The power of a change of scene.

I wrote this in Brighton, where I spent a couple of days working by the sea recently. It was a wonderful experience.

Not just because it’s a beautiful place, but because it was a retreat, a rest and a re-energise all in one.

So how did I end up there?

When I was little I used to love to move my room around.

I had all the same stuff, but in a different place.

It gave me a real sense of satisfaction, and made everything feel better.

So it’s been a complete joy to realise that I can do the same thing with time!

What’s your relationship with praise?

Do you delight in it, or dodge it?

Do you take it to heart, or skip right past it?

Do you rely on it, but worry that it might not last?

I have done all of these, and often still do.

So, it’s been useful to remind myself to take a closer look at it, in a productive way.

I love Values.

It’s where we start every coaching relationship.

I see them as the foundation for everything else.

In my life too.

But recently I realised that Values isn’t quite the right word for how I see them, what I mean when I think of them, what they feel like they are.

More and more I think of them as ingredients.

For what makes our particular lives, our unique work, the whole of us, feel good - have energy, satisfaction, peace, success, delight…

For what makes us feel like us.

In a yoga class recently, I realised that I couldn’t switch my quads on - “lift at the kneecaps” was something my brain simply couldn’t connect with my body to create.

In some ways it wasn’t a surprise. I’ve been intentionally focusing on other parts for the last few months - my core, my balance, my strength in different places.

All brilliant and needed at the time, and now I need to pay a little more attention to the parts I have forgotten about.

This can be true in our life as well as with our body. At certain points we can be focused on a particular part of it - our work, our health, our past, our future.