Life is not easy, and it’s not meant to be. And sometimes the best person to help is someone climbing their own mountain. We all have a narrator inside our heads, we all get stuck in inertia, and we all have hard feelings. You don’t need to like it, to change it, or to pressure yourself to feel differently. || LINKS MENTIONED|| – The Two Mountain Metaphor – Join my… Read More »Life is Allowed to be Hard, Without Being “Wrong” | #31
I view energy like a battery being charged and drained. One of the first steps in my free roadmap is actually to consider how your energy levels change throughout the day. I had the idea of starting a community forum space a decade ago, and it’s taken a bit of to and fro before I prioritised making it happen. Which has been a reminder of that core motivational energy and… Read More »Saying Yes and Saying No Are Kind Of The Same | #30
I mentioned last week that I’ve been exploring my wild delight, that natural sense of joy… and that one of the things I explored was SkilllShare. I took an art class on there and found myself joining the dots for using those lessons for things outside of just art: including learning how to colour in and about thumbnail sketches. I do have a free trial link if this sounds useful… Read More »The Importance of Learning for Fun (& 2 Lessons I Learnt) | #29
The most common evidence-based treatment for low mood and low motivation focuses on refocusing on achievements. As a somewhat-perfectionist who grew up in an environment where academic and ‘on-paper’ achievements were highly valued, this treatment was not the right one for me, long-term. In the last few months I’ve been exploring ‘delight’, ‘play’, and ‘joy’ or ‘fun’ and trying to explore what this means WITHOUT achievement. Apparently, watching other people… Read More »Fighting the Achievement Expectation and Finding Delight | #28
We’re 6 weeks into 2021. This is the time we fall back into an old routine rather than whatever goals we often set for ourselves in January. it’s important not to ignore the impact of the past 12 months on how we experience things (and how this may affect our perceptions moving forward too). I also share my own systems and current routines for managing the ‘new normal’ of lockdown,… Read More »Experiments in Daily Living – My February Routine | #27
Welcome to the myth of either/or. There is a third way. It’s not that other things need 100% of our time and energy or we shut them out – it may be a 45-second hug, offering 5 minutes to see what your children want to show you, and then they move on and you move on to your thing. I also quote a study about distractions in this podcast as… Read More »The Third Way: Goodbye Either/Or, Hello “And” | #26
Inspired by the experience of a friend setting herself up to make a lot of different changes all at one time, I talk today about transitions and pacing yourself, including New Year’s Resolutions, and how to avoid Burnout when setting new goals for ourselves. || LINKS MENTIONED|| – Free Self Care Checklist Download – 5 Ways to Set Goals You Might Actually Accomplish – Grab yourself the FREE Roadmap to… Read More »Burnout: Pacing in The Boom and Bust Cycle | #25
It’s okay to not be creative right now. And it’s okay to be upset about your lost creativity. Today, I’m discussing the frustration of not having our natural creativity, due to the high levels of stress we are under in this pandemic, even for those of us who have not personally been affected by the direct loss of someone through the Coronavirus. And I share my experience of using vanilla… Read More »Why We Are All Creative (Without Trying To Be) | #24
Today we look at “what if?” anxiety thoughts, focusing on those “is this what I want?” and “what if I fail?” questions. We ask more questions but also look at how to consider failures as being part of the road to success. || LINKS MENTIONED|| – The Super Mario Effect – Tricking Your Brain into Learning More (TEDx) – How to Talk With Your Fear (Mine’s Called Kitten) – Want… Read More »How to Manage What If Thoughts (What If I Mess It Up?) | #23
Note: Before I talk about energy as a currency, please note that this episode was recorded before last week’s events in the USA, and I want to acknowledge that this is not the first fortnight of 2021 most of us hoped for. This episode covers having multiple reasons “why” for a change, and how this can fuel us (and how not having this energy can lead to failing). I speak… Read More »Mental Energy As Currency | #22
