Ordinarily, we take affirmations, quotes, and manifestos from other people. Words that inspire us. I believe that ordinary people are extra-ordinary and that your manifesto is a powerful way to shape your future.

Knowing yourself means understanding your wisest self. Your inner wisdom. In Greek, wisdom is called sophia (σοφία sophía “wisdom”). Spiritual, insightful, and seated in the heart, the centre of moral and intellectual decisions. Wisdom connects your heart with your head.

I wrote a manifesto 12 months ago as a note to myself. To what – who – I am and what I aspire to be, in life, work and business.

Writing it down brings it to life. Sharing it, I have found, helps others. Because a manifesto is about how YOU will shape your future. And this one is how I will shape mine.

Many of these statements are a work in progress and how I create my life, every day. I don’t always get it right. I’m an overthinker and everything is in my head. Connecting dots, looking for distinctions, exploring possibilities. The reason I wrote this down.

How I shape my future

When you start to shape your future, you create your life – an act of self-leadership enabling you to powerfully serve others.

Three questions I circle back to regularly:

1. How will I show up today?

When life throws curveballs, when the world is in chaos and uncertainty, when life is busy, when I need to prioritise my energy to be my calm and confident self. How will I show up. Today.

2. How will I live my dream today?

I consciously and purposefully recognise what I love to do and my big impossible dream in all aspects of my life, work, and business. I look for the nudges and take one step towards that. What connects my head with my heart.

3. How will I liberate dreams to shape the world?

I seek out dreamers. Future shapers. Who want to shape futures and ultimately shape the world.

What you don’t see

This hasn’t happened overnight. It took a massive bump in my life to realise that I was entering a new phase and the questions arose as to how I will shape that. I realised that I wasn’t in sync with my heart and head, and I was living 2 lives – work and life.

That when people see you as successful and confident, it’s really lonely on the inside.

When people have told me to aspire to be someone else – who do you admire, Juliet? I struggled with that. Because they weren’t me.

That I’m an introvert at heart.

That I realised have been successful. As a leader, as a builder of teams, a partner, a parent, and a human.

I think on my feet, I learn quickly, I sift out what I want to learn and I learned resilience – to be able to get back up and keep going.  Because I am committed to shaping the future and making a difference in the world.

My life, work, and business

I love simplicity. I am adept at taking the complex and noise, finding the dots, and creating a simple step to get to somewhere even better. When there is disagreement and change, I ease that pressure by connecting and being quiet.

Create space – courageous space – is where I operate best.

Being at the back means you can see everything. The space between, the gaps, the dots, the connections. Connecting those to get to the unseen level is powerful and magical. Often underestimated but not by me. That’s the land of possibilities.

This is what happens. Helping people remember how incredible they are, and to inspire them to the next level.

If that sounds interesting, then maybe we should talk.

Feature photo: Universal Kalakar, Unsplash