Become a middle-ages archer!
In the middle ages, archers would carry a spare string wound around their bow to give them a plan B if the original string broke. Hence the phrase to “have another string to your bow”.
Pan forward to 2020 and many of us are reaching for our second string. No doubt some of us will find that a daunting task but as with so many things in life, the fear is often much worse than just getting on with it.
Despite being quite interested in technology; media; communications and so on, I found myself initially a bit blindsided by the rapid (almost instant) shift from face to face coaching sessions and residential workshops to video chats and (literally) three-day long video based ‘offsites’.
Everything became ‘offsite’ but not in the way we’ve previously used the word.
I spent a few days resisting the change. A traditional denial and blame phase to the Covid-19 enforced change journey I’d unexpectedly been sent on. Then the mists cleared and the energy and enthusiasm took over. Seriously, what was I thinking? I had in front of me the gift of both time and burning platform motivation to unwind my second string and get it tightly attached to my bow.
So, six weeks later and I have run dozens of successful online coaching sessions and designed & delivered an interactive talent workshop for 12 participants over 3 days. I’ve become an intermediate (or maybe even above) prezi video and prezi design practitioner and a dab hand at mentimeter interactive polling.
Ann-Marie at Sweetjar Communications has worked with me in those weeks to re-launch this web site (it had been gathering online dust for 4 years).
My message to you is:
- We all have extra strings for our bows;
- Be sure to value them even when they are not currently needed;
- Don’t be afraid of using them even if they feel less comfortable and familiar than the one you’ve grown attached to.
