In the Muddle of Nowhere

9TH MAY 2015

Where are you? A friend asked on facebook.

I’m in the muddle of nowhere, I wrote. No autocorrect hovered over the word as I carefully replaced the ‘u’ with ‘i’ and looked again at the sentence. It unsettled me, as if an elephant in the room had been made visible, a trumpeting elephant that had been flapping its ears at me for awhile.

I was in the muddle of nowhere. I sighed, remembering how I had started my business to early success, with clients in China, the UK and Canada and then the slowdown during the transition to living in Australia again. In hindsight it could have been anticipated, then again hindsight is like that.

So after flirting with some fallback positions that had short term success but didn’t really solve the dilemma I did the very thing I never, ever wanted to do again. I went back to teaching.

It was what the world used to pay me to do, my future by default until I set out to change it and I experienced it again for 12 long months. Don’t get me wrong, there was lots to like about the work I did, but the sense that I was doing what I was meant to and loved to do was missing. GET IT NOW? my soul might have been yelling at me.

Then came that curious question from my friend, my reply and I knew unless I wanted a stampeding elephant it was time to risk discomfort and do it again.

I’m not in the muddle of nowhere any more. Business took on new dimensions, potential clients started to materialise and the sense of life as mysterious and expansive returned. It is sometimes hard to remember the sense of hopelessness I felt when I was pushing what I wanted out of sight.

But we all know that place and have spent time there (perhaps too much time) until we believe our dreams and ourselves and get going again.

My question to you is, is there part of your life where you are in the muddle of nowhere? 

Is there a trumpeting elephant in the room and can I help?  

I’d love to hear your story.