Making the impossible more possible was the purpose of our retreat in Iseo Lago (Italy) at the end of September. And creating a community of extra-ordinary women who would support each other on this journey.
I spent 3 extra-ordinary days with 12 extra-ordinary women, facilitating the retreat with the amazing well-being coach and dear friend Silvia Imperadori, without whom, none of this would have been possible.
We had women from different corners of the world, at different stages of their life and career and representing the very different worlds of finance and creative industries. Everybody bonded, felt safe to share dreams and limiting beliefs and encouraged themselves to stretch out of their comfort zone and take action. Our extra-ordinary women committed themselves to transform an impossible dream into a possible plan. It felt like an extra-ordinary commitment.
“The difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary is that little extra”.
Everybody committed to that little extra during this retreat. They all committed to hold each other accountable. And they all committed to meeting up again in 12 month time. Some committed to continue to break the impossible dream into possible actions over the next 6 months together.
18 month ago I wrote my first blog “What have I learnt today? That all great things start with Trust and Love!” Exploring how emotions influence what we think and what we do. And how we all aspire to experience the ultimate emotions of joy, trust and love. A lot of my work in the Emotional Intelligence space and how we can flex it to improve performance and happiness does just that.
And when you bring together a group of extra-ordinary women who are all remarkably different and remarkably similar at the same time, sharing Curiosity as the common strength, magic just happens. Laughing and crying together, questioning, reflecting and being grateful and thankful to each other for holding the space to be vulnerable and grow in the process.
During those 3 days I went on a rollercoaster of emotions, torn between the commitment I made to these extra-ordinary women 6 months ago to facilitate and hold the space for them and the huge commitment to my son who was extremely unwell, when I left London a few days earlier. Positively re-framing my “worry” for his wellbeing into “trust” that he was in safe hands and surrounded by love from his dad and family, kept me going. He was still unwell when I arrived back home. And so, the rollercoaster of emotions went on for a few more weeks.
And then, something else extra-ordinary happened. My son is slowly getting better. His neuro diverse brain feels everything 10x more intensely than a neuro-typical brain, whether it’s good or bad! And when it’s good, the 10x intensity will make it an extra-ordinary achievement! We are almost there!
“It always seems impossible until is done.” (Mandela)
ADA, October 2018