In this final part of the inventory of the third house themes, I will look at three more aspects of communication: content, recipients and the various ways we have available to us to get our messages across.
So let’s start with that message itself, the content. What am I keen to communicate? To what extent am I getting across what really matters?
I shall answer these questions for three different areas of my life that seem relevant in the context of the second house (which you have been able to read about) and the third (which we are exploring now). In doing so, I am also writing about the recipients of the messages (1) communication with potential clients for projects (2) communication with potential readers of this blog and (3) communication with close friends.
(1) my LinkedIn profile shows my work experience and describes the various positions I have held and projects I have worked on. For as far as I know, none of the clients I am working for right now has found me there. It might help to have all the information up, but I have noticed that I personally do not enjoy spending time on the platform at all, let alone use it to find new projects. Aside from this profile on LinkedIn, I have a business page on Facebook that I have never properly used and a website waiting to be built. So in the digital realm I am not efficiently communicating what it is I do and what work I would really love to be doing. I discuss this topic with friends and other coaches, but am not taking action. So far I have gotten by because people who already knew me and had worked with me before approached me with projects.
(2) this an interesting one. I have written blog posts before, but never in such as structured way as I am doing now. My intentions then were similar to what they are now: exploring topics that are important to me by writing about them. And also: sharing what is helping me, hoping it might shine some light on the path that others are walking.
If I were to describe who I am addressing when I’m writing, it would be someone who is friendly, interested and curious. Someone who holds the space. In their presence it is safe for me to speak my mind, to explore, to not have answers yet, to share what works and be honest about what doesn’t. There is no judgement, only very generous support. They really listen. They ask great questions, but never answer in my place. They know and trust I carry all the answers within me. They do not teach or preach, they simply stand by my side.
In a sense, this blog is one long letter to myself. To myself the way I am when I am coaching: present, kind and warm. It is a letter to myself the way I am with my friends and loved ones: present, loving and supportive. It is a letter to my dear friends and coaches and to people who are like them, but whom I do not know at all.
Those people, perhaps you are one of them, may not be familiar with coaching. But I imagine you can relate to the desire to create change. That you would like to live with a little more lightness and ease. For this purpose I want to add extra material to this blog so you can start following this practice too. I am even considering designing one-on-one online workshops or short coaching trajectories for extra support. None of this is in place as I write this. In have, in fact, not even launched the blog yet.
My intention is to launch this blog on 18 March 2022, the day of the full moon in Virgo. This allows me to first write the parts that are not yet written (such as the general description of the practice) and create the artwork. But I am getting ahead of myself; this was meant to be an inventory, not a planning session.
(3) The close friends who feel like family are other recipients of messages who I specifically want to include in this inventory. What I most want to give and communicate to them, and I have touched upon this in the House III inventory on close friends, is love, kindness, gratitude and light. I think most of the time I already am, but I would love to be even more calm and soft in their presence.
Now, let’s look at the means of communication. This list below includes all the forms and platforms I use for both my personal and professional communication. At this moment, part of the latter includes supporting various organisations with their publicity and communication, hence the press releases, posters and such.
- meeting up in person
- video calls
- phone calls
- what’s app
- sending phone messages
- newsletters
- press releases
- flyers, posters, brochures
- Facebook and Instagram
- blog
- website
- sending post cards and letters
In the following weeks, I will make a separate starfish for this part of the inventory only. Writing about each of these ways to communicate now will take too much time and space. I shall just add a few general remarks, some ideas that instantly came up as I was writing down the list.
One of them is something an old friend said when digital communication was not as omnipresent as it is now: ‘Let it work for you, rather than against you.‘ This is the goal I want to work towards.
In the second part of this House III inventory, I reflected on the way my perspective on friendships has, rather recently, shifted: before the pandemic I kept in touch with as many people as I could. I would refer to them as friends, even though they were not all part of my life anymore.
When I look at the contacts and connections stored on my phone, in my email and social media accounts… there are many people on those lists who I have no real connection with, neither professionally, nor personally. People who do not know me well (anymore) and who probably never will (again). People whom I do not know well (anymore) and probably never will (again).
People who I spent time with when I was living abroad. People I used to work with. Perhaps I was unwilling to give up what had felt like an essential part of my identity. I guess in a sense I was, to paraphrase Joan Didion, trying to keep ‘in touch with some of the people that I used to be’. I am still reluctant to give it all up, but I do have a feeling that it is time to make space for new people, new experiences and new memories.
The lists of digital contacts and connections do not reflect my life in the analogue world. And I think that the time has come to change that.
On which note: in the next blog posts I shall translate these four inventories into small, actionable steps which will help me to create changes and to bring more light and ease in my daily life and rituals, in my connection with my sister and other close friends and in the area of communication.
My rising sign 