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Welcome to the 6th edition of TrimTabs. Hello to new subscribers and thank you to those who have been on this journey with me for a while. If you’d like to catch up, all previous editions can be found here.

So, I always like to start our explorations with a reminder of the reflection we ended on last time:

"It is not for me to change you. The question is, how can I be of service to you without diminishing your degrees of freedom?

How did that land with you? I hope it created some space to explore the idea of how we can support others but not overstep boundaries.

It’s an important reminder that it can be easy for us to let our own personal beliefs and opinions to ‘fix’ others or tell them how they ‘should’ be doing things.

We can have positive intentions but often our suggestions can come from our own shame, fear, judgement and need for control.

But that isn’t where personal growth comes from. And that’s what I’ve learned from my training as a coach, we often just need to hold the space for others to feel safe enough to access their own inner wisdom and power.

That’s where the change can happen and that’s where we start to think for ourselves. And that’s where we can begin to Dare to Dream of better.

This can move us from a place of scarcity to a place of abundance. If we think of political and economic systems, they are built on the philosophy of control and removing our innate freedoms. It’s the difference between having power and feeling empowered.

I’ll unpack that further as we move through this newsletter but it wouldn’t be me if we didn’t mention love :)

So here’s a great quote from Martin Luther King to remind us that nurturing love is also key to holding true power…

How do you feel about the word ‘power’. Do you feel powerful? Or does it make you feel uneasy as it reminds you of toxic forms of power?

It’s an interesting concept for many of us and something I explored with my training with the wonderful Common Cause Foundation. Their deep work within the field of ‘values’, identified an interesting theme. Generally, the more progressive and liberal your perspective, the less comfortable you are with calling yourself powerful. We’re cool with wanting to be ‘empowered’ but there’s something different about the word power.

So I hope to remind us all that power comes from our ability to choose for ourselves. And if we don’t grasp our own power and intersect the love that we hold for the things we care about, the power can be taken from us to control the way we live.

Now, I’m not talking about some big deep state conspiracy, it can be as simple as our workplaces not respecting our boundaries which can make us feel hopeless.

But if we can design the systems of self compassion and belief within ourselves then we can nurture the conditions to reclaim our power and make our own decisions.

This is something that resonated with me as I hosted the recent lunch club with a theme of ‘Re-Invention’.

When I left the corporate world, I was reclaiming my power. I had drifted from my holistic measures of success and I needed to change. So it was amazing to hear from the panelists about how when we pause, evaluate our path and hopes for the future, we can begin to transform and re-invent something we love.

So here I am, loving my time with You Are The Media doing meaningful work of connection and curiosity…

• 24th April - I’m super excited about an event I’m hosting at Patch with my friend Karley.

  On 24th April, in addition to our regular ‘People, Planet. Pastry’ event, we will be adding a film screening to the morning.

  The 30 minute film, ACTionism is a powerful exploration of how we can reclaim our power as active citizens rather than passive consumers. While I’m writing this, I’ve realised that this may have subconsciously created the theme for this edition of the newsletter!

  The trailer for the film is here.

  And the tickets for the morning can be found here. Please order tickets for both/either of the parts of the morning you’d like to join so that we can order enough pastries and/or popcorn :)

• 22nd April - My friend Jaimie Harris is hosting an 🌍 Earth Day 🌳 special People Planet Pint at The Vibrant Tap in Lyndhurst

  🕕 18:00 to 20:00 🎟️ Tickets here

  As an Earth Day special Jaimie’s running the first New Forest community Climate Fresk. If you’re curious for yourself or your team come along and experience the workshop that’s now been shared with over 2m people globally.

  📍The Vibrant Tap

  🕑 14:00 to 17:00 🎟️ Tickets here

I always love to leave us with a reflection.

So this question is based on us dreaming about where we would like to hold more power in our life and how we would measure success.

So have a think and we’ll unpack it next time:

"Where in my life would I like to nurture more power? How will I know when I have achieved that?

With compassion and curiosity,

Nick