🎸I'm the problem, it's me

a closet Taylor Swift fan comes out of the closet & finds poetry

I am all about self-improvement and our work is focused on helping people identify the tools and to develop the skills to help themselves thrive in life and work. Of course, we need to ensure the systems are changing and evolving, but let’s take ownership of ourselves, of our own happiness and success.

Recently, I discovered an inspiring tool to help our cause: the work of writer David Whyte. I read his work with the background soundtrack of Taylor Swift (Someone is rolling their eyes over this combination of words and thoughts but I am keeping it honest here). Swift’s song Anti-hero has dark undertones, but the catchy chorus is my new theme song. 🎶

It’s me… I’m the problem it’s me. And I add, and the solution!

David Whyte is a poet. He also is an internationally renowned speaker and Fortune 500 corporate consultant focused on creativity in the workplace and what he calls Conversational Leadership and he wrote a book actually entitled “The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America.” David encourages corporations to “encourage soul” in order to survive. And if your company doesn’t strive to do this by offering you workshops, trained leadership, and individual coaching, or if you are an independent freelancer or entrepreneur, I think each and every one of you needs to work daily to cultivate your soul at work and to explore how you might want to bring your true selves to your work. This is not easy.

David has said, "We have to take the part of us which does not belong to the work into the work… That's the only way we're going to be able to live now." This is all connected to purpose, belonging, satisfaction, and flourishing. As well as helping a diverse workforce thrive. Every day we hear how these elements are key to success and longevity at work. But, how do we cultivate purpose, belonging, and success…? Well, it’s a journey. And one place to start just may be the very non-business-like act of reading poetry.

Let’s start with David Whyte.

Working Together

We shape our self

to fit this world

and by the world

are shaped again.

The visible

and the invisible

working together

in common cause,

to produce

the miraculous.

I am thinking of the way

the intangible air

passed at speed

round a shaped wing

easily

holds our weight.

So may we, in this life

trust

to those elements

we have yet to see

or imagine,

and look for the true

shape of our own self,

by forming it well

to the great

intangibles about us.

— David Whyte, from The House of Belonging

It’s me… it’s you. We have the agency and the power to create positive change in our life and work. If you have questions around how you can find and utilize the tools to take charge of yourself, don’t hesitate to reach out. That’s what we create and curate at Monumental Me.

🧡Liana