On pillars, a life spent outdoors and claiming your authority

Nature comes first
My connection with Nature comes first

Through the many podcast conversations I’ve had this past year and the treks I’ve guided I realised I had to start claiming my authority again. So do you!

Just before I travelled to the Netherlands to visit family, I did what will likely be the last beautiful hike of the season.

To celebrate a season of exceptional hiking experiences I treated myself to a truly delicious blueberry omelette at the Steineralm. Way too much of course but also too good not to give finishing it all a real try.

(If ever you get a chance to visit that small mountain inn, be sure to order either this dish or Kaiserschmarr’n)

Nature came first

Now that the hiking season is behind us, I’ve been setting up fresh interview sessions for the ‘Daring Self-Leadership & The Nature Connection’ podcast.

Having conversations with people about self-leadership and their connection with Nature has been one of the saving graces during the pandemic. It’s a joy to talk with people from very diverse backgrounds and from all over. It’s also a joy to discover the many ways in which self-leadership can manifest in someone’s life.

Over the course of the now more than 40 interviews I’ve done, I noticed something that I’ve been seeing in the ‘wider world’ too — especially when it comes to coaching.

Even when coaches have always had a strong connection with Nature, they often are coaches first and bring Nature into their coaching second.

Over the last few months — particularly as I was guiding treks — I realised it has been the other way ’round for me:

My connection with Nature came (and still comes) first and coaching second.

Though I had been coaching people while I worked in corporate, I didn’t leave corporate life behind to become a coach. I left because I knew I wanted a more adventurous life and I needed to live among mountains.

I was a mountain hiking guide (or mountain leader) long before I became a certified coach. It was because I was having deep and meaningful conversations, coaching conversations, while guiding hikes and treks that I decided I wanted to put those conversations on a much more professional footing.

I’m not sure where this realisation will take me, but I’m sure it will lead to more and new adventures. I’ll keep you posted.

On 4 Pillars of Self-Leadership

Caroline Ferguson on 4 pillars of self-leadership

Caroline Ferguson is a not-so-pathological mind unscrambler when she puts her talents to very good use as a business consultant, cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist and mindset trainer to purposeful entrepreneurs and business leaders.

She’s also won awards as a pathological writing person a.k.a. a comedy writer.

Stepping into her own self-leadership even more than she was doing already, in 2020 Caroline packed up everything to start a year of exploring around the UK and elsewhere in the world.

Then COVID hit and her plans didn’t quite work out.

Together we have a conversation on episode 34 about the 4 pillars of Self-Leadership and how she practises what she preaches.

On a life spent outdoors and writing

Jo Roberts on a lifetime in the outdoors and writing books

Jo Roberts is a writer living in Cumbria with her fabulous dog Millie. She believes that words and nature have the healing power to transform inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions. And that a blank page has the magical potential to dance with innate creativity.

She understands though, that – while sharing can be a joyful liberation – it can also be a daunting & scary place. That to show up at our most vulnerable and reveal ourselves takes courage. So her mission is to gently encourage and empower amazing souls – who have a story to tell – to write inside out.

Check out my conversation with Jo in episode 35 as we explore the connection between writing and the outdoors.

On claiming your authority

Dr Ellen Snee on how to claim your authority

Dr Ellen Snee has worked at the forefront of women’s leadership development for more than 25 years. But for the first 18 of those years, the front line of leadership wasn’t an Ivy League MBA program or a high-end consulting firm: It was an international order of Catholic nuns.

It was while sitting at the water’s edge and thinking of frogs that Ellen realized she wanted to walk a different path in life and that she would have to leave the order.

Discover how her life unfolded when she did in episode 36.

As always …

Go dare greatly!

— Gerdi