The Next Small Step

What Next?

It's a question I have been asking myself, and one that keeps coming up in my In Her Element conversations. I used to think that the answer required a strategy and clear plan, but I am learning and experimenting with what it looks like when, what next? is simply about taking the next small step. An opportunity presents itself. Something interests you. You aren't quite sure where it will lead, but you decide to give it a try.

That's increasingly how I find myself navigating this season of my life. When I started In Her Element, I began by sharing my own story. I wrote about the questions I was grappling with, the changes I was making, and my desire to make room for more of who I am. Then came the conversations with other women. I began listening to their stories, asking questions, and discovering how much there was to learn from the different ways we navigate life's transitions. Now those conversations are finding their way into a podcast. Each step has opened up something else to explore.

And now, two rather interesting invitations have come my way. The first is from CivicHive, a programme of BudgIT in Nigeria. I've been invited to speak with a group of creators who use storytelling and creativity to engage with social justice issues.

The subject is Ethical considerations for digital storytelling, and I've been asked to draw on my own experience. I'm excited about the opportunity to share my story. But I think I'm even more excited about the people I will meet and what I might learn from them. How are they using their creativity to make people think differently? What stories are they choosing to tell? What are they discovering about the power of stories to influence change?

The second invitation is closer to home. At the end of the month, I'll be joining a coffee-table conversation with young women lawyers in Uganda, reflecting on my experiences of feminism and what it means in real life. Another intriguing opportunity. I'm curious about the questions these younger women are asking, the issues they're grappling with, and how their experiences compare with mine.

Both invitations have made me notice something about myself. For much of my professional life, I have worked as a facilitator. My role has often been to create space for other people to share their views, explore difficult questions, listen to one another and find their own way forward. I've become quite accustomed to holding my own views lightly. In most of those rooms, my opinions are not the point. But these invitations are asking something a little different of me. They are asking me to bring my own story and experience into the conversation. And that feels both exciting and unfamiliar.

I don't want to stop being a facilitator. In fact, I suspect that's precisely what I will draw on. I hope to share something of my own journey, but also to create room for the experiences, questions and perspectives of the people I will be speaking with.

Perhaps this is another form of integration, bringing together different parts of myself rather than leaving one behind as we explore another. And perhaps that's also how we begin to discover what comes next. We don't always have to invent an entirely new direction. Sometimes an invitation arrives, we recognise something in it that interests us, and say yes, then see what comes next

Not every opportunity is ours to pursue. I'm also learning to ask whether something genuinely deserves my time and energy. But when an opportunity feels aligned with what matters to us, perhaps we don't need to know exactly where it will lead before taking that first step.

So here I am, preparing for two new conversations, bringing a little more of myself into the room, and looking forward to listening as much as speaking. I have no idea what these experiences will lead to. And for now, I'm quite comfortable with that.

Here's to What Next?, one small step at a time.

Ashanut