Posts tagged impossible

Yesterday was my last day at my part time job. The job gave me both a structure to my week and a guaranteed income, both of which I have valued dearly. The company was great, the team was great and I learned a lot. Eventually, I realised that I was starting to use it as an excuse to not take action towards the life I want to live. So, thank you so much to my team at my past job and those at You Can for helping me get to the point I am at now. Jumping off the cliff into the unknown, leaping into the oh so scary world of believing in my skills, knowledge, and offer enough to generate my own income while doing things I love.

In order to celebrate this scary step, I have decided to embark on a 30 day scare the crap out of myself challenge.

For the next 30 days I will post one video which will describe doing something that both scares and excites me, one learning point, and a take away. Join me through my ‘Hell yeah!’ moments and my ‘Oh Sh*t’ moments for the next 30 days and please do cheer me on! *Warning, the raw and real Mel does tend to say a few swear words here and there…and sometimes makes up words all together!

Why on earth would you do this, Mel?

For Me: To bring some structure back in my life. To prove to myself that I can follow through. To document my journey at this scary time. To feel alive.

For You: Perhaps you are on a similar journey, thinking of making a change or needing to give yourself a kick in the bum to get going. I hope that following my journey will help you feel that you are not alone and inspire you to go out and do things that scare you too. Because in the end, it is by finding and doing something that makes you come alive that we truly start to make a dent in the world. Want to scare the crap out of yourself on film? Start your own challenge and let us know that you do! Share it on twitter with #stcoom (short for scarethecrapoutofmyself!)

Finally, Danger Lou, thank you so much for the inspiration. This is my journey towards Danger Me.

Love,

Mel

From helping you find your spark and surrounding you with people that believe that you can, through to grouping you with others who are interested in similar things – this is our story. And with it, this is why you see people with disabilities in most things that we do. It is also why and how we are not a disability service. Let’s think about disability differently.

Are you in?

*To view this Prezi just click ‘start prezi’ in the middle of the box and then the play triangle on the bottom left. You should hear my voice taking you through our story.

Three years ago, we started something amazing with a small group of incredible people. There were five of us, all either at risk of redundancy, wanting a change, wanting something different. So, we came together once a month over a shared meal and called ourselves the Change the World Gang. We had big ambitions but we didn’t start with the world. We started small, with each other – supporting each other through a time of transition. Since then, we co-founded this very out of the ordinary not-for-profit.

If you know The You Can Hub, you know that we’re not your usual not-for-profit. That last year our first birthday involved making superhero capes. That most of us are overly fond of ginger beer, we share our secrets and our meetings often involve talk of The Hulk and Mission Impossible. That our registered address is the local community pub where the villagers came together to save it from closure and are now the shareholders – and where my husband and I held the music festival part of our wedding last year (and got shares in the pub as a wedding gift). You’ll know that we have passion and purpose and that we’re working out how to live a life we love while helping you figure it out too. That we include people who are excluded elsewhere and emphasize the power of community, connections and ‘doing’ together. That we look for the impossible and work out how to make it possible.

This Spring, I have been offered an incredible opportunity. I have been invited to join 29 other people who think like we do and to gain a whole host of new knowledge and skills at the Misfits Conference in Fargo. It’s ‘a tiny conference about making a huge dent in the universe’. With topics like The Economics of Crazy and Writing Your Own Revolution, I’m fairly sure I’m going to come back a changed person – revealing my inner super hero, Danger Lou. Check out my successful application here: Lou Misfits Conf Application 

This is where I get to be vulnerable. To make it there, I need your help. This is my impossible – I can’t do it without you. Think of it like enabling a huge amount of inspiration that will come back to you through post-event blog and video posts, in person socials and so much more.

Will you help me to reveal my inner superhero, and come back from Fargo dangerous and contagious? If you read my application, you’ll know that 30 seems to be a pretty important number to me right now. So I’m looking for 30 people to back this Misfit-Adventure by donating just £50. I want to be able to know you all by name and either physically / virtually give you a hand shake.

Will you be one of the thirty? Contact us as soon as possible if you want to be one of the 30 – use our contact form (scroll down) and put “Hell yeah Danger Lou!” at the start of your comment or tweet us @youcanhub with the hashtags #dangerlou #imin. I can’t wait to hear from you! Check out the full low down on the Misfit Conference here: http://aj-leon.com/misfit-conf/ Oh, and thanks to Danger Mouse for the inspiration! Watch out for more posts from me on revealing my inner super hero coming soon…

What would it mean to reveal your inner super hero?

**Update** There is now a donation link available here for you to make your donation directly. And if you’re a UK taxpayer, you have the added benefit of Giftaid! Click the button… and make sure to include the message “Hell Yeah Danger Lou” with your donation!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5-zAh-ERV4&feature=youtu.be]

The first step to meeting the challenge of change is to start liking yourself. To do that, stop thinking in terms of “you”, and start thinking in terms of “us”. Together we’re strong, apart we’re weak.

– Simon Weston – pictured at the end of the video

I find that quote amazing in and of itself. I also find that quote amazing because when we explored the meaning of “impossible” in our You Can Check It Out team meeting, this same theme came up.

Having someone else helps. Someone to reassure you. Someone who shares your interest. Maybe someone who’s trying to do what you’re doing too, and exploring similar goals. Maybe someone who’s done it before and can show you some of the smaller steps.

When we think about “Us,” everything seems easier. So how about it. Fancy joining us?

Note: I got to hear Simon speak because I’m currently being seconded to the Realife Trust for a Vodafone World of Difference placement – which you can keep up to date with here: Vodafone World of Difference.

Today we were due to have our first You Can Check It Out meeting of 2013; however, it snowed. And snowed and snowed and snowed. Half of our team were snowed in so we decided to postpone today’s meeting. I thought this was a great opportunity to review our last meeting here, as we talked about some pretty juicy stuff.

We started with a word. “Impossible.” What does it mean? We found this really hard at first; we could think of films like Mission Impossible and The Hulk!

An example helped. “What if I told you I didn’t have any legs?” Straight away Tracy said, “It would be impossible, you wouldn’t be able to walk.” “What if I told you I was going to climb a mountain, on my hands?” “Impossible!”

Then ideas started to flow. “I find it really hard to say no to take-aways.” “I find it really hard to lose weight.” “I find it really hard to communicate with people.” “… to make healthy choices…” “…to go to the shops…” We found that everyone’s impossible is different.

We soon realised that even though there were things we think of as really hard, there were also examples of us doing these things. “I did a presentation.” “I’ve lost weight.” “I went out to the shops for the first time the other week!” We started to talk about what had made these things possible, and we came up with the list. I thought it would be great to share this learning with you!

How to Make the Impossible Possible:

• Break it down into smaller pieces – little steps are easier!
• Take your time
• Make sure that you don’t feel under any pressure
• Plan a reward at the end – something you really enjoy and that you find easy
• Trust that it gets easier over time
• Keep practicing! Keep trying!

We also felt that having someone else helps…

• For reassurance
• Someone with you who believes in you
• Someone with you who shares your interest – or bring people in who share the same interest!
• Someone who has done it before – who can show you the smaller steps

At the end of the session, we watched this film: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18508243

What do you think of the film? Are there any examples you notice from our list? What are the ways that you help yourself, when you’re working on something that feels hard or impossible?

It’s the New Year. Phew! We’re now a couple of weeks into this first month of 2013 and after the initial rush of Happy New Year’s, some of the Christmas sparkle has started to fade. January – one long post-Christmas hangover, but seemingly not, at least, the home of the most depressing day of the year.

New Year is the traditional time for setting resolutions. Maybe you prefer to set intentions, or goals. But I’m betting you already know what your impossible is. You know, that dream, the one that seems so intangible, so far off, and yet so inherently attractive to you, you know in your gut or your heart that you have to realise it, if you could only let yourself.

“If you could only let yourself.” Because often when we allow ourselves to think of these  dreams, when they sneak and filter their way into our conscious, what is our usual reaction? We shut them away, file them away… “that’s impossible!” “I’ll never be able to change my career / live in a treehouse / find a way to combine my passion with earning a living.” Cynicism, skepticism, the inner critic, “Reality” – whatever you want to call it, it pops up to make sure we shelve those dreams for another day.

I looked up Cynicism in the thesaurus. I found Sentimentality. I looked up Cynical in the thesaurus, and I found Naive. These words conjure up a sense of being disconnected from reality, daydreaming, not to be taken seriously. My inner critic started to have a field day. I needed to find some different words…

I moved on. I looked up Skepticism in the thesaurus. And now I found Believing, Devotion, Undoubting. And I realised that I often suspend my disbelief – whenever I watch a film. And it’s so easy! So these are words that I choose for 2013. Believing, Devotion, Undoubting. What is more real than knowing what I’m aiming for, and how I can share it and let others in, and believing in it? Let this year be a year of possibilities… and the action steps that accompany them.

If you’d like to get started setting your intentions or goals for 2013, here are some great resources:

1. Try a “Year in Review” of 2012 using this great post from Jenn Lee
2. There’s an alternative, more left-brain approach to reviewing and planning in this extensive post from The Art of Non-Conformity’s Chris Guillebeau
3. If you like to be walked and talked through the steps, try this New Year’s Ritual from Andrea Scher of Superhero Journal

If you want to invest in your dreams this year, check out Andrea Scher’s Mondo Beyondo class – it’s all about dreaming big! Maybe see you over there…

What’s your impossible for 2013? How will you give yourself permission to suspend your disbelief? And what is your first smallest step to turning your impossible into possible? Please share in the comments below!

1) Find someone who has something “impossible” that they want to achieve – “Aaran can’t cycle.” Pair them up with someone passionate about the thing they want to achieve (meet both Aaran and cycling fanatic Ruth)

2) Set about making the impossible possible – so that you can turn the phrase “Aaran can’t cycle” into “Aaran can cycle!”

3) Build momentum, recruit other cycling fanatics including Clive and Angela, and create a whole movement of people interested in creating cycling opportunities for everyone – and win a Cambridge Evening News Community Support Award for your efforts

4) Receive an invite from the Mayor of Cambridge to attend a very special event at which you will be presented to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

5) Find and dust off your best frock / suit / Sunday Best and turn up at Cambridge Guildhall at the appointed time – and make sure someone records what happens

And there you have it… Making your impossible possible. Who knows where it might lead?

When was the last time you did something impossible?

Small firm from Teesside, UK, creates fuel from water and air… sounds too good to be true?

Air Fuel Synthesis, based in Stockton on Tees, was featured on the BBC website last week because it has found a way to convert carbon dioxide and water into a hydrocarbon fuel. And the process is carbon neutral. And they’ve already used the fuel to run a small motorised scooter. Pretty amazing huh? There are still tests to be done to check the energy efficiency of the process and to seewhat happens when production is scaled up. But we think it’s pretty amazing that they got this far.

They made the front page on the Independent and the Material World programme on Radio 4 will be re-broadcast today at 9pm. Makes you think doesn’t it… is it really impossible to create a future where we’re not dependent on fossil fuels?

So… what’s your impossible? And isn’t it about time you got started on it?

Nothing can measure someone’s potential. It’s impossible to tell what people are capable of once they catch fire

Carole Dweck