Lighting the Spark
Guy Fawkes day what better day to talk about lighting the spark! Have you ever had a fascinating conversation that you never wanted to end?
The whole month of October was like that for me. I had a quieter month work wise but had some of the fascinating conversations in my life! I know that’s fairly huge declaration but then not surprising as I once told a friend If I ever write a book on my life it would be called ‘Declarations, Proclamations, and Superlatives’! When freelancers are asked why they become self-employed its very rarely about the money and in my case, I’ve really realised in last month it’s all about the energy you get from talking to fascinating people and their ideas which you can put no monetary value on. The more you open your mind, the more you allow it to expand and to let those effervescent conversations bubble up like a good bottle of champagne.
I just wanted to share some of the fascinating conversations I’ve been part of in the last month. I attended the launch event of the newly founded and very aptly named! Fascinating Company network at the Foundry. We learnt all about the matrix of the mind from Turan Mirza of Feel Good Hypnosis at Banbridge Business Network. I’ve also have been blown away by the power of education as I was very privileged to be invited to my friend Preeti’s Open University graduation at Belfast Waterfront Hall with graduates from all over the world. As a volunteer adjudicator for Concern school debates programme, I’ve also been privy to very heated and extremely well-researched debates about genetically modified foods. As an audience member of Conversations Festival at Mount Stewart, I heard about the power of music to heal wounds in war-torn communities and was totally dumbstruck by the work that people like Dr Shelley Deane, Dr Ahmad Sarmast, Shalini Wickramasuryi and Beyond Skin have been doing in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and beyond.
Over Halloween, I went to visit my good friend Eileen in Limerick and brought her 3 little boys sparklers. They had never seen a sparkler before and one of them commented ‘it’s like a giant matchstick, isn’t it?’ its true sparklers and fireworks are nothing but a giant matchstick without the spark to light them and business ventures are the same. I was recently doing some research for a serviced apartment owner in Belfast about potential clients and it was hilarious how one phone call led to a lead in the most random of directions and in the end, lots of potential business sparks were formed.
So, get out there, sign up for anything you find interesting and as my friend, Eileen would say ‘let your mind roam free’. And if stepping outside your office even for a few hours makes you come out in a cold sweat with the thought of work you have to return to, contact me today to see how to help organise your time!
Alison Matthews
VirtuAli Admin Solutions
Email: alison@virtuali.uk
https://virtuali.uk/testimonials/
If you want to read more about what Concern is doing to improve literacy worldwide and how you can get involved please check out: https://www.concern.net/en/get-involved-0
Information on Beyond Skin:
http://www.beyondskin.net/news
Information on 1st female Women’s Choir in Afghanistan: http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/01/31/512592727/all-female-orchestra-from-afghanistan-is-a-force-for-change
