Running and I have had an interesting relationship over the last 30 years.
We’ve been all in and fully off, we’ve fallen in and out of love, there have been break ups and injuries and fresh starts.
There’s a lot of history.
What are you ready to declutter?
What changes would make your everyday life a bit better this week?
There are 2 things making my everyday life a bit better this week:
#1, a new fan | Oh how I love it - and Claire Pedrick for the recommendation and the wise words that accompanied it.
With temperatures in the UK hitting over 30 degrees recently, my west facing coaching space and me have been feeling the heat. I really needed to make some changes. This fan is super effective, portable, and the colour puts a smile on my face.
#2, an index box | I often draw something during a coaching session, and have compiled a number of postcards over the years. Useful coaching prompts had turned into a messy pile that was hard to find things in. Now they have a home and the neat organisation makes my heart sing.
Are you trying to rush the process?
I love fitting pieces together to create a picture - in all areas of life.
It’s such a joy to make sense of things and see how they come together, to join the dots, to see the clarity emerge and the wood for the trees.
I know now that taking time at the beginning to sort through the pieces is an important part of the process.
In a puzzle that’s finding the edges, grouping obvious colours, gathering things to build around. And it’s a pretty similar process in other situations too.
I know how useful it is, and I am always, always tempted to skip it, because I’m impatient to get going and want to be onto the satisfying part!
Lessons from knitting - and for 2025
I started knitting when my first child was born, lucky to be patiently taught by a lovely older lady in a local shop.
It was super fun to make cute, small things and I found it creative and relaxing.
Over time it became less fun. As my children got bigger so did the projects, and then (when no one wanted to wear my knitting anymore!) I thought I should challenge myself with 4 needle socks in the round…
I haven’t knitted since - I took something I wanted to do and I set too big, too hard a goal. I took the joy and the sense of creativity and achievement out of it.
Until now. One ball of wool + the simplest, easiest pattern they had in the shop. Starting with something I want to do and can do :-)
It’s also how I’m approaching this year.
Are you a nibbler or a cruncher?
When I was little, I used to love to eat chocolate biscuits from the outside in.
I would nibble around the edges and work my way to the middle. It was fun to take it in sections and break it down into its component parts, rather than crunching through the whole thing.
It’s still my favourite approach for most things!
What would be the EASIEST way to do this?
Have you ever tried to create the perfect habit… and ended up never getting started?
For a long time I wanted to add some strength training back into my life.
I know it’s important, I feel better when I do it, it feels good to feel stronger.
And yet for a long time I didn’t do it.
And then felt bad about not doing it.
And still didn’t do it.
Are your 2024 goals gifts or burdens?
Ah January.
A time of setting out your intentions for the year ahead.
For thinking about what you want to be different this year.
For taking time to focus on where you want to spend your time and energy.
It’s a super useful thing to do - we have to dream before we can work out how to make it happen. It’s a gift to give ourselves the time to reflect before we get sucked into the year.
And yet, if we’re not careful we can set the wrong types of goals. Ones stuck in the language of ‘should’ and need’.
Celebrating a year of Morning Pages
I never thought I’d be a person who wrote Morning Pages.
I had always heard about people doing them and thought it wasn’t for me. 3 pages of A4 felt an awful lot, and I didn’t think I had the time.
Even after I bought The Artist’s Way it sat on my bookshelf for at least 2 years. Committing to the whole 12 week plan felt overwhelming.
And yet….
Since September 22nd last year, I’ve filled 7 note books with my (pretty illegible) handwriting.
Every morning for the last 369 days I’ve woken up, opened my notebook, and emptied my head.
Sometimes it’s simply a list of things I’m doing that day, and what I want to remember.
Sometimes there’s a thought in my head that needs to come up.
Some days I’m full of inspiration, other days I write about what the dog is doing at the end of the bed.
And now I can’t imagine missing a day.
Do you have a greenhouse for ideas?
“Where do you get your ideas from?”
I was asked this recently, and I replied that I see ideas everywhere.
I’ll notice something - a visual, a sentence in a book, a view, a part of a conversation - and an idea forms in my brain. Sometimes it’s just a fragment, and sometimes it seems to download, fully formed.
And I then realised that wasn’t the whole story.
When I reflected on it further I realised that I’ve been increasing my capacity to have ideas over time. I’ve been building a habit.
It’s a practice, not a gift.
