Embracing the Unknown

After three decades in corporate life I decided to take a break. Keen and curious to explore what might present itself once I moved away from my comfort zone.

My break from corporate life also became a break from city life — we moved to the bush, onto 200 acres of ancient land, in a World Heritage area just north of Sydney. And my timing was, let’s say, interesting. I started this break a month before COVID hit and the world was about to go crazy. At the same time, we were dealing with major bushfires after years of drought. Things were moving at many levels.

So we kind of suddenly found ourselves in the Australian wilderness, curious about what might come next.

Hello, Void

Well, what came next was the void.

This land is quiet. The stillness is deafening. And it does something with you.

At first I had plenty of ways to distract myself — jobs to do, things to build, fix, repair. Yet there comes a point where the land simply demands your attention, where you finally start listening to the silence. You become quiet, still and present — and that’s where you find the void.

For me, the void was an uncomfortable place, at least in the beginning. It’s where I was confronted with the distortions in my life, the feelings and emotions that had been hidden, suppressed, denied — you name it. The void forced me to look within and see (feel is probably the better word) what was really going on.

As the saying goes, if you don’t go within, you go without. And so I did go within — and surprisingly enough, the void was there to hold me.

It took time to move through this phase, because it took me time to be willing to let go, to be okay with simply feeling what I felt, to get out of my head and stop analysing everything, to start trusting the process, and to surrender to the unknown. Because the void is the unknown. The unknowable.

Becoming Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

And the way forward isn’t necessarily through the void, or even away from it. It’s about becoming more comfortable with it. The void is always there. I now see it as an open space — one filled with endless possibility and quiet potential.

But I’ll leave the void there for now. Let’s move to where I am today and where I’m heading.

What Emerged

During this pause I came to see what matters most to me, and I’ve slowly let go of the things that had run their course, some more easily than others.

I care deeply about the kind of future we are creating. We each have a role to play in shaping it, and we each bring our own unique gifts.

I believe that when we’re more connected with who we truly are — and when we start to see the interconnectedness of all things — something shifts inside us. It’s inevitable.

And from there, the kind of future we create changes. One that is fair, sustainable, honest, transparent — and kinder.
A future where people and the Earth are treated with dignity and care.

A Different Way Forward

So that’s where my focus now lies. I work with people — and in particular leaders — who feel the call to shape this future. Leaders who sense that a deeper way of being and leading is needed, and who are willing to explore what that asks of them.

That’s not everyone’s calling, I understand that. It is mine. And if you feel drawn to walk this path with me, I would love to hear from you.

Oh, and if you're curious about my corporate and professional life, that story sits just below.