Books self-leadership + leadership writing

Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club

December 8, 2021

The Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club next gathers together to take a deep year-long read together of Wholehearted and the Companion Workbook in December 2022! So get on the waitlist so you don’t miss out! Here’s why I created it, what it is, how it works, how to access it and why you might want to.

About me and my Wholehearted books

I’m Terri Connellan – an author, creative transition coach and personality type practitioner.

I wrote two books Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition and the Wholehearted Companion Workbook over 4.5 years as I went through a major life transition. Shifting from long-term government employee of 30+ years, I now enjoy a more creative life focused around writing, coaching, personality type, wellbeing and inspiring others.

My books written from the midst of transition, share the journey and the learning on the way to inspire your creative transition. The books chose me if you like because of the particular set of experiences I’ve been through and learned from that enabled me to write and share my story with heart.

I know how uncertain it seems, how lost and alone we can feel, when making major change. So I share my experiences to support you to be more wholehearted and shape the self-leadership skills to create what you desire.

Photo by Samantha Burns of the @MaianbarBeachCafe

The why of Wholehearted

The WHY of Wholehearted is to support women to develop the self-leadership skills to live more creative, wholehearted lives.

This WHY helped me to make sense and structure what was happening into something useful for myself and for others from this time of major change. And I offer this learning to you to help you shift to what is more positive to you.

If you haven’t read or bought Wholehearted yet, you can download Chapter 1 for free. This also provides an overview of the contents pages so you can see what’s in the book as a whole.

It was always my dream and desire to create support and a space for discussion about transitions people are going through based on the insights of the books. That’s why I’ve created the Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club for a year-long read of the books together.

So why a book club to support you in transition?

So you might be asking, why a book club to support me as I contemplate or go through change?

If you are going through a major change in your life, you’ll know it can feel VERY destabilising! The transitions can be many and varied such as:

job change
retirement
redundancy
retrenchment
wanting to write a book
making space for creativity
making art more central in your life
working for yourself instead of others
tree change
sea change
moving house
becoming an author
stepping into a new phase of creativity or writing or art
kids leaving home
relationship change
leaving paid employment
learning new skills you want to shape a business or practice around

And so much more. You might not even know exactly what it is but that where you are is not where you want to be.

Navigating change can take time and leave us feeling lonely at times as we re-create a new identity. Our networks might change. We are building on the foundations of what we have already created and working with our personality strengths in new ways which is positive but takes work. It is often about how we have defined ourselves so it means looking at ourselves in new ways.

So the Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club is a way of processing all of these experiences in a structured, supported way. Wholehearted is full of rich insights and resources! It’s the wisdom of a lifetime distilled. People are telling me they are savouring it, meandering, going down side tracks, reading other books mentioned within its pages. And that is exactly what I envisaged the reading experience to be like: something we carve out time for. It is a practical book above all; that’s why there’s an accompanying Wholehearted Companion Workbook.

About the Book Club + how to join in

So yes, it’s a book club, because book clubs are an awesome way to reflect and connect around reading. But it’s also a community/group coaching program with 90-minute monthly live calls with me as your coach asking questions to prompt growth, support you in transition and creativity, suggesting just the right resources, and guiding you to the best outcomes. Plus you get to learn from others, tap into my experiences of transition and writing the books and ask me anything you want!

We’ll work through the book and workbook one section at at time in a deep, guided read you can apply immediately in your life. So whatever change is happening (or not happening) for you, I hope you’ll join me in the book club.

This is a cost-effective way to get coaching guidance and commit to change with support and community. There is a monthly payment plan and an annual upfront one where you can save as well as 50% scholarship options for Black Indigenous Women of Colour, women with disabilities and LGBQT women and non binary people to encourage participation and equity. Apply here for to be considered for the scholarship option.

So head to the Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club enrolment and info page to find out more and join us. And join the waitlist to be the first to know when enrolment is open for our December 2022 into 2023 start!

Wholehearted Self-leadership Book Club waitlist for Dec 2022 into 2023

I hope you will join me and the community of women that is gathering. You can DM me on social media too if you have any questions.

Want to read more?

Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

Wholehearted Companion Workbook

Wholehearted Reader Praise

Wholehearted Book Walk-through

Wholehearted Virtual Book Launch 1

Wholehearted Virtual Book Launch 2

Wholehearted Book Club Notes – generic Book Club notes, but they give you an idea of what we will cover over the year!

transition work life

6 tips to transition from consistent, unexciting work

July 30, 2021

I shared a Wholehearted Q&A chat on Instagram live recently and asked for questions about the book, transition and self-leadership.

This fabulous question came in from Esther via Instagram:

What advice would you give to someone too scared to leave the consistency of working for the government but knowing they are no longer excited or challenged by the work anymore?

Such an excellent question! Thank you Esther. It went straight to my heart. I worked in government as a teacher and leader in the vocational education sector for 30 plus years, so I know intimately the feeling you are expressing. And I am sure it is something many women ponder as they contemplate the tension between ‘safe’ and consistent work and not feeling fulfilled by unexciting work. It certainly brings up fear and trepidation!

You can watch my live as I answer the question here (video also below at the end of this post) or read my response below. Or both! And I welcome your comments or questions too if you have experienced this situation or are experiencing it now.

I’m hearing in this question the desire for change, but also valuing the security and ongoing employment offered. It’s a very real tension and one that can keep us stuck as we work out the best way to move. But if we can make a plan to move on to better things, it can make all the difference to our mindset!

Here are 6 tips for changing from consistent but unexciting work!

1. Look at your why

A starting point would be to look at WHY you are no longer challenged or excited in the organisation or role you are in.

Journal about this to see what comes up. Is it because, for example:

you are no longer aligned to the organisation.
it’s boring and not stretching you in the role you are in.
you wish to be doing something completely different.
you have long-held creative yearnings that you want to fill.
something else?

This will help you with the next step of looking at options.

2. Look at your options

If no longer challenged or excited by your work role now, brainstorm and make a list of options open to you. Self-leadership is all about exploring options and choices. Then actively pursuing what you feel is right for you with intention. Some of your options might be:

seeking new opportunities within the organisation you work for.
seeking opportunities like secondment in another government organisation or a project role where you can feel more excitement and challenge.
starting a consultancy on the side or another sort of side-hustle around a passion or something you’ve always wanted to do.
seek opportunities for space to consider options, for example: working part time, job-sharing, taking leave, working four days a week or a nine-day fortnight.
look at the skills you have, your body of work over time and where this might take you next.

Often we see our situations and options as binary and either/or, but there are frequently many choices. The transition to what you desire might involve a series of choices that take you there, one step at a time. It might not be one gigantic leap even though that may feel like the most desirable option. Deep transition takes time and is often incremental.

3. Get a vision of what life might be like

To get a vision of what life might look like in the future, write about what your ideal day might look like in a few years’ time. This simple but powerful activity helps to get to what is in your heart and what would help you feel fulfilled and happy. Often it’s simpler than we think and this activity helps us to see where we are already on the way.

A vision board or collage is another way to do this if you are more visual. You could start a Pinterest Board and gather images of what your new life might look like to see what themes emerge and what you are seeking through change. This process helps us to tap into what is beneath the surface of our consciousness, trying to break through.

4. Take inventory

When you want change or are not happy where you are, it is easy to dwell on what you don’t have. It’s helpful and grounding therefore to look at what you have and see how you can deploy these resources more effectively.

Areas to take stock of include:

skills you have, your body of work
skills you want to develop
resources, including financial resources
financial options
potential income sources
superannuation
leave
investment strategies
where you could cut back

Part of the fear of leaving a government job (and often other employment) is letting go of the security, the regular pay and the conditions. They are familiar and regular and it is not a decision to be made lightly. If you wish to leave, look at what you have to help you make a shift and how you might supplement or replace the income. Look at living differently, having fewer expenses, making income creatively.

5. Check your mindset – look at the fears

It’s very natural to feel fear as we make change, even if it is a change we deeply want.

An important distinction is this.

CHANGE is external – what happens to us, also what we choose to change or start.

TRANSITION is internal – how we plan, adjust, prepare, ground ourselves and our mindset as we do this.

The inner work of transition, even from unexciting work, includes looking at the fears, self-limiting beliefs and self-doubt that typically arise in times of change. Managing the internal aspects of transition strengthens our ability to negotiate change positively with self-knowledge.

If feeling scared, have a good look at your fears. Make a list of what scares you. Get it down on paper. Identify the false, overstated or imagined fears, then identify the ones that are genuine concerns. Once you have these identified, use all the tips here to work out how to address these fears in practical terms.

6. Get support

Significant transition takes time. It feels like your very identity is in the mix even if the unexciting work is making you unhappy. Often you feel alone, lost and uncertain at such times. You need support! Get a coach – I would love to support you if you are going through transition times in a 1:1 capacity as your coach. Working with a coach helped me immensely as I went through my transition journey, and I still work with coaches all the time to keep growing and focused. A group coaching program like the Sacred Creative Collective can also be an option if you want support and connection with others while going through change.

Head to Work with me to learn how you can work with me as your coach. First step is a free Self-leadership Discovery Call so we can connect and have a conversation about your challenges and desires and where I might help. You can book that free, no obligation call HERE.

So summing up, here are my 6 tips for transitioning from consistent but unexciting work:

Look at your why – so you can get some context and a starting point.
Look at options – so you can widen your scope of action.
Get a vision of what life might be like – see what you might really want.
Take inventory – look at the resources you have for a new life.
Check your mindset – look at fears and interrogate them.
Get support – via a coach and community to help you negotiate the changes positively.

Watch the video here to review:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Terri Connellan (@writingquietly)

Knowing it’s time to make a plan for a transition

If you know in your heart you’ve had enough of this unexciting work and need to move on. Or there’s been a turning point event in your life that has clearly said, ‘I no longer belong here’, then making a transition plan using the above tips is helpful.

Another resource for you is to strengthen your self-leadership skills is my book, Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition. It is full of practical strategies to help you with self-leadership if you are going through change or wanting something different. Plus the experience of reading the book and working through the workbook is a deep self-leadership and self-coaching experience.

You can pre-order Wholehearted and the Companion Workbook now to help you navigate times of transition. The books will be with you on 6 September. In the meantime, I’ll send you a free pdf of Chapter 1 so you can start reading now.

Plus, if you purchase 2 books, Wholehearted and/or the Companion Workbook, you can join me for a live Masterclass on ‘15 Wholehearted Self-leadership Skill to Change your Life’ where I’ll walk you through these strategies and answer questions.

So click below to find out more about the books. All the links to pre-order the paperback and ebook versions worldwide via different booksellers are there.

Learn more about Wholehearted

How to tap into the power of emerging at midlife

Create Your Deeper Story 1 to 1 Coaching

Stories of Wholehearted Living

Sacred Creative Collective Group Coaching

Cora Pacheco – Sacred Creative Stories of Transition

Your body of work: the greatest gift for transition to a bright new life

Image credits:

Feature image: Photo by Siddharth Bhogra on Unsplash

Vision board image: Photo by Andy Art on Unsplash

Laptop image: Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

inspiration & influence transition

A year for appreciating what matters

May 5, 2020

What have we been wasting our time doing?
Sherene Vismaya
Speaking of Jung Podcast

The year so far

In a year that memes have amusingly suggested was written by Stephen King, it has been one crisis after another. A series of emergencies in the form of destructive and damaging bushfires and floods ravaged Australia from late 2019. All fires in NSW were finally contained by 13 February.

By that time we were beginning to deal with the unfolding news of Coronavirus impacts in China beginning to spread. Since then the COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a wave of unimaginable suffering and fear. To remain safe, we are all indoors and limiting our interactions as much as possible. Life as we know it has radically changed. Loved ones are out of reach physically and the death and sickness toll reflects the extensive impact on both an individual and collective level.

How are you doing?

So how are you doing in this year of immense challenge?

It is easy to focus on the worrying and fearful side of life and disaster. Media reports come at us relentlessly. Each of our situations is different and will influence how we respond. Our personality also plays a significant part. Whether we are introverted or extraverted is a huge influence on how being confined to our home more plays out for us.

For some, it has been a welcome relief from the workplace, commuting and too much social interaction, a time for reflecting within. Extraverts are typically finding it difficult not interacting socially given it is an important form of recharge: “Low-energy. I’m finding I don’t pandemic well.” Some personalities are more likely to thrive in isolation but all of us can find meaning in this time. I shared about what this time of COVID-19 and social distancing has been like for me as a person with INTJ preferences in this guest post.

Appreciating what matters

For me, this has been a year for appreciating what matters. Right from the get-go. Here are some of the ways that appreciating what matters has expressed itself in day to day life. I hope these thoughts inspire you too to tune into what matters.

Fresh air and sunshine

Those early weeks of 2020 were a stark reminder of the value of fresh air and sunshine. We experienced days of thick smoke with hazardous air quality levels but were fortunate to escape bushfires directly where I live.

As an asthmatic, I didn’t go out for weeks if I could avoid it. Summer in Australia is a time of outdoor living, sun, beach days and clear open skies. But not this year. We stayed inside most of the time at the height of our usually beautiful summers.

When we could finally get out into the fresh air and sunshine, it was with a new appreciation of its value. We could walk, swim, sit on the deck, look up at the open-hearted sky and relax.

In Australia while under COVID-19 conditions we have enjoyed mostly good weather and our level of restriction allows us to go out for exercise. We know from the 1918 Influenza epidemic that fresh air and sun can be a healing agent and natural disinfectant against disease. The value of being outdoors and in sunshine is so appreciated in new ways this year.

Home and community

In a brilliant podcast on the astrology and spirituality of the COVID-19 crisis, Jungian analyst Sherene Vismaya, tells that her spiritual teacher Amma told her followers in advance that something was going to happen in 2020. And they should all get to where they needed to be to hunker down.

The importance of where we are and a sense of home have become pivotal this year. I have so appreciated having a comfortable and stable home in a place that I love.

So many lost their homes in the bushfires. In recent times, many have had to travel in difficult circumstances to get home. Others have had to leave places that have been home for them while others have not been able to get home as they would like. It’s been a year for appreciating what matters about home, having a stable base and thinking about what home and community looks and feels like.

Friends and family

Family too has taken on new meaning as we have been contained to our smaller family bubble. It’s been wonderful to connect with family via Zoom and in other ways as we all spend more time isolated. In some ways, there has been more regular communication which is welcome. Missing loved ones and not being able to travel to see them or hug them is highlighted. I think we will come out of this time with a new appreciation for what matters in our family and relationship contexts.

Likewise, friends and community have been so supportive as we share our experiences and support each other. I have always valued my online friends and community. This time has bought that meaning to the fore.

Many of us gathered around Susannah Conway’s April Love 2020 hashtag challenge and continue in various challenges in May. I deeply appreciate my friends and community, whether the connection is mostly in person or online. This time has helped us to remember that it is connection that matters, however it is formed and shaped. Oh and I so appreciate anew those special times I have caught up with Quiet Writing friends overseas.

Animals

Witnessing the terrible destruction of so many animals in Australia during the bushfires was so upsetting. Our beautiful native animals – koalas, kangaroos, wombats, and so many others – unable to move fast enough and killed in great numbers. We often take it for granted that these animals will always be there. But the bushfire emergency highlighted that wide-scale death and destruction can mean species may become extinct. Additional funding started to flow, publicly and privately, to the work of native animal rescue and rehabilitation. There was so much more appreciation for their work in keeping these sacred animals alive.

It’s also been lovely to witness the role of companion animals in these crises. Being at home more and in our bubble, the animals we share our space with have taken on even more value and significance. New bonds have been forming with new animals finding forever homes to share a life with. And just the opportunity to cuddle up close is so comforting.

Beach, bush, yoga, walking and swimming

I live in an isolated area surrounded by beach and bush. These past months have highlighted the preciousness of both. Many of us have sought solace in wooded sanctuaries and parks nearby. The open space of the beach and the rhythm of the sea have been restorative energies.

I have used this time to sharpen my Personal Success Routines and ensure exercise is enshrined in my days. When we experienced the bushfires, I couldn’t get out to do what I loved most – to swim and walk. Even yoga classes were difficult with the poor air quality during the bushfires. It was safer to stay home. So when we could exercise outside eventually, they were like holy times and totally newly appreciated.

In this time of COVID-19, I started off hunkering down more than I needed to as I shared in my guest post on self-isolation recently. Eventually, I started going out more and getting back to walk and swim as I used to. Again, I missed yoga classes as they stopped due to social distancing. But I helped my yoga teacher get onto Zoom and offer her classes online. So in a wonderful win/win, I now can enjoy my yoga classes in my own home.

My new Personal Success Routine has been an opportunity to really up my commitment to what makes a difference with these new realisations of what matters. I have always been terrible at yoga home practice. But now I start the day with 30 minutes of yoga, a 45-minute walk on the beach and then an hour of Morning Pages, Tarot and Creative/Spiritual reading. I’ll share more on this soon. But it’s an embodiment in practice of appreciating what matters. And it is making ALL the difference.

Nourishing local organic food

Along with these new practices, I have found locals are working hard to source and help us access organic food locally. In my village, we are now able to source organic fruit and vegetables and more recently, organic meat and wild-caught fish. I was unaware of these options before this time. So now I am enjoying the freshest of produce that last for a long time and only driving 3 minutes up the road to get it.

I am so thankful for those seeking local organic alternatives and helping others to enjoy them too. We swap recipes on our Facebook group and share a joy of what matters when it comes to eating in healthy ways.

Reading and personality type

Hasn’t reading come into its own in these times? Always an avid reader, I have savoured it all the more as I have had to stay inside more. I have chosen novels for most of this time, enjoying historical fiction, especially by Australian women authors. You can always check in with what I am reading here over at Goodreads.

Finding it hard to concentrate initially in this time of bushfire and pandemic, I am enjoying catching up more now on my consolidating reads and personality reference material as I shape up some new offerings and material. Personality type insights have been a key tool in negotiating this time and my reactions. I have shared personality insights online, via this guest post and via 1:1 and group coaching.

Quiet Writing and working from home

And of course, it’s been a time for quiet writing, for going deeper in my business, my coaching, offerings and writing. I deeply appreciated that over time I have built an online business coaching, writing and working from home. Pursuing multiple streams of income through a combination of property investment and development, coaching, online courses and writing books, it’s been an affirmative time for knowing this is the right strategy. It’s been a time of digging deep to work out how to share with others how they can work on what matters in their lives.

How are you appreciating what matters at this time?

So that is my thoughts on appreciating what matters at this time. It took me ages to write this post as I reflected deeply on these past months and what they have taught me. I would love to hear what you are appreciating as mattering and making a difference for you now.

What are you appreciating more deeply?

What matters for you – what realisations have you had?

What have you missed?

What new practices would you love to cultivate?

What transitions are you seeking?

Transition Coaching

I am a transition coach and work with women seeking deeper meaning and purpose and change in their lives. If you would like support working with the energies and challenges that this time has brought to the surface, I’d love to work with you.

Coaching with me can help you navigate these times so you can make the most of what matters.

Head over to my Work with me page for more information:

Work With Me

Or head straight over to book a Discovery Call – love to talk with you and support your stepping into this time more positively!

Book a Discovery Call

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