‘The need to innovate and make necessary changes to situations that do not serve the purpose of taking us forward is a must! Settling in never good enough when we need to build resilience.’ Olivia Leong, CEO Verra Asia
Have you ever found yourself or been told,
why don’t you just settle down; why do you continually move from job to job; why do you change professions so much; why are you running away from responsibilities or commitments; why do you keep changing your mind, just settle; why don’t you just consume and have a lovely home like normal people…and many more comments. I have an discovery for you.
In reflecting on my life
and connecting the dots back many decades, I have wondered and often been plagued by these statements. Was this way of being my mindset, my behaviours, my resistance to the status quo, what? In fact, I felt I never fit in…but maybe I didn’t want to either. My wonderful mother would say, ‘a rolling stone gathers no moss.’ I would smile and continue my ways. Something inside of me would say at every juncture, it’s time to MoveOn.
Today with Covid,
many people and organisations are going through challenges, loss of jobs, mental anguish, frustration from remote working due overworking with no boundaries and lack of physical personal interactions and the list seems to continue to expand. Fear and uncertainty are ever present.
MovingON
is more important than ever. If you don’t you will not survive and certainly not thrive during this next phase of Covid and moving forward.
From an early age,
my curiosity of the world and people was immense. I went from starting my life in a logging camp to living in a big city, becoming a Canadian Ice Dance Champion; to studying contemporary dance in New York City; to dancing the CanCan in Paris twice a night at the Bal du Moulin Rouge; to being an elite choreographer to World and Olympic Figure Skating Champions; to Directing and Choreographing the 1988 Olympic Closing Ceremonies; to choreographing award winning TV Specials and big multi-million dollar touring skating shows; to being an executive coach, author, professional speaker and ….
Each time
a shift or change would come or start appearing, I would feel it in my gut, heart and head – something inside me said, MoveON. Have you heard this voice before?
People
continued with comments like, you are a the top of your field; don’t be foolish; just keep doing this; and again something inside told me to MoveON. I have lived on 4 continents; in 15 major cities of the world and visited over 60 countries and it continues. I questioned myself because of what others would say. I wondered was I so wrong, weird, confused or running away from responsibilities? I have to admit though fear was never there, I trusted in that voice. Something inside of me said, MoveON!
Then, clarity struck.
my way of being, my mindset, came to me while sitting in a ‘gert’ or tent in the Mongolia Steppes doing research for my leadership book, ‘The Nomadic Mindset: Never Settle…for Too Long. I ask Ran, a nomad I was staying with, ‘why do you migrate?’ Ran said, ‘to make a better life for our animals and ourselves. To survive, in each place, we do need to settle, but we never settle too long, just long enough to reap the harvest of each location. When the animals tell us to moveOn, we do!’ This felt so like me.
All of a sudden,
I had an epiphany. I put two and two together. All these years I wasn’t weird or confused or running away or shirking my responsibilities or relationships. In fact, I was running towards learning, growth, experiences…a full life of expansion. I was evolving. Then, I realized, I have what I now call a ‘nomadic mindset’. My answers to my life of change, transition and evolution were in fact based on our natural way of being, our historical origins – that of nomadic cultures.
But
there is a ‘big but’ here. In my thesis though, having a nomadic mindset dominance is not about physical travel, albeit it can include this. What I was searching for, and have found peace in, lives within a quote by a wonderful Mongolian woman, Batgerel Bat. I asked her what is the true meaning of nomad. She said, it is ‘the movement of the mind’ – I was blown away when I heard this. It was like massive fireworks went off inside of me. The central meaning of the nomadic mindset, is just that, ‘the movement of the mind’. I have found my new purpose, reason for being. Wow!
In The Nomadic Mindset, the book,
I invite people to explore behaviours that you may have lost in this world and will help you get back on track. The biggest realization for me is that I believe we have become too narrow thinking as a human race and we must expand if we are to truly thrive. We must evolve.
My research
helped me MoveOn and has taken me to magical places like Mongolia; visiting the Maasai in Kenya; the Berbers in the southern Sahara in Morocco; the Himba and Bushmen of the Kalahari (SAN) in Namibia to further discover answers from ancient wisdom. This I have integrated with executive conversations. I have been told by leaders, the book gives answers and a fresh perspective to what modern leadership ought to embrace.
‘‘This is one of the best leadership books I have ever encountered because it addresses so many aspects in a meaningful and authentic way, of how great business needs to be led and organised in order to thrive and flourish. Olivia Leong, CEO Verra Asia
Most of all,
people have shared with me it gives them an answer, a realization, a peace from what they have been struggling with all their lives and not realized why or been able to put a ‘frame’ or ‘term’ to it. They now know they have been triggering on and living their innate nomadic mindset. In many ways it is a healing to the discomfort felt. Is this what you have been looking for?
In fact,
my polling and research has shown that the nomadic mindset is the mindset that is needed most today in organisations and in communities to help them through this unclear passage of hyper speed digital transformation, the uncertainties that surround all of us daily and the mental anguish many might be going through.
Triggering your nomadic mindset
that lives in everyone and every organisation will help you over the fear of MovingON, because for centuries, this is has been your natural way of being. It is nomadic legacy. You have been told through industrialized thinking, education, cultures, families that you must stay put, build and settle. In most cultures, you are not taught or really given permission to MoveON. Life is about MovingON. For organisations it is about MovingOn. To survive and thrive you must learn to accept and MoveON. Otherwise, the dinosaur is just around the corner.
Nomading is not
a frivolous adventure, it is the ‘movement of the mind’, growth and evolution. It brings expansion and profound awareness that all things are interconnected.
You now have a positive answer
to how you can thrive in the Next Future. Your mission, if you choose to accept, to begin your journey to the nomadic mindset, your evolution and MovingON. Let’s go nomading together.
‘I could not put this book down and completed my journey in a week! Grateful to Kevin for sending me off on a movement to be a better leader for my team, partners and the community.’
Olivia Leong, CEO VerraAsia
I invite you
to connect and share with me your thoughts.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-cottam/
Kevin Cottam, Canadian, Global Nomad who helps dynamic leaders and organisations uncover their winning edge. He is a Professional Speaker, Executive Coach, Author and the originator of the Nomadic Mindset Podcast. A former elite choreographer to World and Olympic Figure Skating Champions and director of multi-million dollar productions including the 1988 Olympic Closing Ceremonies. Kevin believes we have become too narrow in our thinking and behaviours and we need to expand our innate global thinking to create a new now and future that brings humanity, economic practices, healthy democratic governances and nature/climate together. For this, we need to tap into our nomadic mindset. www.thenomadicmindset.com
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