Conversations with Georgie #13: 30 Today With All 30 Lists Published 🎂 ✍️💡
Plus: a PhD start date in October & intentions to explore nomadic life
READ THIS FIRST. 👋 This letter is an experiment! A way to get off social media, to connect by sharing things that aren’t normally shared, to spark thoughts and ideas and plant seeds for…. serendipity, perhaps? Do with it what you will - consume it ravenously in one go, leave it in your inbox for 6 months until the time is right (by the way, that time will never come!), or something else… I’m sure we all have fascinating and weird consumption habits. I love hearing from humans so if you’re not some AI robot (or even if you are, actually), please do send words, emojis or other communicative mediums. 😛
👋Hello Friends,
Today I turn 30!! 🎂
And now, after writing 45,750 + words over 30 lists (yes, really - it became quite the project!) reflecting on my 30 years of existence, 'I think I’m just about ready to enter a new decade of life…
After a lot of reflecting, I feel excited, extremely grateful and ready for this somewhat intense but fun project to be put to bed. Classically, it took way more time than expected, I discovered secret powers to create time (mostly at night!), got ill in the process (proof that this isn’t sustainable long term), experienced multiple vulnerability hangovers, and ending up apologising to a lot of people for having minimal free time this month. Thank you to everyone for their patience and understanding 🙏.
But, I am so glad to have done it… and now, you get the chance to digest them!
Where to start though?! 30 lists is a lot to choose from. Lest you be affected by the paradox of choice, I’ve heard from a few keen bean readers that 30 Ways I Am Totally Imperfect 🤦♀, 30 Ways To Have An Awesome Conversation and 30 Skills We Need But Don’t Teach deeply resonated… but I also don’t want to sway you too much. Maybe just pick a random number and let the universe decide… I’m discovering this is a fun way to open new doors!
Whatever you do decide to peruse, I would LOVE to know if/whether/how the list(s) land with you. Part of the joy of creating something is letting go of my experience of it and understanding how it connects with others.
I’ll be waiting with slight nervousness but mostly MASSIVE curiosity….🤔
Sending (Virtual) Hugs, Smiles & Love,
Georgie 🤗❤️
1. The 30 Lists ✍️
(All published on Medium)
30 Reflective Questions that Lead to Fascinating Conversations
30 Confusing Messages I’ve Internalised About Who To Be & How to Live
30 Considerations for Designing Meaningful Human Connection Experiences
30 Things I’ve Learnt About Human Behaviour That Show Up Everywhere
30 Things I Need To Let Go As I Move Forward Into The Next Chapter
❓What to do with the lists? Great question!❓
👉 Pick 1-2 that draw you in (no upper limit, though I would be super impressed if you got close to reading them all!!).
📖 Enjoy taking the time to read them.
🤔 Reflect. What resonated (or didn’t)? What surprised you? What challenged you? What thoughts or feelings are emerging?
💬 Share your thoughts. Comment, clap, message me…. I’m super curious to hear how they land!
🙏 If you think that a list will be valuable for someone else to read, do share it with another.
2. Life Updates
🎓PhD @ Imperial College - After a year of seeking funding, and lots of deliberation (#4 in CWG letter 11) I decided I just need to take the leap and get going with my PhD (in Human Connection Design) as it will be a 4-6 year journey part-time! I’m going to work part-time to (self) fund it, which means I also get to continue taking on multiple interesting and related projects so that I don’t go mad just studying. I am feeling excited and nervous to be a student again in October, and to get to think deeply and rigorously. There is also a slight concern that I might have overscheduled myself, and might need to find a way to create 5-10 days extra each month. I guess I’m going to find out!
🌍 Nomadic Intentions - One of the goals I didn’t achieve before 30 was living abroad for more than 3 months. It’s dawning on me that there will never be the right time to leave London - there will always be work and life opportunities keeping me here- so I need to just go. Over the last month, a number of last minute opportunities to travel arrived in my life so I leaned into spontaneity and emergence and I said yes! I’m learning to work from multiple contexts, and loving the range of new, exploratory experiences and relationship-building opportunities available when you are elsewhere. My plan is to keep saying yes and, where possible (I have some in person commitments scheduled), spend a few days to a month in a new location. Feel free to give me a reason to come visit you!
👩🏫 Virtual Programmes are Live - After the success of Joe Keohane’s Entrepreneur.com article ‘How to Become a Master at Talking to Strangers’ and book ‘The Power of Strangers’, I am delighted to be training 2-3 virtual cohorts, on a 6-week virtual Transformational Conversations Programme (and an in-person in London in November). I’ve really enjoyed delivering 3 taster workshops with a final one tomorrow (Wed 1st) and am loving speaking 1-1 with interesting people applying (many entrepreneurial) from almost every continent in the world. It is incredible how fast spaces are filling up, and it’s making me realise I should travel to the USA in 2022 so I can run some in person courses. But for now, I am super excited to see how these go, especially as I’m starting my PhD around the same time!
A Parting Quote 📖
‘To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children... to leave the world a bit better... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; this is to have succeeded’
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have a note somewhere that says I found this quote via Yannick - so, if that is indeed the case, thank you so much for this! 🙏