Do you ever put off starting something because it feels like you don’t have time to do it properly?
Especially if you think it’s going to be a ton of work to get it right?
And you’re a little worried you won’t be able to do it?
Me too.
Over time I’ve learned what helps me is deciding to create a scrappy first draft.
There’s a particular feeling when our energy is being used in the best kind of way.
We know that we’re playing to our natural strengths and having a positive impact on the people and the world around us. There’s an ease, a joy, a sense of being on purpose. At the end of the day we feel emptied out in a good way, full up of the knowing that we’ve shown up at our best.
When I was away recently I hit a low point.
I hadn’t slept well for a few nights and was fed up of being in unfamiliar territory. I was under the weather, longing for some time and space on my own, and feeling very sorry for myself!
I found myself wishing I was back at home so I could take care of myself.
And then I stopped to think. What would I actually do if I was at home right now? What would help me feel better?
This photo captures one of my favourite memories from 2025.
It’s a selfie of me and my lovely husband Stu, taken in a pub garden in Grasmere.
It was the first time in a while that we’d been away just us - no teenagers, no dog - and this sums up the feeling of the experience.
When I look at it I smile - I can see our partnership, the fun, the team spirit, the ease and the love.
Every October for the last few years I’ve shared a photo of my younger self, part of the Inspiring Girls International #ThisLittleGirlIsMe campaign, along with the advice I’d give that younger me.
Each year a different picture has inspired different thoughts, and this time it’s me aged 4 ish, peering out of the window of a train carriage on the Bluebell railway. I look a little apprehensive, as though I’m not quite sure what the journey will bring.
This little girl is me, and here are 5 things I wish she knew for the journey of her life that lies ahead, with love from me to her.
I used to think that every decision could be made logically, until I looked back and realised that all my best ones were made in a different way!
They were the decisions that felt completely right - even if they looked brave or risky to others.
They took me on gap years and solo travel adventures, led me to reapply for Marketing training schemes when I didn’t make it the first time, helped me leave a job I loved (twice) to explore a new path, and so much more.
But for a long time, I couldn’t articulate how I made them.
My sister recently reminded me of the time I spent 2 months living in a tent in the middle of Hungary, part of a group from Edinburgh University helping to build an eco-village.
For many years it was top of mind - my immediate answer to the ‘tell us something we wouldn’t know about you’ question.
And yet I had almost forgotten.
