time for what you enjoy – hobbies, activities, time with friends - and do it even if you don’t feel like it, because chances are, once you’re in action you’ll feel more motivated.
Get wild at work – if you can, take the initiative to mix things up in your current job, rather than playing by “the rules”: ask to contribute to a project that’s not within your remit but more aligned with your interests, tell your manager the skills you enjoy using and see what you can do to build on them, see if you can work-shadow a different department or take a colleague from that department out to coffee, ask to go part time so you have more time to explore outside of work.
Sometimes, just having the intention to let out a bit of your authentic wild side at work – to stop playing “by the book” and being honest about who you are, what you care about, and what you want can lead to exciting new opportunities and connections.
Each one of us has the seeds of these wildflowers within us. Rather than weeding them out, I wonder what would happen if you watered them and allowed them to bloom in all their higgledy-piggledy, untamed beauty…
As Glennon Doyle says in her wonderful book Untamed:
“And now that we don’t have to be good, we can be free.”