I just met Lilou Mace at her fab gym in central London. It was great to meet her — she is absolutely the same off camera as on camera. Before I knew it I was recounting my whole life story. It had not been my intention but she is a great listener - genuine and warm. We spoke about the need for leaders to be more authentic than ever. That gone are the days when as coaches/mentors we can sit far apart from the people we are helping. Today it is about being real. Apart from the pleasant experience of meeting a super-positive woman who is on a mission to help millions of people to live their dream, a new idea was born out of our conversation. Here is how.
Lilou described her own challenges and how she is responding to them with huge zest and how the support from the Co-Creating Our Reality community is tangible during these kinds of times. Lilou was made redundant just last week and already she has bounced back. She mentioned her desire to contribute; to be present to the current economic reality in London and the rest of the world.
We discussed the need to carefully balance two distinct capacities:
- being present to “what is”; not living in denial
- hearing the call to our future — being able to respond to ‘what is’ with inspired action.
There are people who, despite their benign intentions, act as vessels for fear. So we must act as vessels for trust and courage. Hence we cannot deny reality. But we do not have to add more drama to the reality.
We must act as vessels for trust and courage.
I spoke of my own vision, of how our communities can tap into vast resources at a personal and community level, building trust and collective capacity to respond. I shared with Lilou my challenges in getting the tools to do this out to lots more people. I also spoke about the project in Brixton that is focused on youth. Lilou was very encouraging and said "Sofia, really own your love for your work, and go out there and do it. Its amazing what happens when the commitment to your vision is stronger than your personal fears about making it happen" It's just what I needed to hear at this moment as I dither about whether my strategy is exactly right, and whether people might think I am just bothering them when I speak about community building. Thanks Lilou!
The New Idea
In Brixton, South London, a few of us have been working in different ways with young people who have been identified as being “at risk”. As I spoke of them to Lilou, she perked up with the idea that it would be fantastic to invite some young people into The 100 Day Reality Challenge. They could record their challenges as they make changes in their lives. We can pass them many links to the videos/teachers that have inspired us. Lilou could do a video for them… It could be the seed for many other young people to take up this challenge. The idea was born!
Lilou already offered concrete support and so now I am going to go back to my partners at Melanin Partnership about our next steps. I am very excited! Imagine young people from one of the tougher neighborhoods of urban London, taking up a challenge to alter their concrete reality in 100 days, sharing their ideas/challenges/feelings/realities and dreams. I am about to launch a set of peer-coaching/community collaboration tools and so there will be a context of support for young people to make their dreams a reality. And far from it being us helping them from a distance, we will be there as a community in the thick of it together.
Do I believe it is possible? Oh boy yes! Do I have doubts? Yes! And is that going to stop me? Not if i have anything to do with it :-)