Archives

writing

Who I am.

November 1, 2021

Hello there!

Last night I was doing some journalling for a course, and one of the questions was: who are you?

You had to answer it in one sentence.

In. One. Sentence.

Now I am sure that many of you out there could do that without any problems, but until very recently I was not one of those people.

A few years ago, when we could still be in a confined spaces with other humans, I was in a shared taxi to the airport. As the driver navigated the busy roads of San Jose, the Canadians in the back seat asked the inevitable question: so what do you do?

I remember babbling a bit about leading online courses, but I could never find that magical thing that would tell people who I really was.

Last night it came to me, loud and clear: I am a Writer. (Who lives in the jungle.)

Yes, I do more than that, and I am about to be doing even more than that, but Writer is truly the central core of what I do. It’s my soul work. It’s my truth. (And the space I have chosen to occupy has a huge influence on what I write.)

I write. It’s not what I do, it’s who I am.

It took me a lot of years to get that clear.

But that clarity and that ownership have changed everything. And it feels… magical.

How about you? Who are you? Are you clear?

Can you write it in one sentence? And if not, how can I help you get there?

with love,

Meghan
xo
writing

1000 Days

August 24, 2020

I have now written every single day for over 1000 days in a row.

Technically today I am on day 1120. I know, I should have done this on day 1000, but the amazing thing is that somewhere in the 400 – 500 range, it stopped being surprising that I was showing up. I even stopped talking about it on Social Media. (Can you imagine!?)

I am still doing it. I intend to keep doing it. I have now done it so long that it has become a part of who I am and what I do. It’s like brushing my teeth: it would feel too weird not to do it.

I have written about this before here and here, and I have talked about it on instagram and in my courses and offerings, but what I have discovered is that it all boils down to devotion*.

People ask me about it all of the time. Many say that they were inspired by my journey and that they are now on day ____, others just shake their heads and tell me that they ‘could never do that.’ To the first group, I grin and say, ‘YAY! YOU!’ To the second group, I just smile, because as long as they say that, it will be true for them (but I actually don’t believe them.)

You have it in you to believe in yourself and to devote yourself so something that matters. You do. You just have to pick something that really matters and then change your mind – one day at a time.

Here is what I have learned in 1000+ days of showing up for something that matters to me:

  1. You have to do something that matters to your soul. Showing up every day for anything not in alignment who Who You Are will be much much more difficult.
  2. Make it easy. You have to choose something that you can do without making it a big bloody deal. Creating any sorts of complications or fancy rituals or specific rules will just give you something to rebel against or use to make an excuse not to show up.
  3. You have to make it non-negotiable. This was a big piece for me. If you give yourself any way out, you’ll probably find it. I have shown up to write every day no matter what because that was the one boundary/ rule I set. (And this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do whatever it is every day. But the days you DO commit to showing up? Those have to be non-negotiable.)
  4. Equally, you have to focus on today. If you didn’t show up yesterday it can’t matter. Take the question of why you didn’t show up to your work, but show up today anyway. WAY too many dreams have been shelved because ‘I didn’t do it today/ yesterday/ the month/ this year so why bother?‘ I’ll tell you why: because it matters enough for you to want to do it and to come back to it over and over again. Just show up again today and then repeat that over and over and over again.
  5. Doing this will change everything. You will begin to see your own cycles and patterns and stories. You will bore yourself. You will surprise yourself. You will inspire yourself. You will then bore yourself all over again. This noticing of the patterns and the stories and the cycles will begin to change everything. Your perspective and your beliefs and your world will expand. Keep going.

My own 1000+ Days of Writing has brought me into a place where everything is magic. I can see stories and patterns and allies and a much, much bigger picture. I can also confidently call myself a Writer, because I show up every day to write. That alone is worth the journey of the past three years.

What calls your soul? What do you want to call yourself? What wants to come through you? Start today. Show up. See what happens.

*I have created a 48+ page workbook that will help you get really clear on your own 1000 Days Project (or 100 Days Project, or simply your Soul Work). It is a gift for my newsletter subscribers. So if you are interested in going on this journey and starting with a bit of help and a bit of inspiration and a lot of clarity, just click here to join my newsletter list.

With so much love,

Meghan
purpose

How to Find Your Purpose in 1.6 miles (2.5 kms)

June 3, 2020

Hello there,

I’m sure you know about Captain Tom Moore, but if you don’t let, me tell you a little story. 

Captain Tom Moore

Back at the beginning of April, Captain Tom Moore decided that he wanted to do his bit during the coronavirus to help raise money for charity. He was 99 years old and decided that he’d try to raise £1000 by walking one hundred-metre laps of his garden before his 100th birthday. He was going to do this by walking 10 laps per day, with the help of a walking frame. 

So Captain Tom started walking. His family set up a JustGiving page, and a few donations started coming in.

Then something wonderful happened.

Captain Tom’s walk was shared by someone, and then someone else. Captain Tom was asked to be on a radio program. Then Captain Tom was asked to be on the BBC breakfast program. The donations started to pour in and they kept upping his target. On the 16th of April, Captain Tom completed his 100 laps, watched over by a guard of honour from the 1st Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. I watched the news all of the way from Costa Rica, and cried.

He pledged to keep going. If the people would keep giving, he’d keep walking!

By the evening of his 100th birthday, Captain Tom Moore had not only walked his 100 laps (totalling 1.6 miles), but he had raised – wait for it – £32,796,475.

Read that part again: at 99 years old, walking back and forth in his garden, he had raised £32,796,475 for charity.

What happened? There are many articles that talk about it, but when you boil it down, Captain Tom Moore charmed the nation. In a time of uncertainty and grief, he gave a country something to believe in. 

Not only did he make that money, he’s now been made an honorary Colonel, received a Pride of Britain award, had a number one single (I’m not kidding), got his own postmark, holds two Guinness World Records, had a bus, two trains, two horses, a powerboat and a police dog puppy named after him, received over 150,000 birthday cards – mostly from children – AND has been knighted.

Why am I telling you this?

I talk about Purpose with people a lot. It comes up in self-help books and business books and on websites and in Instagram posts on a very regular basis. Many of us want to know our Purpose, and many people believe that they have to answer to that and try to sell it to us as the be all and end all.

But what if we will never really know? What if we can never know what effect we will have and when? What if you just following your heart moment-by-moment and doing you with all you’ve got is enough? 

Most of us would think that at 99 years old we would be past the point of making a difference in the world. Think again. I’m not saying that THIS was Captain Tom’s life’s purpose, but him showing up and honestly doing what he believed in made a moment of magic for a whole country (and beyond) at a time when they needed it the most.

The Birthday Cards for Captain Tom Moore

Will you ever have a police puppy, a horse, a train, a bus, and a powerboat named after you? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s not really those things that matter. What matters are the words that children wrote on his birthday cards. They told him thank you. They told him that he had inspired them. They told him that he had made them think of old people differently. Who knows what ripples Captain Tom deciding to walk 1.6 miles in his garden will have in the world as those children grow.

All I know is that I watched every single thing about him with tears in my eyes. He even changed me. 

You might never know your Purpose with a capital p, but I really believe that if you do you with all of your heart and all of your truth with all you’ve got as often as you can, you will live with purpose. Even then you won’t know what effect that will have. Do it anyway. Live your life with love and truth and kindness. Show up. The ripples that will make could literally change the world.

Thank you Sir/ Colonel/ Captain Tom Moore. For everything.

Meghan

*For some reason I can’t add links to the photographs. The first one is from here and the second one is from this article.

Newsletter

New here?

Legal Stuff

PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICIES please click here.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS please

click here.
All uncredited writing and images are my own. If you are interested in using any of my work, please contact me.
LINKwithlove