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!
We spend a lot of our lives consuming our worlds. Information, learning, conversations, content - words, both online and in real life.
It can mean our thinking brains are on the go a lot - interpreting, digesting, processing. So when we want to relax, it can be hard to step out of that mode. We can turn to more words, on a screen or on a page.
I’m one of those people - I always have a book on the go - but sometimes I already have enough words in my head!
This is when I reach for a puzzle.
I often repeat an experience - I’ll watch a movie again, re read a book, take a favourite route on a dog walk.
I do the same with learning, especially if there’s a training course that I’ve found especially useful.
This autumn will be my 5th time in Tara Mohr’s Playing Big Facilitators Training.
Last month I assisted for the second time on one of the intermediate CTI coach training modules (the incredible Process) after first being a participant in 2018.
It can feel counterintuitive.
Why would I do it again, when I’ve already learned it and been putting it into practice?
Why would I repeat the same experience when there are so many new things I could learn?
Over the summer I’ve been listening to the Books, Beach & Beyond podcast, where all kinds of writers are interviewed about their journey to where they are now, what they write, how they write, and why they write.
I love it.
A question the hosts often ask is this one: Are you a plotter (plans out everything in detail before they start writing), or a pantser (starts with an idea and lets it unfold as they go)?
The answers vary hugely. Both types exist and are successful - there’s no right way or best way - but they definitely know which one they are.
It feels like this question is useful in so many more contexts! How do we like to approach the story of our lives? Our work? Our play?
A number of years into my corporate career, we did an assessment to find out our Career Anchors.
Mine was Lifestyle, which I was absolutely mortified by at the time. How unprofessional of me!
Was I not committed enough? Driven enough? Would my company think I wasn’t serious about my career and development?
It felt embarrassing. Definitely something to keep very quiet and try to change.
And yet…
It was so very accurate. And so very useful.
Back in the day, when I was a brand manager on Lucozade Sport, one of my favourite things to do was write a brief.
It was a collaborative process, and I loved weaving together the threads to help tell the story of the brand:
What was it about?
Where had it come from and where was it now?
Where did it want to go, and why?
It was so useful to take the learning from the past and use it to shape the future.
And also to be specific about the edges - what was in and what was out, what was fixed and what was flexible.
For 3 days recently, part of my daily commute was a walk from London Victoria to Marble Arch, through a sunny Hyde Park.
It’s not a route I’ve done before, and it’s safe to say I’m not a natural navigator. I’m terrible at finding my way to new places on my own the first time (and often a few times after that!).
In the past I’ve judged myself for this. It felt like a weakness I should be able to fix.
Now I use Maps.
I have been a great completer finisher in my life.
Sometimes when it really would have been wiser to stop.
I’ve trained through injury, I’ve stayed too long in roles that no longer fit me, I’ve chosen to ‘push through’ when really, I needed to stop and regroup.
I’ve also started things that felt like a wonderful idea at the time - before I realised what the process would be like - and then felt I had to see it through.
So, it’s been a complete gift to realise that I don’t have to finish everything I start.
And that I often learn just as much from the things I stop as the things I complete.
It’s all useful data.
