Usually when I hear the expressions “Game Changer” and “You are Awesome” my wank-o-meter goes off the charts.
But that all changed last week.
I stepped onto a “Game Changer” trampoline and baby I’m bouncing.
I signed up for a workshop out of mere curiosity to understand what this ‘make your dreams happen’ caper is all about.
“What the hell?,” I hear you ask “But Andrea, you are our voice of cynicism, our reality check from all the hype, our sneaky guffaw at the back of the room … YOU DON’T DO LIFE COACHY, GROUP HUGGING RA-RA. What’s going on?”
This, my friends, is going ON – one big bounce of LIVE MORE workshopping with the Jedi Master of motivation and strategy, Mr Mark Dobson.
This is no caper. This is the make your dreams happen REAL DEAL!
Meet Dobbo
Known ’round the traps as Dobbo, Mark Dobson has a very liberating way of helping you prioritise all that head and heart stuff – and there’s oodles of financial guru-guy and psych couch surfing along the way as well.
He’s not like the other strategising and motivating dudes. (In fact they probably make him sit in the naughty corner.)
Mark has created a world-class business helping athletes, successful business leaders, educators, students and pretty much anyone he meets get “from pretty good to totally motivated”. This is just one part of his story though and he’s quick to get to the heart of your story, understand where you want to take yourself and help you set up a practical framework to get yourself there.
So there I was sitting in a LIVE MORE workshop
It’s one big TEDX talk meets Summer Camp meets Rock-Whiz trivia fun – the structure of the Live More workshop was a game changer in itself.
This was hilarious, zinging with energy and cheeky joy.
Motivation and taking steps to make changes in your life don’t have to be serious and intimidating.
In this room there was an air of expectation, a damn good vibe circling. Things were going to be said, shiny pennies were going to drop for people who were open to it.
This WAS also finger licking fun – create your own ice-creams, pour yourself a soda stream, grab yourself a fistful of clinkers washed down with your freshly brewed coffee. We had paper plane and balloon throwing, game show silliness and a turntable pumping out 80’s ballads in think and chat time.
And suddenly I saw the light.
So what shifted? One thing – I’d forgotten I was awesome (wank-ometer going off yet? Too bad – I’m on a roll!). I’d forgotten that I’d done crap loads of stuff that was also awesome.
Here’s a quick awesome summary of my life so far
- I’d explored countries some people have never heard of, and eaten more bbq’d guinea pig than you’ve had cheese toasties.
- These mighty experiences saw me being run over in Egypt on my honeymoon (though I might have preferred to skip that one) and crossing the border into Guatemala in a leaky boat with man with a gun (errrr, that too). I’ve gone from leading backpacking tweens on a trek through the USA’s Appalachian mountains to living and working in a Chalet in the French alps when I couldn’t ski or speak the language (nailed that – more awesome!)
- I’ve lived in a park in the middle of the Canadian wilderness with my ranger fella, where I landed a job for a kick-ass not for profit organisation, and we were the hottest thing on the provincial dinner party circuit (pot luck suppers after an arvo dog-sledding – AWESOME!)
- I once dressed as a nun and sang songs from Sister Act under the Statue of Liberty while Japanese tourists took photos. (THE most awesome dare ever!)
- I got me an awesome education. I nailed two degrees (HECS Debt – not so awesome, but door opener to superb opportunities and off-loaded the debt – big tick!).
- I managed to nab me a fella who chose to stick around. Depends which day you ask The Skipper if I’m awesome or not. He’s got home made chocolate chip cookies in his lunch box and a curry for tea tonight – so I’ll take that awesome thankyou.
- I’ve got awesome folks who I love hanging out with, and who do even more awesome things in their life. (In fact right now they’re house minding overseas, playing Lord and Lady of the Manor in an awesome little English village). I’ve got awesome siblings who make me laugh like a crazy hyena, put up with me wearing my bossy-sister pants and still love me.
- I’ve had some kids – awesome kids who are sometimes not so awesome. They’re little – they’ll grow into their awesomeness. They are healthy and safe. They have opportunities. Awesome – and I haven’t been sacked from the mum job yet.
- Speaking of jobs – I’ve gone from leaving a great role in the corporate world to entering the mum-hood, and starting my own copywriting, communications strategising and digital content cheerleading agency FROM SCRATCH. Freaking awesome that one. Patting myself on the back awesome.
- I’ve managed International Media at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006 – you get the drift, AWESOME!
- Bad things have happened along the way that have punched me in the guts, wrenched out my heart, brought me to my knees. They’ve made me question human-kind and what is fair. But you know what? I somehow clambered over them and I’m still here. Breathing. Beaming. I owe a lot of my awesomeness to how I didn’t let those sad times define me.
- I live in a lovely little yellow house by the sea. There’s sand on my feet daily. On stormy nights the roar of the pounding waves rattles our windows. I don’t need to tell you how awesome that is.
- And this year? I returned from travelling Australia and living in a camper trailer for 6 months, with my family. Lots of dust, lots of remote and rugged landscapes, lots of outback characters, lots of family folklore going down. LOTS OF AWESOME!
Look at that – I found my awesome!
I’d had all this awesome ticking along, but I completely forgot to stop and acknowledge it. I‘ve been racing to complete the next big thing, to keep up with the latest success story, and looking over my shoulder to keep ahead of the next up-and-comer.
I just didn’t pause look in the mirror. That’s been the game changer (oh yes I AM using that word!)
I was already living the awesome I’d been striving to obtain.
I cannot tell you how much that has relaxed me. Liberated me. Just calmed me the heck down.
I am already where I wanted to be.
And that’s made it clearer to envision where I want to get to next. It took a weekend workshop to hit me over the head with that realisation.
So how is this my Game Changer?
As a result of high fiving this awesome discovery, I’m now popping out ideas like bullets from a nerf gun. There’s a momentum happening for me right now – and I’m just going with it. Some of it I’m keeping to myself for a while, there’s still a bit to articulate and evolve – but I’m a word girl, I’ll figure that out.
Now that I know I am awesome – hell, I’m free to be even more awesome. Go figure!
Just to be clear though – this is MY finish line I’m aiming for. No one else need to be going head to head, or riding in my slip stream. Don’t keep up with me, because I ain’t keeping up with you, and don’t pull my awesome down.
Get your own awesome, and squeeze the hell out of it. This is my full-throttle gig.
And as for that guy Dobbo
He’s awesome at helping people prioritise what it is they want to achieve and how to develop the strategies to live that life. Look him up sometime, buy his books, download a podcast, or even better, get yourself to a bloody awesome workshop!