Chris French

Stories are my life. Let me tell you one.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

Authentic isn't the same as unfiltered.
It's your humour, your instincts, your honest opinions.
Don't shrink to fit the room.

New piece: https://t.co/ZH4pNdg9yr

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

Most of us bring a cut-down, work-palatable version of ourselves to work every day.
Filtered.
Edited.
Smaller than the version our friends and family actually get to see.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

I work with someone who never does that.
He's often the most junior person in the room, and somehow his impact outweighs almost everyone else in it.
He's not loud.
He's just exactly himself.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

The fix isn't a demand. It's one sentence, said in the same breath as your yes: "And let's talk about what that's worth."

Wrote the whole story, and the second time I made the same mistake, here: https://t.co/uR6GgAk2Wm

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

Saying yes to more work and saying yes to what it's worth are not the same conversation. Most of us only ever have the first one.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

I took on a second lead role on a film. Everyone on the crew knew I was doing it. The studio even credited me correctly. My contract and my pay never moved. Prove yourself first sounds reasonable. It just asks you to prove something they'd already decided.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

It mistakes holding on for love, when really it's just fear wearing love's clothes.

New post: [link to https://t.co/uR6GgAk2Wm]

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

There are two types of anchors in our lives. In a storm, they look identical. The only way to tell them apart is to watch what happens when the water goes calm.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

One anchor holds you through the storm, then lets you go. It says: go explore what you need to explore, I'm here if you want to come back. The other holds on exactly the same way, but never releases, not even in calm water.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

Real growth happens on the other side of a disagreement, in the tightening in your chest and the question underneath it:

What am I actually defending?

Full piece: https://t.co/uR6GgAk2Wm

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

That little lift you get when a podcast host says exactly what you already think?

It's not insight.

It's ego, relieved to be agreed with.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

You can finish a whole self-help book feeling affirmed, energised, a little proud of yourself, and your actual worldview won't have moved an inch.

Confirmation isn't growth.

It's rehearsal.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

So close it. Five minutes in the car, a walk around the block, whatever works for you.

That's the difference between showing up and actually being there.

Full piece: https://t.co/zxVSznNEbv

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

We rarely close one thing before opening the next.

And then we wonder why we're never fully present.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

Here's the thing. Whatever you were just doing doesn't end the moment you stop. It follows you, into the next room, the next conversation, the next hello.

If you want to actually arrive somewhere, you have to close it first.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

This isn't dumbing down. This isn't flattery.
It's craft.
And it's the single biggest thing that separates the people who are truly heard from the ones who keep wondering why nothing lands.
Full piece: https://t.co/fq9NMkoHlO

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

Here's the thing. People aren't standing where you're standing. They never are.
They have their own history, their own pressures, their own internal weather.
If you want to be received, you have to translate.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

Most of us tell the story we want to tell.
In our words. Our framing. Our reference points.
And then we wonder why it doesn't land.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

When you're full, that energy is contagious. It ripples.

The people you love don't just want your time. They want the energised, present, fully-here version of you.

You can't manufacture that when you're running on empty.

Full piece: https://t.co/tdxiypSosq

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

JOMO still measures you against the crowd. Just from the other direction.

Staying home instead of going out isn't freedom. It's still comparison.

The real question isn't what to skip. It's what actually fills you up.

[Chris French @FrenchyWrites]

Think of yourself as a battery.

Every person, every commitment, every situation either charges you or drains you.

Most of us have never mapped that out. We say yes out of guilt. We say no out of habit. Neither is a choice.