Where Are You Going By Collette Saunders

Some time back now I began a journey on Instagram. Fuelled by the desire to create recognition for people I didn’t even know. I sit here now 4 years on and think about where I am going. Platforms are fickle things when you consider them in themselves. How many people look? How many people follow? Who cares? Out of tens of thousands of people who might follow and engage, what is the point of its existence?

Even the best planned journeys begin with one foot after the other and a not knowing really what will happen next. Curved balls and left field and “it’s not what happens but how you handle it”. An important plan or pursuit might feel uncomfortably rudderless. That doesn’t mean you should convince yourself that you don’t have the time, resources, or inclination to focus on a particular goal or deflate your confidence in it.

I’ve found the need for patience for events as they’ve played out. Calm and balance, accommodation, and moderation. The need for reflection, drawing my emotions in and stopping reaction to outside forces. In doing that I found the boldness and bravery to carry out my plans. AFB, for example, was never born to be a Brand, it was born to be a community, a motivational hub, a point of reference, to inspire. I could never have expected what has come beyond the building that began 4 years ago on 15 May 2018. I always maintained an authenticity to what I was trying to achieve. Never was there any money to be made. I simply created safe space for people to showcase their work and express themselves. What came was more far more valuable. Things far more reaching. Things that made everything I had done over the past three decades make so much more sense. I found out more about myself by finding out more about others. It’s given me more freedom, inner peace, confidence, and a satisfaction that I’ve done a good thing.

So lately, again, I’m questioning on where I am going next! At my core there has always been a desire to uplift and encourage people around me. It’s where I feel my happiest. Collaborations and partnerships, I’ve found, are the best way to open things up. In a world of fast and fleeting interactions, solid and long-term relationships are hard to maintain where socials are concerned. I’m grateful for the ones I’ve maintained too now. The ones that stick are the ones that “like calls to like”.

Where have you been and where are you going? Appearance versus reality because appearances traditionally, like some social media pages, cannot be trusted as they are mouldable, changeable. Appearance is something we gather from our senses. Reality is something that has to have happened… the state of things as they are, rather than as I imagine they appear. Failing to connect with reality is why some of us have pants in the closet that no longer fit. More significantly it keeps people from perusing more fulfilling things, jobs or even the entirely wrong profession!

The year is already half over. I’m counting on my competencies. Ready to own all my outcomes. That starts with self-acceptance and turning up the subliminal affirmations. Reality shifting is a trendy mental activity that emerged with the flare up of Covid 19. Popular with post millennial’s possibly thanks to Harry Potter! But before I embark on “shifting” I’ll write myself down a script and some notes in which I’ll plan what I’d hope to happen in my next desired reality. It might be simple; it might be complex. It could be logical, or it could be weird. It will absolutely be lawful and hopefully not chaotic. As I dive into it with a look at where I’ve been, what I’ve discovered, and what comes next.

@collettesaundershair Founder

@australianfemalebarbers

@afb_recruit Board Director

@jackreedfoundation

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