What should I do while on hold with an airline, write a blog.
I’ve been on hold for three hours with WestJet and for those Canadian readers can appreciate the patience it takes to wait for the next available agent. Early this morning I booked a flight online using our banked credits and it appears to have gone sideways. I chose to book online, which I never do, thinking it would be easy and simple, but I was wrong. I was hoping not to have to wait for an agent, and here I am, waiting for an agent.
After a long, dark, cold and locked down winter, freedom grew as the days got longer and the vaccine shots were offered to everyone, shots where being scheduled and people were experiencing hope. There was a real buzz of what people where experiencing.
Spring sprung starting with an April email from a beautiful woman. A special invitation was presented to me to join a group of like minded women to learn how to write a non-fiction book. For some reason I didn’t have to ponder this offer very long. I quickly took this to my husband, Hal, who has been encouraging me for years to write a book. He quickly said “I think you should do it”.
That was that, I signed up and paid for my spot. Then I got thinking about this beautiful woman who invited me, “she has a podcast called the “Bubble Hour” maybe I could be of service to her and her listeners and share my recovery story?” So I offered and she accepted.
Whenever I offer to share my story, I always regret it after, the result of fear and a mean inner critic chirping in my head. I acknowledge and push through the feelings and thoughts with prayer and meditation and do it anyway!!
During the preparation for the Bubble Hour, I was mindful to share only my story, not my sister’s story or cousin’s story or my husband’s story. This would be the first time my story would be recorded and archived. The experience was fabulous and I learned that I needed to do more work around trying to control outcomes. I kept telling myself, just touch one person with hope, and that was the intention. Visit this link to hear the Bubble Hour interview About Coach with Nicole - Meet Nicole Cameron — Coach with Nicole
May arrives and I’m excited for the non-fiction book writing course. We’ll meet for four Saturdays 3.5 hours each time. I went into this experience without any expectations and I had a wonderful time. The leaders were fantastic, the other beginner writers were wonderful! We learned, we laughed, we wrote and we encouraged each other. I loved every minute of it! Our fierce leaders were Catherine Greer in Sydney Australia, and Jean McCarthy in Alberta, Canada. Please visit them at Catherine Greer and Jean McCarthy – Author, Blogger, Podcast Host for their list of books, blogs and podcast.
Still On Hold - Update: 3 hours 43 minutes
June was filled with teaching myself how to write a book, research for the book, interviews for the book, and lots of mental work reminding myself that I’m a beginner and teaching myself how to write a book. There were emails to Jean and Catherine asking for help and wondering if what I was going through was normal, they both continued to encourage me and lift me up. I continued to write.
Here we are in July and I’ve invested in a laptop and write outside every chance I have. I’ve created a writing schedule around my coaching calendar for clients and its working really well. I am consciously reminding myself of time boundaries and being disciplined to my clients and my writing with pockets of time for client reschedules, mentorship calls and booking conversations about coaching with curious people.
Still On Hold - Update: 4 hour wait time - Meghan picked with a friendly and warm “Hello”. Another hour and our flights are all organized and booked!! All set to spend my 55th birthday on the beach.
Two weeks ago I came across an Instagram post, Brene Brown announcing she’s hosting a series of discussions with her twin sisters about “The Gifts of Imperfections”. I jumped on “Unlocking Us” podcast via Spotify to get caught up, since the discussions started at the end of June. “The Gifts” was an instrumental book in my early years of sobriety. If you really want to do personal work, start with this book and podcast. Then call me for some coaching hours and we’ll get busy working on real sustainable change. If you don’t know anything about coaching, let’s have a conversation. You can reach me at nicole@coachwithnicole.ca.
Until next time, be patient, good things happen when we’re patient. Stay connected. Want to make some changes to your life, ask for help!