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Caroline: A huge welcome to the path ahead. I'm your host Caroline Britton at Caroline Britton Coaching. And join me and some incredible guests as we talk about our insights, wisdom and lessons learned from navigating significant change. Expect raw honesty, inspiring stories and the opportunity to show up for your path ahead with greater trust, connection and purpose. Okay, let's get started. a huge welcome. So today I want to talk about getting back into the arena after change. And we've experienced significant change, whether that's personally ⁓ professionally, we've changed our desires, we've changed the way that we want to live our life, the way we are relating to ourselves or relationships or Now, if you're in a season of change right now, take a moment to reflect on what this conversation stirred in you. Remember, you do not need to push and force yourself here. Instead, you get to ask yourself, how can I meet myself more deeply in this season of my life? And if you're navigating a season of change and want a safe and inspiring space to explore this more deeply, anything in our life, there comes a point where know it's about getting back out there. And think after significant change, it's ⁓ so to want to stay and in the conceptual bit. And I was speaking to my cousin about this. We were talking, was talking about the fact that I was ⁓ I'm currently hosting a small private telegram group you can find the details below as well as the show notes. For more inspiration, you can head to @ carolinebrittoncoaching or And until next time, remember you are your greatest source of guidance, power and truth. I'll see you on the next episode. dating again, she was talking about the fact that she's this amazing business and we were talking about both us having come off significant change personally and professionally and our went the lines of how much easier it to stay in the like the conceptual, the vision, like the dream state, the... ⁓ the imagining, right? So I was saying, for me, it's so much easier for me to kind of sit there and be thinking about the kind of love that I want to call in, the kind of relationship that I want to have, like doing the work of like writing it out and holding that. but it was less easy for me to yes ⁓ somebody asked me ⁓ go on a date or for me to be open ⁓ conversations organically happening and there was some potential romantic interest there. And she said exactly the same with her business. She said, you know, I've been dreaming about doing something like this for so long. you know I've got all these visions and I've got like these dreams and the desires ⁓ you that's really a great enjoyment in that phase where we're sitting there and we're imagining we're creating but there gets to a point where it's not the same ⁓ as showing up for it right taking the action being in the arena and I'm this a lot with clients in my world, people in my community where... They're stuck because they're not putting themselves back in the
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rooms that they want to be in. They are staying in the vision, but they're not showing up. And want to talk a little bit to like my journey of getting back in the arena, as I call it, and process I went through and how I navigated that. So. At the beginning of 2026 it became very clear for me that I was being called to act, show up, get myself back into my business fully, my life fully. That was definitely for me like this. jarring of the fact that I'd really enjoyed being in like the vision state at the end of 2025 when I'd sold my house, you know, the dream state, the imagination state, sitting there with my journal, writing, dreaming, talking to God, getting really clear on my standards, boundaries and values. Yeah, that was great pleasure in that. But I knew at the beginning of 2026 that actually what God the universe was asking me to do was take action. Now, it felt a lot easier to be on the sidelines in preparation. I think a lot of us find that. It's like, it's a lot easier to be in that energy of, I'm going to And thing that whilst we're on the sidelines, we are safe because we don't have to face our fears or our limitations ⁓ or our stories. ⁓ Nothing can be exposed there. And particularly when we've been rocked by change and we have had or experiences that have knocked our confidence, of there's a reticence right to step off the sidelines onto the pitch. I was to my mentor about this and she gave me a brilliant analogy. She was saying it's like, you know, you're to walk past ⁓ a... ⁓ cave with a tiger in it but the tigers bit you before like you just don't want to walk past the cave so you kind of stay still that's a little bit how it felt for me ⁓ ⁓ body is that I was comfortable on the sidelines. So did I do? I started really clear about the motivation for getting back on the pitch like why? Why do I want to be back on the pitch? What is the deeper reason? What's my why for it? So it was hard to motivate myself with, well, you should, it's time, or criticizing myself, or berating myself, right? You've had enough time with ⁓ internal like, on, Caroline, none of that worked for me. What did work for me was ⁓ being connected my why. ⁓ Why do I want to get back on the pitch? Because I want to what I've learned and what I've been through ⁓ ⁓ and guide other people. Okay, that's a good start. Why else do you want to get on the pitch? ⁓ I know that there's a lot I've got to say and to say and want to explore with people and want to motivate people with. Okay, what else? Okay, I want to be on the pitch because I feel like I have this creativity that wants to move through me. I feel like I want to show people what's on the other side of this. I want to show myself I was always right to trust these nudges, right? So it was that bit of like, why do I want to get back on the pitch? Like, what's my why for it? Then ⁓ dug a bit deeper on this, I was asking myself, what it look like to be back on the pitch now? Like if we have a brand new playing field here, what does that look like for you? Okay, it looks like. travel, looks like clients, looks like abundance, it looks like global reach, it looks like using my voice powerfully, it looks like embodying this new identity, it looks like showing up, it looks like taking risks, it looks like my brand, it looks like moving body more. I ⁓ got really clear on it. Now... Then came the point of me deciding. So am I actually going to do this? Am I actually going to put myself in the arena? And what I found really powerful to do and still do now is to go way beyond where I am now. I always go to my like 19 year old self I actually let her write to me and her her guidance. and it was very clear the message to me is like you don't realise like the life that you've got ahead of you. You don't realise like how young and vibrant and gorgeous you are. Just get out there and and experience things and try. Like that was so helpful to me because it enabled me to have a greater perspective of this being more like a playground, right? Life being more of an opportunity to try and fail and explore and get things right and get things wrong. But at least I'm living right. And there was this sense of when I step on this pitch, when I step back into the arena, I am doing it from a place of aliveness. And then it came. What are the values there? What are the expectations? Okay, I want this to be soft. I want this to be sustainable. I want this to feel good. I want to feel like I'm building community. I want to feel that I'm holding my standards and my boundaries. I want to feel open. I want to feel magical. I want to be in my power. I want to be truly me. Like I got really clear on it. And then... It was when I started taking the action from that place that things really started to shift. Once I got back into the arena, things came flying at me. past fears, discomforts. doubt ⁓ What I did to navigate this was I took action. as as it felt, I would still act in the face of it. So, okay, Caroline, you don't want to have this photo shoot and ⁓ be visible and you're scared to do this. Okay, I've got it, but we're doing it anyway. We've done harder things. We can do this. I do the photo shoot and then the up level would happen. The expansion would happen. The fear would dilute. Same with the podcast, what if it doesn't land? What if it doesn't resonate? What if people don't feel it? I'm gonna do it anyway. I record a podcast episode. I expand, my confidence goes up. know, I start having the reaction to it. People are saying, you know, it's helping me, it's guiding me, it's exactly what I needed to hear. ⁓ confidence grows again, so. What I want you to be thinking about today is like, where are you not taking action? Where are you refusing to get into the arena? Where are you standing on the sidelines because it feels safer? Why are you not allowing yourself to try? Because we all want to protect ourselves, I understand that, and we've all had things that have happened in
our life that have caused us pain. but you're gonna be okay. And this is about you yourself, not like I'm gonna step into the arena and I'm gonna wrap myself in cotton wool and I'm gonna be careful that nothing ever hurts or disappoints me again. That's not possible. It's about ⁓ I'm gonna get in the arena and I'm gonna deal with what I'm given and I'm gonna be okay. And things are gonna go right and things are not gonna. go as well as I hope and that's okay and I'm going to be okay and I'm going to take it piece by piece, step by step ⁓ This changed everything for me because rather than trying to everything and be cautious and be... ⁓ and considered and measured to the point of like limiting myself. I said, well, let's just get in the room and play and experience it and see what happens, whether that's with love or whether that's with business or whether it's with a new way of doing things. That felt really important to me that I was able to say, I'm going to be okay. And you will be. you know, I think that as I've... gone back into dating and I'm expanding my business and my visibility and my impact. lot of things have gone right, a few things haven't gone as I wanted them to and I'm fine. And I'm able to do is see all things that I cultivated in being fearless and brave through change have served me now. it's not that I'm not having a And reaction to things or a trigger point but I'm actually able to. to come back from it quickly, to regulate again pretty quickly. Another thing that I had to look at as I stepped back into the experimental phase, the phase of being on the pitch trying, was that I didn't have to have the full layout shown to me. This is very much like a follow the pieces that I'm given as I'm given them. So I go on a walk this morning, I'm tuning in, like asking God, you know, what's of high value, what's of high service for this podcast? Talk about getting in the arena. Like so many people are not getting in the arena because they're scared. Talk to them about like... Being in the arena means being alive, right? things right, getting things wrong, feeling discomfort, feeling fear, it's an aliveness. And... I want you to where you're not allowing your brilliant ⁓ your brilliant heart, your brilliant potential, your brilliant purpose out into the world because you're on the sidelines trying to protect yourself, to trying to stop yourself from feeling discomfort or feeling hurt or... staying on the sidelines of safety. What does getting into the arena look like for you? What's it asking of you? And what if you knew that you were going to be okay? Like you can deal with whatever is given to you in the moment, but standing on the sidelines, preempting everything that can possibly go wrong you from being truly alive. Can you see that? As you get back out there, you're going to learn so much. You're going to learn so much about your preferences. You're going to learn so much about your resilience and your capability and what works for you. And the very energy of stepping back out there, we get given things. You know, we get given things where we're like, yeah, I want more of that. A little bit less of that. definitely that's not for me. Yes, that's for me. Right. you're going to be given those things. There's a lot to be excited about when you're out there. And that's the way that you get to interact with this as you're moving forwards is as you are having experiences on the pitch in the arena, you get to say, I love that and I want more of that and I don't like that and I want less of that. So I want to finish ⁓ reading The Man in the Arena. Some of you are gonna be more than familiar with this. It's one of my favorites by Theodore The Man in the Arena. It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust. and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly. Who errs. Who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds? Who knows great enthousiasms, the great devotions? Who spends himself in a worthy cause? Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement who at the worst if he fails at least fails whilst daring so that his place shall never with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. So I want you to think about that. ⁓ what does back in the arena look like to you? What happens if you stop trying to protect yourself from? error, mistakes, and fear. What's the best thing that could happen if you get back in the room? And what's that gonna ask of you? and how might your life change if you were to say yes to it? thank you so much for listening today. love to hear what you thought about today's episode ⁓ and I will see you on the next one.