I signed up with one of the best coaches and mentors in the world mid-pandemic for two reasons:

1. Because he encourages us to embrace our weirdness.
2. I struggled to find an exceptional coach who got me.

In fact, it was during the height of the pandemic I realised that I was playing small, that I wanted to embrace my weirdness and not be afraid to speak out what impact I wanted to make. I then invested with a further two.

Weird is simply this:

Being who you want to be and doing what you want to do.

When I left my lucrative corporate job, people said I was brave, crazy, insane, and most didn’t know what to say. There are reasons I did, and I wouldn’t encourage anyone to do what I did!

And this resulted in shaping futures.

In my first in-person facilitation event this week, there were questions of … well we have to do this, we have to tick the boxes, a recruiter told me this – these people were saying ‘we have no control over our lives’.

You do.

The only thing you have control over in this uncertain world is you – what you do and how you think.

I was chatting to the HR Director who was trying to get people back into the office for their wellbeing and return to normal. She is right but like the cup of coffee I enjoyed afterward, there is no one single thing that will encourage everyone (yes I’m also particular about my coffee but that’s another conversation).

The same as there is no single definition of leadership.

Life is an experimentation. A creative and entrepreneurial path for you to define and explore.

To stand out and make a positive impact doesn’t take someone shouting from the rooftops, it takes you to embrace your weirdness so that you are visible in a sea of the same.

I’ve been told I have a weird trait of remembering people. I have people in my LinkedIn network who I met at an event over 10 years ago that have used as a supplier. Or I remember people looking for jobs and will tag them in if I see something that might be of interest.

I also give a damn about the future – your future.

A chap I was working with yesterday, was grateful when I was challenging what he had been told about his future. And the client partner on site with me was surprised when I talked about what I believed in and why.

Type in weird is good on Google and it will send you 1.9 billion hits.

As Jessica Hagy says:

Embrace your weird uniqueness. Discover what it is and bring it to life. Not everyone will get you, but you don’t need everyone to.