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Wholehearted Book

Books self-leadership + leadership

Wholehearted book walkthrough step by step

August 4, 2021

Welcome to a Wholehearted Book Walkthrough. Here I step you through the chapters and journey of reading my book Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition. I also welcome questions via the comments. You can also watch the video on Youtube with subtitles if that is your preference or it’s easier for you. It’s also at the bottom of this post.

When you pre-order Wholehearted, you can get a copy of Chapter 1 so you can begin reading now. This includes the Contents pages and Foreword, an original and a glimpse of the tarot cards that feature in Wholehearted. That way you can get an overview of the reading journey of Wholehearted and what it offers you. After you’ve purchased the book or books, go to the Wholehearted book page. Pop your details in on that page and it will be with you in no time.

Or I’ve popped the forms at the bottom of this post to make it easier for you if you’ve already purchased!

Copy of the book Wholehearted and the Companion Workbook against a sunrise pink background.

Wholehearted Book walkthrough: the high level

You come into Wholehearted with an introduction into the story of transition via a poem, two key tarot cards, the Foreword and the contents pages. From this, you gain an insight into what is coming and get an overview of the Wholehearted reading journey.

The books is in three parts:

Part 1 My Wholehearted Journey – covers Sections 1 to 5 where I share my experiences of making the shift from long-term government employee to a more wholehearted, self-sustaining, creative life. The essence of this transition was about getting back to what is important in the day to day. I explore the positives and challenges of this experience, what helped me and what I learnt over time. Through-out this section and the book I provide practical tips to help you with making positive transitions.

Part 2 Wholehearted Self-leadership Skills – Sections 6 to 8 is where I bring together the Wholehearted Self-leadership skills I’ve learnt on the journey and share them with you to help your own transition and transformation to what is important to you.

Part 3 Bringing it all together – Sections 9 to 10 is where I take a more high-level view of how living a more wholehearted life comes together. I share what I’ve experienced, the markers, what arrives in the wake of transition and the choices we have. This section conveys what self-leadership looks like when you bring the skills together.

Wholehearted Book walkthrough: I My Wholehearted Journey

To step you through in more detail, here’s an overview of what is in Part I My Wholehearted Journey:

Section 1 Beginning the Journey takes you into the heart of my transition journey. I share the key turning point and how this was coming for a long time as big changes often do. There is a tough moment when I knew this transition was really on. I explore how I rebuilt my life step by step via Quiet Writing, blogging, finding a voice and new purpose and the beginning of an alternative path. We look at transition and turning points and how self-leadership became so important in my life and what it offers you.

Section 2 is about Imagining Another Way. I chart the course of the transition in practical terms and the stepping stones and lighthouses that helped in initial stages. This includes looking at the role of hard inner work, showing up for ourselves and how self-talk affects us as we make our journey.

Section 3 Identifying your Passions and What you Love explains how tapping into your passions and uniqueness is a valuable guide to a new life. This is especially important as we re-orient ourselves to living differently.

Section 4 is Identifying your Natural Gifts, Style and Desires. Here we look at your personality preferences and how embracing your natural strengths and gifts is a powerful guide for transition. We look at defining your style and personality in different ways and how tapping into what you desire to feel offers a compass.

Section 5 rounds off Part 1 and focuses on Identifying your Body of Work and Resources Over Time. When making a significant transition, we can often leave pieces of ourselves behind. So it’s vital to look at your body of work and the resources you’ve built up to move forward in ways that are meaningful to you.

Wholehearted Book walkthrough: II Wholehearted Self-leadership Skills

Section 6 is the largest section of the book and the heart of it. Here I walk you through 15 Wholehearted Self-leadership skills that have been pivotal in my transition. I share these skills to support your own change-making and transformation journey. These practices, mindsets and skills are the foundation and backbone of my transition day in, day out.

They include:

  • 6.1 Setting powerful heartfelt intentions
  • 6.2 Writing as daily practice
  • 6.10 Tuning into intuition and listening within

I explain how these practices helped me and why and how I honed them and continue to hone them over time. 

Section 7 is about Valuing and Building Influences and Connections. I explore the value of influences and honouring what brought you to this point via five of my creative mentors. These mentors have been an immense influence, particularly in the early stages of my transformation in tough times. I unpack what I learnt from each of them as role models. And I talk about the importance of community and support as we make change. Often this is something we need to do in new ways including online.

Section 8 is Working with the Shadow Side in Becoming Whole. Here we traverse some of the darker, shadowy sides of life and our personality. We look at the less preferred areas of our personality, our weaknesses, our inferior function, grief, unrequited love, envy and comparisonitis. Just as we need light and shade in our gardens, and have the lighter and darker cycles of the moon, we need to embrace ourselves fully. It’s helpful to look at the shadow aspects of our life and personality as a force for good. We learn from them. Making these shadow aspects more conscious is some of the most powerfully transformative whole-making work we can do.

Wholehearted Book walkthrough: III Bringing it all together

Part III is where we bring it all together.

Chapter 9 looks at Guides for the Wholehearted Path and two key aspects: synchronicity and grounding in the practical and every day.

Chapter 10 is the final chapter and looks at Self-leadership and Love as the heart of Wholeheartedness. It looks particularly at the role of choice and love in our wholehearted self-leadership journey.

There is a wealth of information and resources in the end matter too, with extensive endnotes and key references for further reading and exploration. 

Cover of Wholehearted Companion Workbook which is pink with a nautilus shell.

Wholehearted Companion Workbook

The Wholehearted Companion Workbook tracks along each of the chapters of the book, providing further application and examples. It provides the opportunity to apply the learning to your own circumstances in a supported self-coaching way. I also share more about my own experiences as an example to help prompt your own thinking.

I hope this walk through of Wholehearted helps you to see the rich reading and transformation experience that awaits.

Head over to the advance praise for Wholehearted from early readers as another insight to the reading experience the book offers.

Links to pre-order Wholehearted are on on my website. You can purchase Wholehearted at Booktopia, Amazon (all territories), Kobo, Apple iBooks, indiebound.org and Bookshop.org. Both books are available at discounted pre-order prices in paperback and ebook!

Once you’ve pre-ordered, don’t forget to come back and add your details to get Chapter 1. You can also join me for a live Masterclass on the 15 Wholehearted Self-leadership skills if you pre-order two or more books. You can do this below.

I hope that’s helpful! Thanks for reading and/or watching and listening. Welcome any further questions or comments!

Thank you for joining me on this Wholehearted journey. I hope the books can support you on your self-leadership transition journey to a more wholehearted and fulfilling life. Whatever that means for you!

Wholehearted Book Walkthrough on video with subtitles

Here’s the video with subtitles if you want to watch:

Here is the form to complete to get Chapter 1 if you’ve already purchased one book:

Here is the form to complete to get Chapter 1 now + an invitation to a live Masterclass on ’15 Wholehearted Self-leadership Skills to Change your Life’ if you’ve purchased 2 or more books:

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.

vision board

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.

unexciting work

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:

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

Watch the video here to review:

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
Wholehearted Book

Read more:

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 

transition writing

Celebrating ‘Wholehearted’ publishing partnership with the kind press

January 31, 2021

I am celebrating publishing Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition and the Wholehearted Companion Workbook in partnership with the kind press in 2021.

The kind press is an independent Australian-based publisher. They work with authors ‘to create high-quality, stylish, books that are diverting, inspiring, spirited and clever.’

Working in partnership with the kind press is the perfect fit. They have a focus on sacred cocreation. This is so in line with the Sacred Creative Collective and Quiet Writing values and my desire to be an independently published author. It is a brilliant, assisted way to publish and learn more about writing and publishing from those who are expert in the field.

My sincere thanks to Natasha Gilmour—editor, publisher and founder of the kind press —and all at the kind press for all the support and guidance in shaping Wholehearted and its Companion Workbook for publication. Huge thanks too to my editor and friend, Penelope Love, for all her valued assistance with editing and nurturing support throughout the wholehearted publishing process! You might remember Penelope’s Wholehearted Story from 2018.

I can’t wait for the next steps and I hope you will all come along for the continuing journey! We are currently working on the cover design which is very exciting so stay tuned for the cover reveal.

The publishing announcement is below:

Let me know any questions you might have about the writing and the Wholehearted publishing process and my own journey!

Write your book with me

I am also offering a Write Your Book group coaching program later in 2021 in case you are interested in support, camaraderie and skills for your own writing projects. Because I can tell you it takes a community to write a book and bring it to fruition and we all need that support. Here for you if that is on your plan for 2021. Head over to pop your name on the WRITE YOUR BOOK PRIORITY LIST to be the first to hear more. 

write your book

About the author + coach

Terri Connellan
Terri Connellan

Terri Connellan is a certified life coach, author and accredited psychological type practitioner. She has a Master of Arts in Language and Literacy, two teaching qualifications and a successful 30-year career as a teacher and a leader in adult vocational education. Her coaching and writing focus on creativity, personality and self-leadership—especially for women in transition to a life with deeper purpose. Terri works with women globally through her creative business, Quiet Writing, encouraging deeper self-understanding of body of work, creativity and psychological type for more wholehearted and fulfilling lives. Her book ‘Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition’ will be published in 2021 by the kind press. She lives and writes in a village on the outskirts of Sydney surrounded by beach and bush.

Book your Self-leadership Discovery Call with Terri here.

Explore your personality further in Personality Stories Coaching.

Connect on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.

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