Life has been moving faster than ever recently.
The hours have been slipping away, the days have been flying by and the weeks have been passing before my very eyes.
The onward march of time has felt relentless.
But, not once have I found myself wishing for it slow down. Instead, I’ve been in flow, connecting with the parts of life that feel most meaningful to me.
For I feel aligned to the path that I have chosen for myself and am accepting of the time, energy and patience required to keep me moving forward.
Though even as I settle into the long march ahead, markers of progress are already starting to become clearer than ever to me…
Mastering my New Role
In October I was promoted to ‘Founders Associate’ in my main 4-days a week role at The Portfolio Collective after 6 months with the company.
In a lot of ways it should have been cause for celebration.
But, having already been doing my new role pretty much since I first joined, the title upgrade felt less like a step-up and more like a catch-up.
That was until I realised that the merry-go-round of taking on responsibilities one level higher than your role never ends.
For now I was expected to deliver on the level of a Chief of Staff, owning the finance, legal and operations of the start-up.
Which were skills I had to understand, learn and apply to the real business problems in-front of me. All without the support of my COO, who had just left to go on maternity leave to look after her (very cute) first child.
And without making any mistakes in the process.
Sounds easy enough, right?
Luckily, or perhaps with some foresight, I’d asked for a mentor a little while back and had now been assigned one of the best in the game.
Rohan Sheth, who was my CEO’s previous Chief of Staff, and the person he can’t go a week without raving about, became my Operations Mentor.
It’s safe to say it’s been a game changer for me.
In just 1 hour a week his advice has accelerated my learnings tenfold by structuring my thinking, teaching me best practice and being an invaluable sounding board for every and any problem I’ve had.
Which, powered by the seemingly minor adjustments fed back from my CEO, is really starting to kick my competence-confidence loop into hyperdrive, creating a virtuous upwards cycle of belief in my own abilities.
There will always be more to learn. And there will always be improvements to be made. But, for the 9 short months I’ve been with TPC so far, I’m damn proud of how far I’ve already come.
So, here’s to 9 more.
The Community is Taking Shape
But, my main role hasn’t been the only part of my life bearing fruit…
On the 31st March, after hosting my first 35-person community meet-up and 3 days before I started my new role with TPC, I reflected in my 9th Diary that “today really does feel like it marks the end of one chapter and the start of the next one”. And oh boy was I right. In more ways that I could imagine.
Because, not that I had any idea at the time, but that little get-together had become that catalyst for something WAY bigger.
What began as a way to bring people with many interests together who saw themselves as more than just an occupational label has now evolved into the 40 member tight-knit collective of multipotentialites called the Undefinable Community.
And it’s safe to say things have been skyrocketing.
Since our rebrand and first weekend camping retreat to the South Downs in July we’ve hosted 25 events, recorded 8 podcast episodes and written 7 newsletters (check out
) all in search of finding how we best empower each individual’s creativity, authenticity and capability.Which, after some preparation and lots of homework, led us to our first strategy day two weeks ago, where 12 of us came together to brainstorm the community priorities for the next year.
Countless post-it notes, glasses of water and A1 sheets of paper later and we’d added every idea we could think of into the mix. All that was left to do was to combine them into a coherent strategy for 2024.
So, I sat down last Sunday and spent the entire afternoon writing what turned out to be our first Constitution document outlining how we continue what is working, build a committee, set-up as a shared society and best deliver on our mission until the end of Q1 2024.
Which was one hell of a cathartic exercise.
Not just because it put in writing all the thoughts that had long been circling in my mind, but also because it reflected a major turning point in the growth of the community that is laying the foundation for the many years ahead.
Onwards into 2024
This is my last Diary entry of 2023. And looking back now at the last 12 months it’s safe to say it’s been the best year yet. In one short year I’ve re-aligned to my purpose, ticked some long-term goals off my bucket list and made a meaningful impact to everyone I’ve met along the way. As the first markers of progress start to come together right now it feels like I’m only at the beginning of what is already proving to be an exciting journey. So, with a satisfied mind, a full heart and a strong body I can undoubtedly say that I’m looking forward to everything that’s yet to come in 2024.
Let’s do this.