This week we celebrate arriving at blog 100 in our my manifesto journey. Every week, we write a blog, whether it be a story of Acts of Kindness, a pondering on the process of manifesto writing itself, a Manifesto Musing, a reference to an interesting book, a Book Recommendation, or a conversation on a wellbeing issue, a Wellbeing Insight. This week, we just want to talk about the effect of the journey itself on each of us.
Our partnership started back in 2019, when Justin took up the opportunity to be coached by Sue. Over the coming twelve months Justin reaped many benefits of Sue’s regular coaching sessions – a growing sense of inner peace, newfound clarity, and a deep sense of gratitude. We mutually enjoyed our conversations, we shared resources, notes, and books as we expressed and explored living with purpose.
Our business partnership evolved from our shared sense of purpose. When we began the discussion about how together we might be of service to others, Justin raised the concept of creating a personal manifesto, a blueprint, a framework, a map by which to live. We were curious to see if we could develop a process through which we could draw forth the conditions for a life well lived. We accessed our qualifications, the breadth and depth of our readings, and our inner wisdom. As we both prize servant leadership—in which the goal of the leader is to serve, to share power, to put the needs of others first and to help them develop and perform as highly as possible — we wanted to develop and refine a process we could apply to ourselves and then to share it with others. We had our shared purpose!
Little did we know then that from this acorn, the oak tree would grow. We began with a long list of questions, which we whittled down to four – we trialled and tested – we then co-created our personal manifestos and felt energised by the final product. We refined our process by adding new questions and new steps – we trialled and tested – we added specific exercises and activities – we trialled and tested.
Our confidence grew as we recognised that our seven building blocks provided a coherent structure for a personal manifesto creation. It was time to explicitly describe our 7-Step process along with the twenty-one exercises, so we drafted and re-drafted – then we trialled and tested – and we refined and re-drafted. We now find ourselves at the stage of tweaking our final manuscript with the expert assistance of our publisher and editor at Melbourne Books. Our ability to persevere was made far easier due to two key ingredients – our shared sense of purpose, and our strong bond of mutual support.
Our journey continues to be full of meaning. We have our own personal manifestos, and we have been enriched through sharing and refining the process with many fellow humans – each beautifully unique and wonderfully similar. We can say that life for each of us is so much better now. We needed to do this work. We are aware now of who we are at the deepest level and the way we want to serve humanity. It is not so much that anything has changed but that everything has changed. We experience the joy of living intentionally in a way that deeply resonates with who we are. We are heightened by the emanation of this inner rightness and are driven by the desire to share it with all of you.
With our knowledge of our being, we are able to move forward with certainty, to experience fully the joy of whatever comes our way and to respond to what arises. When the obstacles arise, we stay the path and are strengthened through the power of living in alignment with our manifesto.
Throughout these past two years we’ve looked forward to drafting and publishing our weekly blog and here we find ourselves at number 100. Whilst we are proud of our business and our upcoming book, we still readily acknowledge there is much more for us to learn, more ways for our business to evolve, and many more blogs to craft.
We are energised to be living a life of purpose, we are buoyed to persevere through our mutual support and the encouragement of our community, and we are proud of where we are at. Blog 100, and just warming up!
With warm thanks for your support,
Justin & Sue xx