What if you never share what you know?
What if you never share what you know?
Your deepest wound is your truest niche - Tad Hargrave
Have you ever felt like you’ve got something, or you know something, or have experienced something, that could help other people?
I’m not necessarily talking about experience in a job or work, or qualifications. It feels more like “I’ve been through something quite difficult/challenging/unusual, and I wonder whether I could help other people going through something similar”.
I’ve always worried about things, always struggled with anxiety, but in recent years I’ve started to try to observe that anxiety, and to notice and identify what it’s really about.
What this has taught me is that my anxiety comes more often from this unsettling feeling that sounds a bit like, ‘what if you don’t?’ rather than a fear of what will happen if I do take a step or make a decision.
Whatever your story is, your own set of skills and experiences, combined with the challenges and struggles you’ve faced, give you a perspective that is unique.
You might find the following free online courses useful:
I love to watch Tad Hargrave’s videos – he runs Marketing for Hippies and a phrase he often uses has really stuck with me. He says:
Your deepest wound is your truest niche - Tad Hargrave
He’s talking about marketing and particularly running your own business, in essence saying that the hardest thing you’ve been through is the place you are most likely to be of service to others from.
I can’t tell you how much I love this concept.
It’s something that really resonated with me, not necessarily as I was setting up my businesses, but during the times when they were evolving. When something in my business has just felt a bit ‘off’ it’s been because I’ve swayed too far from my deepest wound.
There are a few experiences or times in my life I could put in the category of ‘wounds’ but the ‘deepest wound’ for me could be summed up under ‘not fitting in’. There’s lots of other stuff within that like high school, bullying, heartbreak, having an extreme introverted personality, and being overly empathetic to the point of not being able to cope with all the pain in the world. But what that looks like on the outside is that I am overcome by the need to do something good with my life; to make it worthwhile, to cheer on those people who are also trying to do something helpful and necessary. The irony is that since accepting my ‘not fitting in’ I feel I’ve finally found my place in the world!
I am the definition of a realist so keeping some sane level of optimism takes a lot of work, but yet I have to believe the best of people, I have to believe there is more good in the world than bad. If I didn’t, I simply couldn’t keep going, and that's what I have dedicated my life's work to.
Here are some questions to help you think through this topic:
What have been the biggest challenges in your life?
What is your deepest wound?
Can you remember a time you realised you were stronger than you thought you were?
What do you feel compelled to help other people with?
How do you think you can make a difference in the world?
If you didn’t have work and/or other responsibilities, how would you spend your time?
Finish this sentence: The world would be a much better and kinder place if people…
It can be helpful to observe your own thoughts and actions for a few days to try to work out how your day-to-day life has been affected by your past experiences.
Keep checking in by asking ‘where has this feeling come from?’ and let me know what it is that you feel called to share with the world.
You can comment below, or reply to this email.
Rachel x