Today, I want to share my experience of stepping into my role as the mayor of Truro. It’s day two, and let me tell you, it’s been a whirlwind. I had this nervous feeling in my stomach before a public meeting, but I pushed through it. I messed up my speech, and you know what? Nobody really cared. What really matters is that we all face our fears and step up to make a difference, no matter how messy it gets. I also dive into the idea of reconnecting with our inner child, reminding us to embrace joy and curiosity as we navigate life. So, let’s chat about how we can keep that seven-year-old spirit alive while tackling the challenges ahead.

Day 2 of being #MayorOfTruro, I wanted to share a podcast of how I'm feeling. And I am really feeling alive as if I am that 7-year-old child again with the wisdom and experience of life.

Stepping into the role of mayor in Truro, Cornwall has been a wild ride for me. Just two days in, I woke up with that uneasy feeling in my stomach, probably something I ate. The thought of speaking in front of everyone at a public meeting was nerve-wracking. But you know what? I pushed through that fear. Sure, I fumbled my speech a few times and felt like everyone was watching, but in reality, nobody cared. People are more interested in seeing us take action than in our slip-ups. It’s about stepping up and making a difference, and that’s what I want to talk about today.

We’re all in this together, and I really believe we’re more alike than we think. Everyone is just trying to improve their lives in their own way, whether that’s through Netflix, food, or other means. It’s important to remember that when we judge others, we’re often looking at parts of ourselves we’re uncomfortable with. Understanding this helps us to be more compassionate and less critical. I also had a chat with a BBC guy about stoicism, and he reminded me of a Carl Jung quote about even the rotten potato sprouting towards the sun. We all have struggles, and it’s those very struggles that connect us.

Today, I’m going into a meeting about neighborhood planning with fellow councillors, and I can’t help but feel like a kid on a school trip. It’s exciting to be involved, even if I’m not sure what to do yet. But that’s okay. Embracing my inner seven-year-old is the key. That childlike wonder and enthusiasm are what we need to approach life with. So, what does your inner child want? Let’s make sure we listen to that voice and incorporate that joy and curiosity into our lives, while also using our grown-up wisdom to guide us. This is a journey, and I’m thrilled to have you along for the ride.

Takeaways:

• Being mayor of Truro is a wild ride, and I feel both excited and terrified.
• Even when I mess up, like during speeches, nobody really cares as much as I do.
• We all share struggles, and it's important to remember that we are all the same.
• Embracing our inner child can help us see the world with wonder and enthusiasm.
• It's okay to feel afraid, but we must step forward and face our fears.
• We should hold each other accountable in our roles, aiming for better service for Truro.

So it's day two of being mayor of Truro in Cornwall in the uk, and what a crazy few days it is.

I woke up Monday morning and I had that feeling in my belly where I'd ate something dodgy a few days before.

And I just felt like I've got to go into the public meeting tonight and I've got to talk in front of everybody.

And it just terrified me.

And it's that wonderful, uncomfortable feeling that you can so just pull back and not do it, or you can step forward and do it, and everything was okay.

I messed up my speech several times.

Everybody noticed.

Nobody cared.

I had a big belly.

Nobody noticed.

Or even if they did, they don't care.

And I was on the radio yesterday, and I probably said something, you know, it probably messed up the words.

Nobody really cares.

What people care about is just stepping up and stepping forward and doing what we can from where we are.

And I want to talk about that on today's podcast.

So I'm Stephen Webb, and I'm the current mayor of Truro, which I still think is absolutely crazy, but what a wonderful opportunity.

And this is stillness in the storms, and I help people suffer a little less, especially when times are difficult.

And there's two things that I really want to discuss today, and that is, you know, we're all the same.

And in my last podcast, I talked about how can we love everybody, and how can I love everybody?

And I talked about the fact that everybody is the same as me and I'm the same as everybody else.

We are all struggling to, you know, just better our lives in some way.

And I've just had a wonderful conversation with a guy from the BBC, and we were talking about stoicism and all that, and it reminded me of a quote from Carl Jung that says, even the rotten potato sprouts towards the sun.

I just think that's a wonderful quote, because do you know what?

If your life has or somebody's life has steered you towards using alcohol or drugs or sex or something else to avoid life, or just Netflix of an evening or just that takeaway of an evening, all we're doing is just trying to improve our lives.

Every single one of those people, whether it is alcohol, whether it's takeaway, whether it's Netflix, is just trying to improve their lives in that moment.

So it means we're all the same.

And I just think when you approach other people like that, we stop judging them, because we realize when we judge them, we judge ourselves.

And I think that's so important when we judge them, we're really judging ourselves.

There's something in ourselves that we haven't seen, that subconscious that we're not aware of.

And we judge them because we fear that side of ourselves, whether it's even subconsciously.

And the other thing I just thinking about this morning and, and I signed off an email.

Mayor of Truro, Stephen Mayor of Truro.

And I wrote next to it, how crazy is that with or how awesome is that With a question mark.

And I thought, well that's like what a 7 year old would do.

And I thought how brilliant.

And for years I've been denying the seven year old that just wants to play games, have fun, relax, see the world in a way that every day is new and amazing, you know, you know that 7 year old that sees something for the first time or sees a new film and they come out and they talk about it with such enthusiasm or they met a new friend at play school or okay, a seven year old doesn't go play school but you know, I mean they met a new friend at school and it's like brand new to them, like as if it's the first time this has happened.

But of course to them it has.

And that's what it feels like to me.

It's like I'm looking at this and going, wow, how awesome and amazing is this?

This today is like this is the first time I've had day two of this.

And this afternoon I'm going out to meet some of my fellow councillors that work on the neighborhood planning team to have a look at how we can set up the settlement boundary.

I don't know how to do it, I've really no clue.

I've just got the passion of protecting our fields in the countryside from development and all that kind of thing.

So we're meeting some of the experts and we're meeting some of the other counselors that are all passionate about this.

I'm meeting a couple of other people today that I'm going to be introduced to.

I'm just so excited, like, I'm like, I don't know, how can you explain it?

I'm like a school kid that is going on a, a school trip.

Instead of doing homework and all that, they're doing something new.

And I think we need to approach life a bit more from this seven year old self that's locked up inside of you.

So what's your 7 year old self crying out for?

It's crying out for fun, it's crying out for love and attention and playing and seeing the world and experiences.

So what does an older version of that seven year old do?

Well, it does all those same things, but with an element of wisdom and experience.

So it still wants to climb the rock face, it still wants to go and play, but it's about hooking on the safety net because, or safety line because, you know, you might say something wrong or you might fall down or something like that.

So it often stops us and we, we don't do it or we cannot do that.

And like I said at the beginning of the podcast, we have that, that stomach feeling that I felt sick and I felt awful.

I barely eaten anything all day Monday leading up to the marinaking ceremony, which is available.

I'll put a link to it underneath this podcast in the podcast notes.

You can see that speech online leading up to it, I could barely eat anything.

I think I had toast for tea and I didn't eat both bits because I just literally couldn't face it.

And I was barely drinking anything.

You know, I have a leg bag and I go pee in a leg bag and I didn't want it to fill up because I didn't want to.

What happens if I like need to empty it during the ceremony tonight and things like that.

So I was freaking out, but I stepped in anyway because it's okay to freak out.

It's not okay to back out.

And freaking out is just saying be aware.

And that's what the older version of the seven year old needs to do.

Do all the fun things, get out your comfort zone, you know, be brave, you know, climb up that thing.

But do it with a little bit of skillful wisdom from experience.

But don't let that fear stop you.

I think that's the message of today's podcast and it's relatively shorter because I really need to head out in a minute and I'm.

If it's okay with you, I'm going to do shorter podcasts, I'm going to do shorter daily updates and things like that.

I'm just going to do a lot more of them because this is going to be an incredible year and I want you along with it.

Go.

I'm.

I'm emotional now because I'm so honored and I just, it's just incredible for me.

I want it to be incredible for Trur too, if I can.

I have no idea how to make that happen.

But let's do it.

You know, the town, I love the town.

The other councillors love every single one of them.

And, you know, that's why we're there.

That's why we do the public service.

That's why we put ourselves out there for scrutiny and accountability, which is absolutely right.

We should be scrutinized and we should be held accountable.

You know, I've promised things that I want to do this year.

Hold me accountable.

At the end of the year, look up and go, hey, you didn't deliver or you did deliver, you know, and during the year, make sure that you ask me those questions, how are you doing?

And when I say I'm fine, say no, I'm asking, how is your marrial year going?

Are you achieving the goals you think?

Ask me those questions, please.

Keep me on track, keep my feet on the ground and make sure we deliver as a council for Truro.

That's what we're all there for.

So yeah, I didn't mean to make this podcast about that.

Just remember, just look at your seven year old self.

What is that seven year old self wanting and what are you denying?

Start seeing the world through the seven year old eyes, the seven year old heart, the seven year old that loves everybody, that just wants to play, that just wants to enjoy life, that just wants, has aspirations and goals and dreams and hopes, you know, Let that seven year old come alive with the wisdom of experience and then you'll do all right.

Then you may start loving life again in the same way I do.

Take care guys.

This is Stephen Webb Stillness in the Storms podcast and please subscribe.

Hit the subscribe whether it's on itunes or Spotify or it's available everywhere and leave a review.

That would be amazing because it helps to go up the ranks and it helps, it helps me to get my message out and that message today.

Embrace the seven year old self.

I love you guys.

Have an awesome day.

Take care.