Why this book? And why these characters?
PERSONAL GROWTH, BUSINESS GROWTH
Let’s start with the style of the book. When it comes to personal and business growth, I am a firm fan of adopting a curious mindset and putting emotions through the rationality filter.For decades I was a slave to my emotions (sounds like a disco classic).
It was when, in later life, I met a business analyst and fell in love in a slow and reasonable way that I understood how I could combine emotion with reason. I think I had feared losing my creative spark if I applied rationality to my ‘feelings’!
Not only did my relationship with myself grow, my ability to have a good relationship with a partner grew!
I am now a member of the rational thinking fan club. I am also a fan of using story to trigger insight, and humour to energise and bring perspective.
Enter the characters and their stories.
My inspiration for writing this book
Self-Sabotage, Impostor Syndrome, Inner Critics
I have been inspired by my experiences and the stories of my clients and connections.
I am also inspired by the workings of our extraordinary brains and how we are influenced by history and the evolving world around us. I am constantly curious. Here I am in my sixth decade, and I have evolved!
I now recognise the quiet me, the performer me, the funny and the serious me. I recognise the playful me and the businesslike me. I recognise the environments where I feel most aligned and relaxed and the people that I feel mostaligned with and relaxed around. I also know that I am forever curious and evolving.
But this has been a journey, dear reader. I will resist taking you back to my early childhood – suffice to say I share a story in the first chapter of the book – starring my 19-year old, art student self.
My own personal investigation
I am now helping clients who are a few years behind me in this journey.
As client after client and conversation after conversation highlighted similar self-squashing symptoms, I thought it was time to put my findings in writing.
Before this book-writing venture, I was not just learning from myself, I was learning from giving talks on ‘feeling fake’, sharing posts on these challenges and having conversations.
Through sharing I have learned about the cunning tricks our brains seem to play and our human susceptibility to being drawn in by the ‘norms’ and ‘shoulds’.
There was a palpable ‘tipping point’ for me when I invented the character Investigator Lewis. She pops up on LinkedIn every now and then.
This character only existed as a result of beating my own self-squashing!
The Mystery of the Squashed Self
HOW TO STOP SELF-SABOTAGING AND MAKE YOUR BUSINESS THRIVE
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