For nearly a year now I have been connected to the Global Coach Community and I can truly say that they are some of the most supportive, creative and diverse group of coaches I have had the pleasure of knowing.

On the weekend of the 14th of October, I attended my first GCC Retreat on "Are we having fun yet?

It was a buffet of amazing Coaches facilitating a FUN experience while delivering on the promise of positive transformation.

Personally, I experienced significant shifts that have resulted in my decision to stop hiding some of my gifts and start service serving powerfully with all of me. I have some exciting news to share later about that.

My new anthem is "I'm Coming Out" by Dianna Ross (Click here to see the video).

In this series, I'll be sharing poems inspired by the speakers and attendants. I hope that it inspires you to embrace life and fun fully.

Without further ado, I'll start with one inspired by Heather Egginton

"Will it work for you, because it works for someone else? - HJE

How much of your fun is being quashed by comparison with others or trying to follow someone else blindly?

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Cookies

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

I'm looking

I'm searching

It's out there

The holy grail

The silver bullet

The magic formula

You get the point

The 'one' that works

That's the 'one I'm

Looking for

If it works for cookies

It should work for me

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Where have you copied what works for others without considering what makes you unique?

Nicole Gallucci shared how most of the fun we have in life is facilitated by the hands. They have a way to connect us to ourselves and others. What wonderful servants they are.

Here are some of the FUN things my hand makes possible. To hug, touch and connect. To cook, write, dance, eat, drink, clap and gesticulate.

Put your hands together to connect to your own energy and then take a look at those hands and be thankful.

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Hand clap

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Wonderful servants

My hands

Stores history and

Tells stories

My unique imprint

Reaching out

From me

And Beyond

To touch, hold

And support

All this hand

Made possible

Celebrating itself

In rapturous applause

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What are the fun things your hand makes possible?

Monique's session was about connecting to and learning from nature.

When you are not feeling the fun, her encouragement was to leave the four walls and step into the rhythm of life freely at play in nature.

From there comes the wisdom to ground us to source. Monique had us go out and find a tree that was special to us.

I went outside below is what happened…

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The Tree

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

I have been past a thousand times

This time I stopped

To pay it mind

There it was like a stranger found

I know by now its name was 'Tree'

This tree was a family

With roots, branches and leaves

None were playing the same tune

Every part on their own journey

Fed from Mother Earth

To which some had already returned

So much it had lost and shed no tears

You would be forgiven for thinking it dead

Its bark looking dry and dishevelled

But it was all a clever illusion

Hiding the emergence new of life

Hi Tree, happy to meet you in amazing wonder

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What might you find out if you stepped out into nature?

Michele took us on a journey through our imagination to access the parts of us hidden from the logical mind. Encouraging us to give form to the formless in the world beyond physical sight.

The magic of the journey was the offer to make peace with the parts of us misunderstood to integrate them so we may live more fully and embrace FUN.

Just by changing the image you use to represent your emotion on your imaginative journey, you reframe how you experience it.

What a privilege as humans to be able to use our imagination to influence reality!

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Imagination

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Here we go again

Daydreaming

Flexing imagination

The privilege of

Human experience

Giving form to the

Formless

Personification to

The abstract

Creating space

For integration

Making peace

With what is

For more

Wholesome living

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What can you transform using your imagination today?

My session was about crafting a poetic FUN Manifesto in 3 stanzas based on the re-imagine Rumi quote

"Your task is not to seek for Fun, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." (Frank rephrase)

The session laid out the basic premise of TransFLOWmation, that our experiences can be transformed in an instant if we get out of our own way and allow what is already in us to FLOW into our experience:

1. Everyone's idea of fun can be different

2. FUN is our natural state but we have adopted beliefs and attitudes that have stifled it from our experience

3. The best time to start having FUN is now

You can create your own FUN manifesto by following the pattern below

Stanza 1 - What is fun for you?

Stanza 2 - What is stopping you from having more FUN?

Stanza 3 - What will you do today to start having more FUN?

Here is mine…

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Fun Manifesto

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

[F]un for me is

Stepping into the unknown

Letting the universe play

Bringing about its wisdom

Creating connections

Springing serendipity

While in service

Of the whole

[U]nrestrained From

All illusory rules

Long list of "shoulds"

Not Second guessing

What transpires

In the minds of others

Being true to what

Is here right now

[N]ow let the fun begin

As I give in to what

Seeks to be birth of me

Flowing from deep

Within my soul

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What will your FUN Manifesto Poem look like?

The GCC coach community was the brainchild of Andrew Moss who earlier this year put his coaching practice on hold to take part in the Clipper Round The World Race.

He took a break from his race to join us for one retreat session. He regaled us with stories of his adventures on the boat which he shares with about 20 others and about being smacked on the face by flying fish!

This latest chapter of his life exemplifies determination and commitment to live his lifelong dream.

There is no greater definition of FUN than that!

Anyone looking from the outside would question his sanity when you consider what he "gave up" to do this. But one thing he did not want to give up on was his Dream(Click here to follow Andrew's journey).

What is your lifelong dream?

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Fire of desire

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

The fire of desire

Burning hot as a pyre

The fire that spurs my desire

The days count down the wood

That keeps the fire burning

Crouched over the dying embers

Reminiscing over what could have been

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What can you do today to start making your dream a reality before the fire of desire expires?

"You can make the mundane magical because we named it mundane in the first place" - FBI

The brain is primed to highlight any variation from the norm. What is not so obvious is that the norm is a gradually moving line as it recalibrates what was once magical as the new mundane.

In my work as a coach, I help people create the space for them to reflect on what the mind is up to so they can reclaim their sense of wonder for all that the universe has made available to celebrate.

The more moments you find to celebrate the longer you spend doing it.

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Mundane

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Mundane or magical

Who gets to decide

Which label it wears

How regal it looks

When it appears

Gracing the catwalk

Of my mind

With celebrations to match

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What currently mundane moments can you reclaim as magical?

"We are in this moment together, and it won't happen again, so enjoy it!"

One of the core skills of a coach is to be completely present with your clients so you can serve them powerfully. Being present to all the cues said and unsaid.

Life is experienced moment by moment, don't let them pass you as you entertain endless mental chatter.

My favourite method for getting present when I catch myself distracted is to become conscious of my breathing and focus on what is taking place in the here and now.

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Magical Moment

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

It is like magic

This moment

We are creating

Together

The one that

Will never be repeated

Need I be reminded

To enjoy every

Moment of it!

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How do you get yourself back to the present moment?

"Why would you take an umbrella when you need the rain?

This reminds me of asking for more business and then complaining that I was too busy.

Gratitude is the best antidote to complaining.

To have FUN would be to dance in the rain.

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Umbrella

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

It's hot in here

It's so dry out there

Praying for divine

Intervention

In the form of rain

Out I go

In hopeful expectation

My trusty umbrella

For protection

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Where in your life are you sending mixed messages to the universe?

"What a shame to have had a beautiful life and missed it" - Reno Winston

Shame based on perceived societal norms can result in hiding parts of ourselves.

I have many other creative gifts that I suppressed because it did not fit my then corporate persona as the serious one.

Watching others play full out opened up the door for me to see that there is space for it all and that shame is no friend of mine but a mind-created effect.

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What a shame

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Wouldn't it be a shame

To have a beautiful life

With parts of you rarely seen

Lurking in the shadows

Threatening to make an appearance

Throbbing and beating in anticipation

Full of promise, primed with abundant gifts

That which is authentically true to you

Yet it struggles to see the light of day

Shamed into silence, pushed into the shadows

Those to whom it has been sent, share in its bondage

Awaiting that faithful day when it will finally be let loose

To dispel the myth and bring freedom to these shores

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What parts of you have you been hiding?

"If we don't do what know to do we are shrinking"

The implication here is that inaction amounts to a step backwards not maintenance of position as life keeps moving on.

This statement challenges me as I have lots I know to do, but can I do them all?

Am I doing enough?

No one else can answer that for me.

I hold myself in loving enquiry and ask, what one thing can I do now that moves me towards living my purpose and serving others with my gifts?

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Shrinking

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

It came to me

Something

For me to do

Felt Like

I couldn't

The moment

Made for me

I did not

Inhabit

Shrinking from

My unfolding

Destiny

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Where do you see yourself shrinking, what one thing can you do about it?

"When something is hurting and isn't working, don't do it harder" - Reno

Persistence is a great quality, for success. However, If what you are doing is not working and causing you pain; there is wisdom in taking the time to reflect on what the pain is trying to tell you.

I remember having serious knee pains running and I kept persisting and it just got worse. I finally went for a physio checkup and was prescribed some exercises to strengthen the muscles and that did the trick.

The job of pain is to get us to stop long enough to pay attention and re-assess if what we are doing is serving us in its current form.

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Hurting hard

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

I'm trying harder

It's hurting more

I suppose it's working

If the purpose

Is to hurt some more

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Where are you banging your head against the wall and wishing for better outcomes?

"The birds sing to signal that it is safe" - Monique Giroux

It is hard to feel safe if you are connected to all the news about wars and crimes. How much of it can you affect by binging on the news and what is that doing to your energy levels?

If you step into nature and hear birds sing, it is a reminder that there is peace in that space.

An opportunity to re-centre and hold a space of compassion for those suffering.

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Birds sing

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Listening to the news

Wars and cruelty

The world going to hell

In a burning basket

Listen to the birds sing

Beautiful and wholesome

Reminding me it's safe

In the place, I'm standing

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Would you consider a news fast?

"I wonder if we actually want to do the things we want to do?" - Reno

I have a conscious mind that speaks and a subconscious mind that holds deeper beliefs.

When the two don't align, it's like an ant moving forward on the back of an elephant going backwards.

One for me is that I want to have a large impact in the world but I'm not sure I want all that may come with the attention.

This kind of misalignment shows itself in a lack of follow-through and in resistance to putting myself out there in video format.

Our truth is truly seen in our doing not our speaking.

The inner work continues to align the two so that all my gifts can serve those to whom I have been sent.

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Want to

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

I said it

So it must be true

I didn't do it

I wonder if it is true

How to tell which is which?

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Where are you experiencing misalignment between speech and action?

Text Here

Poem title

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Poem lines

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Reflective Questions?