Imogen Short: Everything you want in life is on the other side of fear and discipline

The Collective Wisdom Podcast with Cat Preston

Hey there, my wise friends and welcome to another episode of Collective Wisdom. This podcast, as you know is all about celebrating our differences and the fact that it's diversity that makes humanity so or inspiring. So, it was such a thrill to be invited to Hong Kong to host a panel for International Women's Day recently, that was all about equity and inclusion.

What happens when we listen to each other's stories is remarkable and always fosters connection. And that's just what my guest today, Imogen Short, specialises in, she invited a lot of women in the workplace to share their stories. And the outcome is Pivot, a wonderful comedy web series that draws on those experiences, and aims to highlight some of the madness in the world we're living in.

It's really about bringing the power of storytelling to leadership and surrounding yourself with people who share your values but bring a different perspective. I just loved hearing Imogen stories about the creative journey she's been on recently. And I hope you do too.

PIVOT webseries

Pivot social channels:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Its-time-to-PIVOT-105042171999221
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pivot_web_series/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pivot-web-series/

Three Wise Sheep Productions

Imogen Short on LinkedIn

Song ‘Marjorie’ by Taylor Swift

Wisdom ‘Everything you want in life is on the other side of fear and discipline

‘You suffer more in imagination than reality’ Marcus Aurelius

‘Favourite Mug’ by Hana Preston (16)

I want to have a favourite mug.

I want to live such a mundane, perfect life that I can wake up in the morning and be excited to pull my favourite mug clean from the dishwasher.

I want to have a favourite mug and a favourite brand of tea and a favourite skimmed-ness of milk which I can add to every mug of English breakfast.

It thrills me. Such an existence. Godless and undone and cupping the mug of tea to my chest.

I will come downstairs in my dressing gown and there will be traces of the sunrise still gracing my kitchen, and I think I might start crying because it will feel like atonement, even then.

I will have an Aga. A nice kettle. A bread bin with a wooden lid and a toaster with different settings.

I say all of this to a friend and she has to suppress an emotion which I think might have been pity.

She only says, is there nothing else? and it takes me back to the altar because no, of course there isn't.

It's just this. Me and my favourite mug and no god in sight.

Me and my kettle and the steam cooling on the windowpanes.

Tea on a hot day even though it might overheat me because my mug is shining on the drying rack.

It'll have a chip in it. It must. It will have at least one flaw and it will decidedly not be pretty or pleasing to the eye.

It will be a bizarre colour and will wear an awful slogan and might have a dog on it. Or a sheep. And no god.

It will not be perfect because it was not created at His will.

It will be stupid. People will avoid it when looking in the mug cabinet.

Its colours will run and its paint will peel and it will not be perfect because it is not His.

I say something like I want to have a favourite mug and what I mean is I want to live a life untouched by God.

Nothing ever means one thing. I am cracked and peeling and avoided in selections,

and I am not His. And He will understand this, I hope.

I will get up in the morning and find my mug and He will not once cross my mind.

My life will be so barren of religion - the plague - that I will have a favourite bloody mug. That will be all. Mundanity. And my tea.