Superman Doesn’t  Exist

I recently worked out the bad news, but it’s true he doesn’t exist.  The super-human chap that can leap building with a single bound, who can do anything all by himself is a myth.

After this revelation I said to myself, “Superman doesn’t exist, so stop trying to be him”. 

I’m a father of two, have a pretty successful career and happy that I am a pretty strong character that can accomplish almost anything I put my mind to; to a point that might not be far from the truth.  However, a recent turn of events has happened, and things haven’t really gone my way.  My inner world was being raided, a host of sleepless nights and torn up angst of having the same conversation over and over and over in my head.  I was a real joy to be around as you might imagine.  Let the downward spiral commence. 

I felt like I could sort it all myself but really struggled. I knew I had to do something about it but wasn’t sure what.  My knights in shining armour appeared, a couple who reached out to me as they saw I was down in the dumps and another responded to a pretty desperate cry for help, I’m still not sure where that came from.  

Talk it through

A friend of mine sent me a message saying “ you’re down, let’s talk”, another shouted at me across the school playground, “you need a beer, let’s talk”.  Two friends took the time to listen.  Its not usually a past time that I would entertain, talking about me, talking about how I feel, talking about what I was thinking. It was a revelation.  I later spoke to a business coach, a great lady who I have known for ages who helped put things back into perspective, ultimately it wasn’t that she told me anything I didn’t already know but listened, understood and challenged my thinking on how to handle stuff.

This isn’t a public ceremony to thank my friends and trusted colleague, this is more a lesson to understand that, while you might be strong willed, powerful, massively successful, you can still come off the rails and will still need people in your corner.  Or you might want to be all those things, but if you think you can get there all by yourself.  Have another think. 

I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, sometimes you just need to give yourself a chance to offload and then have someone else help you find focus.  

I have been doing this for years with team members, colleagues and clients but this time I needed the support myself.  So, if you are in a dark place, or feel you are heading that way, find someone to chat it through. You will feel so much better. 

Don’t try and take on the world by yourself; remember Superman doesn’t exist.

This is where my wife enters the room and says, but Wonder-woman does! Let’s save that one for another day. 

Want to chat something through….