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’.

Who do you admire?

I love this question.

Both asking it and answering it.

It gives such insight.

I haven’t always loved it though.

In the past I found it really hard to answer. I couldn’t think of people I admired without my inner critic getting very noisy.

It told me that everyone I thought about was too far away from where I was - completely out of reach. I fell into compare and despair and couldn’t see why it was helpful.

“The Pause is the full stop that allows us to consider the next sentence of our lives”

I love this quote by Danielle North, and it feels especially relevant right now, as we head into the darkest nights and festive break, ahead of a New Year.

With this as inspiration, it’s become a tradition for my husband and I sit down with our family calendar at the end of December, to take a look back at the year and reflect on what’s happened.

Where did we go? What did we do? What were the big events and the little memories? We are always astonished at how much we have already forgotten about!

We give the year a theme or a title, and then look forward with a light touch - what will the coming year bring? What would we like it to be like?

Some years the process has been painful with loss, other times rich in learning, often we have marvelled at the sheer amount of change.

It always brings insight and a sense of grounding.

Something you may not know about me is that I was The UK’s Most Enterprising Student 1995.

At the end of my second year at university I completed an 8-week summer placement for a local SME. It was through the Shell Technology Enterprise Programme (STEP) - a way to gain ‘proper’ work experience before graduating.

I then won the competition at the end - sharing the story of my experience in front of different judging panels, and ending up being presented with this trophy at a black-tie dinner.

It was a complete game changer in so many ways.

Mostly in how I thought about myself.

I’ve done more yoga this year than ever before, and I love both the movement and the insights I get on the mat.

So often something a yoga teacher says will strike a chord.

My most recent a-ha moment was about conscious flexibility - actively choosing when to stretch and when not to.

It linked so clearly for me into our personal boundaries.

Lots of us can stretch, accommodate, adjust.

We can hang out in our flexibility. It can become part of who we are.

We can extend ourselves but hurt ourselves in the process.

We can push ourselves beyond our limits trying to keep up with others.

Sometimes its good to stretch - we don’t want to turn into statues.

Sometimes it’s not - we don’t want to snap.