The COVID-19 pot of gold

By Kerryn Vaughan

29th March 2020

I’m sure I'm not the only one reading daily takes on COVID-19. Thoughts on zoonotic diseases jumping from bat to pangolin to human, New World Order, population reduction, specific governments conducting biological warfare, even terrorism. Not to mention Mother Nature taking back, Nostradamus’ prediction of the death of this world and the re-birth of the new, coincidence & bad luck, and even alien invasion.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think most of these are very possible, and personally, I’m acutely interested in the origin, reason and timing of this chaotic pandemic, but right now my absolute priority is protecting the people I love.

I’ve also seen comments that this is a hoax and that the numbers are all fabricated to perpetuate the fear that is so rife at the moment, and that it’s a way to distract us from what certain governments are trying to do behind our backs. Again, no reason why these can’t be true. In fact I will never trust any government! 

But a lot of this latter group of people are also the ones being reckless in their behaviour and risking the lives of others. Maybe they are somewhat right, but the fact is people are dying no matter what the truth is, despite claims by some of these people that nobody has actually died from COVID-19.

Many are saying we should believe science, but others are saying that the scientists are not telling us the truth. Scientists are even contradicting each other. So how do we know what to believe?

We are all experiencing fear, anger, sadness, confusion, isolation, and uncertainty about the future, and all of these feelings are contributing to panic. Some are keeping busy helping whoever they can, while others are merely trying to survive. We are all just clinging to hope, and life is as far from normal as we could ever have imagined.

But I’m choosing to do what I think is the right thing. While I am trying my hardest to resist being drawn into the fear mongering, I am doing what is being asked of me and staying at home, only venturing out for essential items.

As I write this I want to acknowledge the challenges that staying at home brings to some families, as well as those who have essential jobs and without these people our world would collapse entirely. To all of you - I take my hat off.

In our family, we have elderly and immune comprised people that I care about greatly, and I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. When this is over, those of us who ‘obeyed’ might be wrong, and a surprising truth might be unveiled, but I’m not taking the risk. I would rather be proven wrong than the reckless be proven wrong.

But ultimately most of us would agree that it really is time to review the way we live, regardless of who is right and who is wrong, and regardless of the above mentioned individual theories, views and opinions.

Frankly we are drowning. We have long driven ourselves into a way of living that is truly becoming unsustainable. We are trashing the earth, animals and ourselves at such break-neck speed that there is no chance of any recovery or rejuvenation.

Right now is considered the best time to be alive, if we exclude the last few months. We are blessed with never-ending opportunities, yet loneliness, depression, anxiety, and suicide are all sky-rocketing. Something is terribly, terribly wrong.

If we take the internet for example, everything is at our fingertips. We tap and we have all we want or need just like that. I love social media because it allows me instant connection to colleagues around the globe with no delay other than the other person’s beauty sleep. It’s fabulous!

But is it really satisfying our deepest and genuine needs and wants, or does it just keep us bandaided on the surface while we resist questioning the harm we allow it to do because we are too afraid to really check in?

Cyber bullying is the first thing that comes to mind as a negative. Kids can’t just leave all that at school - it follows them home and is relentless through the night - driving them to hate themselves. And yes people can say that kids shouldn’t have phones in the bedroom, but have you ever tried to pry a phone from the hands of a teenager?!

Female news readers and journalists are hounded non-stop, some reporting trolling by the thousands every single day. We have gone too far. Our behaviour is driving us backwards as a society and as a global collective.

Further, we are demanding more of each other with the immediacy of information and actions, and  demanding more of ourselves. We are bombarded non stop with information and advice about how we should be living our lives, and we are pulled in every direction every day.

We used to have to physically haul our butts down to the newsagency and buy a magazine in order to feel crap about ourselves, and in particular our appearance. Now we just tap and there it is!

Around me I see people burning out everyday, myself included. Several hardships presented themselves last year and I couldn’t wait for 2020 as I was positive it would be a better year. I was so wrong! 2020 has been one disaster after the other. Maybe that's a mindset thing, but I'm so tired.

Some days I just want to jump off the supersonic fast-spinning mouse wheel and take a chance on breaking my neck, but at the very least I just want to scream “STOOOOOPPPPPP!!”

None of us like what is happening at the moment with COVID-19, and some are so angry with the government for locking us in our homes like prisoners.

But why don’t we take this opportunity to reflect and take a good look at the way we have personally conducted ourselves and lived our lives, and ask ourselves if what we have been doing is actually serving us. By that I mean physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

Are we pushing so hard against a brick wall, continuing to clamber on the pile of rubble we’ve created because we don’t have time to deal with it, that we can’t even see the door just 2 feet away? What if we just take these few weeks to sit back, relax, review, and decide what really matters, then look up again after we’ve had some time to breathe. 

We might just find that when we do look up we can clearly see that door we didn’t see before. Maybe the door will be the only thing we see, and maybe if we open it, it’s where we will find the pot of gold we have been looking for all along. Maybe then we can walk out on to the stage that is truly ours - the one that enables us to live the life we are supposed to live.

Me - I have found my music again and suddenly everything feels better and the struggle is easing.

Use this time to slow down and reflect on how valuable you are, how valuable life is, and how much you value those you love. We may never get this opportunity again, so go with the flow and restore - the world needs you on the other side of this, just as imperfectly perfect as you are.

Kerryn Vaughan is the author of ‘Magnificent Kids!’ and ‘Get Off The Bench!’, founder of One Planet Classrooms, and co-founder of Girls With Hammers.

Interrupting the status quo

By Kerryn Vaughan

31st January 2020

“You need to calm down”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told this in my life and to be honest, it’s starting to wear thin. We seem to have an aversion to people who hold a mirror to our face or who ask us to challenge our beliefs and behaviours. We are way too happy living the easy life and allowing ourselves to be railroaded by the expectations of others, and by the beliefs that have been imposed upon us over the years. Why would we do that?

Well, for many reasons actually, but most revolve around ease and fear. Let’s look at fear.

Fear of criticism, looking foolish, being excluded, being rejected, being labelled a lunatic - among a plethora of others. In fact, if we look back through the history books, fearing these things back then, and in particular being labelled a lunatic etc, may have been completely justified. In the past you may have been burned at the stake or sent to the hangman if you spoke up or even slightly stepped away from the norm.

Sadly this narrow minded punishment still exists in some parts of the world, and in particular, I’m referring to those who still think it’s ok to silence the opinion of women or stone them to death even when they are not the cause of the problem! The real problem is that the ‘norm’ is not always right. Just because we’ve always ‘done it like that’ doesn’t make it OK. Sometimes things need to be challenged.

For the good part, our freedoms and rights have evolved sufficiently to allow us a voice and to stand up for what we believe in. Despite this, we still default to outdated beliefs and behaviours that just don’t bear credit in this current day and age.

Sometimes the status quo is nothing but a stagnant dirty pond festering in rot. Too often, a situation where nobody wants to step up and upset it because other people just don't like that. They don’t like it because you're making waves in their dirty pond and nobody wants to drink filthy water. But sometimes we need to rock the boat. Sometimes the status quo is completely unacceptable and people and animals are being treated in such a way, that turning a blind eye just doesn’t do. And often this extends to the environment and the way we are trashing our planet..

Back to my opening line - “you need to calm down”.

I am well known amongst my peers for standing up for what I believe in; and not quietly and not politely. I find any act that harms or demoralises any living being, and particularly vulnerable ones, an abhorrent violation of rights and I consider the perpetrator the scum of the earth. I have every reason to believe that most reading this will agree with everything I have said up to this point.

However the conflict comes when I push this a little further and point out that apathy enables the perpetrator. This makes people uncomfortable as their own guilt rises, but also as they are swamped with a feeling of helplessness. I am making people feel very uncomfortable, so their best defence is to push back. So the seemingly obvious thing to do is to shoot the messenger.

Strangely I’m fine with this because all the bullet holes I’ve sustained have allowed all the old beliefs to ooze out of my being, effectively ridding myself of toxic pus. For the record - I am calm, I am proud, I am happy and I sleep very well at night.

The truth is that most people are good, and most people want to do good. BUT, we’re so deeply entrenched in beliefs that have become so ingrained that we’re not able to even see the hold they have on us. Most of these beliefs we have inherited.

For years I voted for a political party simply because my parents did. I believed what I was hearing around the dinner table and never thought to question it. It was only as I became much better at thinking for myself, and not being led by the beliefs of others, that I realised my values differed dramatically to the views of that party.

A great story that comes to mind is the one about Nana’s lamb roast. I can’t recall it word for word, but it goes something like this:

Mum was making a lamb roast and before she put it into the oven tray, she cut the end off the bone then put the rest into the tray. The daughter asked her mother why she cut the end of the bone off and the mother replied “I don’t know, because that’s what Nana always does”. They decided to ask Nana why she does this. Nana’s response was that her mother always did this. So they went to the Great Grandmother and asked her why she cut the end of the bone off. Her simple reply was “because it won’t fit in the tray”. With that they all realised that their trays were not as small as the one the Great Grandmother had been using, and it highlighted that they were just mindlessly performing an inherited behaviour without ever questioning why.

“Children must be taught HOW to think, and not WHAT to think”
~ Margaret Mead

For many generations we have been taught what to think. This is perpetuated through our education system as well as much of what we unconsciously absorb from the media. If we become better at digging deep about HOW we think, we will be in a much better place. But to do this we must be prepared to let go of beliefs that are not serving us, and this is not as easy at it seems.

The point I really want to get across here is that we need to stand up for what we believe is right, even if we fear we might be left standing alone. In our heart of hearts we know what is right and we feel the discomfort when things are wrong. It’s not rocket science.

For many years I have loudly (and proudly) stated that I am not here to make friends - I am here to make a difference. We were each given a voice and we should use it to make the world a better place. We were also each given a unique set of talents and characteristics, and we should embrace and employ these, become best friends with them, and believe that we are capable of doing great things.

Your truth matters

We all have dreams and desires, and an imagination that occasionally allows us to peek through the blinds at the life we could be living. But way too often we are paralysed by outdated beliefs, self doubt and the fear of becoming an outcast or ridiculed, simply because we want to be true to ourselves.

I am here to tell you that there is a life beyond that. It is definitely possibility to live a life that is true to you, even if others don’t like it. There is always the opportunity to stand up and make your life count.

Some people will challenge you, but that’s reflective of their insecurities and fears and not about you. You will be surprised how many people rally to support what you are doing and what you are standing for. Often they are people who are ready to stand in their own truth but are still lacking courage, or the person to push them over the edge so they can find their own wings and spread the messages of their own truth. They are encouraged by you. They see their possibilities through your actions.

You can eagerly await the opportunity to tear down a person who is stepping up, or you can be an encourager - and I can tell you first hand that it feels way better to be an encourager. And when you encourage and enable others, your wings start to appear, and before you know it you have also enabled yourself and given yourself permission to be the absolute best version of you.

So what are you going to choose? I hope you join me in flight, because the view is so much better from up here.

Kerryn Vaughan is the author of ‘Magnificent Kids!’ and ‘Get Off The Bench!’, founder of One Planet Classrooms, and co-founder of Girls With Hammers.

But what will people think? Why this shouldn't stop you.

Photo - Annie Spratt

By Nicky Williams

18th Jan 2020

How many times do you have an idea, or really want to try something - only to end up shelving it because you’re worried what people will think?

Even though the idea excited you, it gave you a buzz and put a smile on your face; you let your imagination wander to new possibilities - in your mind a familiar script played out:

‘What if people think my idea is stupid and laugh?’

‘What if they talk about me behind my back?'

'I might fail and look stupid, I don’t think I’ll even try”

‘Gloria Goldpants is doing something similar, I could never be like her, what was I even thinking?’

So you don’t try

You give up before you’ve started.

I know how hard it is to try something new when you’re scared. For the life of me I NEVER thought I could write blogs or articles and share them with the world!

I knew I loved writing; I knew it was something I wanted to do. But still I didn’t do it.

The thought of publicly sharing anything I wrote terrified me.

And to be honest the thoughts that scared me the most related to what people would think; and especially what they would think if I failed because my writing was actually God awful.

The thoughts going back and forth in my mind went something like this:

‘But what will people think?'

'But what if my writing is actually terrible and I’m just plain delusional thinking I could do this?'

'But there are so many people already doing amazing blogs - I’m not good enough'

'They will definitely be talking about me behind my back, laughing and telling everyone how self-absorbed and clearly clueless I am'

The thoughts went on and on, and round and round in my head.

But I pushed through them and made myself do it because I loved it. And that was more important than what someone else may or may not think.

Photo - Felicia Buitenwerf

Maybe you’ve tried, or you’ve begun by sharing your idea with someone else but you didn’t get a great response, so you stopped?

Sometimes it feels easier to stop, to fall back into what you know, the comfort of not being vulnerable, the comfort of not pushing past the fear and trying that thing.

Sometimes it feels easier to fall back into the comfort of the familiar - like snuggling down onto the safety of the couch with your favourite warm blankie.

BUT

You’re left wandering what could have been.

What if you did try?

What if you pushed past the fear of how you think you’ll look?

What if you pushed past the fear of what Gloria Goldpants might say?

What if you gave it a shot?

What if it turned out that you loved it just as much as your favourite blankie?

What if the reality was that people were talking about you - but they were talking about how courageous you were for giving it a crack?

Growth comes with being vulnerable, with trying new things, with backing yourself and having a go. With messing up and trying again. It’s not easy. It’s scary and it’s new, but for me it’s been so freeing to do what I love. To show the world who I am.

Yes, I still get scared every single time I share a blog or an article. But I don't let that fear stop me. I keep going.

Sometimes I don’t feel like it, sometimes my imposter syndrome gets too much. Sometimes my writing is crap, sometimes it’ average, sometimes it’s good. But the more I do it, the more I love it and the more I learn.

Whatever you do - you can’t control what others think and fear of what they may or may not think or say shouldn’t stop you living your life.

My biggest piece of advice to you is 'just go for it'! You'll be amazed at how much it'll change your life.

A quote that really helped me:

“The greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think.”

― David Icke

Don’t lock yourself in that prison. Show the world who you are, show yourself who you are.

I realise how lucky I am to have 'Get Off The Bench' expert Kerryn Vaughan at my fingertips. She showed me how to silence my fears and find the courage to push past them and do it anyway. Now I just do it because I love it. And I love the excited squeals I hear from her office every time she shows someone else how to unlock their magic.

Thank you to everyone who comments and shares my blogs. Thank you to everyone who sends me messages and tells me that you get something out them. I started writing because I wanted to share stories that helped people feel less alone. And the surprising thing is - your comments have actually made me feel less alone.

So thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Love, Nicky xx

Nicky Williams is the co-founder of Girls With Hammers and a freelance writer.

Refs: David Icke, Harvard Business Review - imposter syndrome, Get Off The Bench, Kerryn Vaughan

Why knowing 'how' is irrelevant

Photo: Emily Morter

By Kerryn Vaughan

17th December 2019

Have you ever wanted to do something or try something, but instantly decided it’s just all too hard? And besides, “I don’t have the skills”. What if we gave it a go anyway?

There have been so many times in my life, and I mean literally thousands, where I have had an idea about a vision, but absolutely no idea about how to do it. This ‘how’ is what puts most people off. They try to have it all figured about before they start, and never actually get around to starting anything. What a crying shame!
The world needs what you have – and everybody has something to give.

There’s a bit of a ‘well known’ secret that goes like this: You need to get your ‘why’ in order first, and then the ‘how’ will just take care of itself. Trust me, I do this all the time and it works.

I share this in workshops and people doubt me, but they always come back with “Wow, it really does work! I can’t believe how easy this is!”.

But you need to know why you are doing something, or why doing it is important to you, or why you are motivated to do it. Otherwise that thing you want to do, but don’t know how, will never happen.

Let me give you a personal example: right now I am testing out Word Press and I had no idea how it all worked before I started, and frankly I still don’t have my head around it. But I’m trying and I’m getting there. The ‘how’ is super frustrating to me, but my ‘why’ outweighs that.

Photo: Ian Schneider

So why am I so driven to use Word Press despite the frustrations? Because my work is helping people Get Off The Bench, and setting up a blog or a website seems to come up very often and I like to further my knowledge so I can better support those needing these things.

I am already great with other platforms, but not with Word Press. One person is this very moment, setting up a blog in Word Press, so if I use it too I can give her support if needed, and that helps her feel more confident about getting off the bench.

So ultimately, my why is that I genuinely care about people succeeding and living their dream. I want to understand the pain points people have to go through to make their dream a reality. It also makes me a better facilitator and it gives those I support a better success rate. It’s win/win and we should all be striving for that.

If you are driven by your ‘why’ you can’t help yourself, and as you take the first step, the next step just unfolds and becomes obvious. Further, if you allow the small steps to fall into place as they appear, before you know it you will be in a place you never expected to be, simply because you didn’t know how but had the courage to try anyway.

Most great things in this world started with a vision and a solid ‘why’, and the creator just kept trying and trusting, and allowing each step to lead her/him to the next.

So whatever that thing is you want to do, and don’t know how, ask yourself ‘why?’. If your ‘why’ is big enough then just get on with it, and let go of the stress of constantly worrying about it. If you need help, then head on over to Get Off The Bench! and I’ll get you started.

Just try! You may fail – but you may also succeed.
Happy ‘thing’ building!

Kerryn Vaughan is the author of ‘Magnificent Kids!’ and ‘Get Off The Bench!’, founder of One Planet Classrooms, and co-founder of Girls With Hammers.

I don't know how to kiss... YET!

Photo - Toa Heftiba

By Kerryn Vaughan

12th December 2019

Have you ever stopped to consider how often you say “I don’t know how to…”? Very often, I suspect! What if we changed that language to “I don’t know how to… yet”?

Think about all the things you competently do today that you once didn’t know how to do, like drive, tie your shoe laces, use the lawn mower, cook, kiss, use a smart phone; the list goes on and on…

What about using a computer? I can clearly recall how scared most of us were when personal computers first became available. I was in my late 20’s. I remember seeing these clunky big things starting to appear in shops and for well over a year I would feel a sense of dread at the thought of someday being in a position where I would be forced to use one. I was terrified! Computers were way too advanced for someone like me.

Around the age of 30 I took the leap (only because my then partner wanted one) and we bought a desk computer with the giant hard-case and massive big box screen that left absolutely no room on the desk for anything else. You couldn’t even move it without ‘setting the heads in park’. Yes, I thought I was so advanced in IT knowing that little secret and mastering it. I also remember spending what seemed like a house deposit on it!

Fast forward 25 years and I’m practically married to my Mac (others in my home call her Mrs Mac due to my perhaps ‘over-the-top’ adoration) and I can’t ever imagine how I was afraid of these amazing machines.

When I first invested in a little farm some 12 years ago, I didn’t know how to do any farm maintenance. Well I can tell you, I soon had to get my act together! I still have a small farm now, and over those years I’ve constructed paddock shelters, rebuilt an outdoor toilet, re-strung a clothesline, fixed many water pumps and connections, re-wired a solar system, installed electric fences, injected sick cows, and so many other things I’d never had to do prior to this. Only a couple of weeks ago I had to herd a snake into a corner to confine it, after it made its way into the house via the doggy door!

Photo - Timothy Eberly

This got me thinking - isn’t it funny how when things are urgent (and a snake in the house falls under ‘critically urgent’!), we seem to find a way to learn in an instant. There is no ‘yet’ and there is no ‘can’t’. Adrenaline kicks in, we do what we have to, and in most cases actually succeed, much to our surprise.

We never give ourselves enough credit for what we are truly capable of. Besides, every single thing you could ever want to learn is now on YouTube, so no excuses!

So why is it, we allow what we can’t do to define us? What if we did started putting ‘yet’ on the end of every ‘I don’t know how to…’? Imagine how we’d start seeing ourselves and our capabilities.

However, if you really don't like something, and don’t ever want to do it, then by all means ignore all of the above. I'm not good at sewing, because I actually despise sewing. So, I don't want to be good at it ‘yet’, now, or any other time.

But if you are saying things like ‘I'm not good at this’ or ‘I don't know how to do that’, it probably means that you wish you were good at it or did know how to do it, otherwise you wouldn't even be bringing it up. So my advice, make friends with the word ‘yet’ and use it often . Oh, and for the record, I had a whole lot of fun learning how to kiss!

Kerryn Vaughan is the author of ‘Magnificent Kids!’ and ‘Get Off The Bench!’, founder of One Planet Classrooms, and co-founder of Girls With Hammers.

Are you coming clean?

By Kerryn Vaughan

16th August 2019

Well are you?

It may be a hard pill to swallow, but you simply can’t free yourself until you do…

Over the years my work has taken me on many journeys - some good, some not so good. A great deal of it has seen me teaching or training in some form or another, creating the opportunity for me to have a trapped audience, and some would say that meant I was in my element!

My days as a tertiary teacher had me locked in room with a whole bunch of mostly mature women who had succumbed to the ‘settling’ that seems to plague a lot of women. Settling for far less than they deserved. Of course I wasn’t literally ‘locked’ in with them, but for some, that’s how it would have felt at first.

At the beginning of the year, each new student would hesitantly creep through the door for the first time, slowly scanning every corner of the room for the chair that would securely snuggle her for the entire year. Each one doubting that anybody else in the room would understand that her even thinking about starting a course, was taking a massive step out of her comfort zone.

As she headed to the chair that seemed to be beckoning her, she wondered how she would manage to get through an entire year sitting amongst all these confident people, and thinking “I am so far out of my league here”. Then the lies would sneak in and infiltrate her mind until she could barely even breathe. She had successfully convinced herself that she was the only one in the room experiencing these thoughts:

“I shouldn’t be here”

“Who am I to think I can start a new career - nobody will employ me anyway”

“Everybody will find out I wasn’t that smart at school”

“I won’t be able to pass any tests so I shouldn’t have even enrolled”

“It’s only a matter of time before Kerryn finds out how dumb I am”

“Maybe I should leave now, before it even starts”

And the list goes on and on and on…

How do I know they had these thoughts? Because eventually every one of them comes clean. And over time they all share with each other, that they too had the same thoughts. Imagine the pain of keeping all that fear and anxiety tightly and securely wrapped up inside you, thinking everybody else in the room was more intelligent and more competent than you.

Sadly this happens everywhere in life and not just in my classroom. But the moment we come clean, we open the door for all that rubbish to start waking out, and making way for powerful, positive, and refreshing change to barge its way through that open door.

For me it was always important to show these women how amazing they were. That just because they had not been to school in 20 - 30 years, that did not make them ‘dumb’. Even if it was true that they didn’t do well in school, that’s completely irrelevant once you step out into the big wide world of adulthood.

These women had lived life! Most had raised a family, some had put up with husbands they didn’t even like, some had travelled, some had been in the same job their whole lives and some had done whatever work they could get just to help pay the bills.

Mostly, these women were the ones who always put themselves last - the husband’s job was more important, the kids sport was more important, the trips in ‘mums taxi’ were more important. Even dinner was more important! They were the women who held every family secret tight and who could fit 3 days into 1, both just to keep the peace and ensure the happiness of others preceded their own.

But the truth is, these amazing women had so much to offer and so many life experience skills outside of their robotic daily obligations, and it was time they saw that.

I was so blessed to have been in that wonderful position, having an entire year to massage some of the damaging beliefs out of these incredible beings, and to inspire moments of self-love, self-worth, self-respect, self-belief, confidence, hope and courage. Feelings and thoughts they deserved to be filled with.

Ironically, what they didn’t realise, was that they inspired my life long journey to support people to shine their light. I have seen so many great ideas emerge from inspired minds, and observed as new-born women make their way to the next chapter of their life with new found confidence, and belief that what they have to contribute is truly valuable.

People just need some time out, some inspired moments, and some honest conversation away from the daily grind, so they have an opportunity to figure out what really makes their heart sing. Imagine a whole world full of chirping birds! Imagine how bright the world would be if everybody’s brilliant light was turned on.

Whatever that thing is you want to do, please believe you ‘can’. Please listen to your heart and believe that you matter. Believe you have an amazing gift within you and that your gift is worth sharing. Know that you yourself, are a gift. You are unique, beautiful and way more powerful than you can even imagine. Stand in your truth and add your amazing light to the tapestry of life.

Kerryn Vaughan is the author of ‘Magnificent Kids!’ and ‘Get Off The Bench!’, founder of One Planet Classrooms, and co-founder of Girls With Hammers.

Time is too precious

By Kerryn Vaughan

26th July 2019

Time is too precious

Hi there, and welcome to the very first Get Off The Bench blog post. To be honest, I've been putting this off for way too long because I couldn't decide on the angle to take. I knew I wanted to start a blog because I have a stack of things to say (just ask my family and friends about that!), as well as having a whole bunch of experience in many areas. I'm also passionate about tonnes of things, and can easily share my opinion on all of them.

So what to do? Why is it so easy to help guide others, but when it comes to ourselves we are crap at it? If somebody else asked me what THEY should do, I'd say, ‘Pick a topic you're passionate about and that you know a lot about, then write. Don't make it so damn hard!’

Actually, a lot of us fall victim to not being able to decide which passion we're going to persue, and I intend to unpack this more as we move along this journey together. But at the end of the day, time is way too precious, so we just need to crack on today. Right now!

Do what I say, not what I do

We are all very good at expecting others to value our advice and opinions, but we don't even give it half that value? I’m sure most of us are caught up in the whole self doubt / imposter syndrome epidemic - a huge problem that some people just don’t get on top of.

So on taking my own advice I have gone with Get Off The Bench. Seems logical anyway, as my latest book is called just that. As well, I have a huge backlog of ideas and projects I've successfully gotten off the bench and a long history of helping others to kickstart their projects. So that's final. We’re in this for the long haul.

In coming posts, I'm going to talk about the good, bad, ugly and bloody awesome about getting your idea up and running, as well as looking at reasons why we don’t ever start. Mark my words there are a lot of those! I also want to share snippets from my book and showcase ordinary (that's all of us) people who have had the courage to get off the bench, including how they did it, why they did it, and some of the challenges. Sometimes I might just unload my despise for inconsiderate pricks. That will certainly add some spice!

I hope you'll stick with me and find the inspiration, encouragement and guidance to kickstart your dream and bring it to life.

Please connect with me on Instagram at @getoffthebench and send a DM

About the author: Kerryn Vaughan is the author of ‘Get Off The Bench!’ and ‘Magnificent Kids!’ and director at Girls With Hammers which empowers women to build a dynamic life.