I’ve come to hate seeing ‘failure is not an option’. If you’re on a long-term journey that involves uncertainty and change, failure is essentially inevitable. As you move toward success, you’re gonna make mistakes. Things will run awry. You won’t feel great sometimes, perhaps even a lot of time. Failure isn’t even the word you understood it to be. Failure sounds permanent and like a … Continue reading 2022’s biggest lesson for me

In a situation that sucks you’ll want to know how things got this way, so you can stop it happening again. You’ll want to know how to make the situation better. Before you end up in that space, it pays to first ask how do you want to be, in any situation that sucks. It’s a simple question, but it draws on values and encourages … Continue reading That sucks, but how

But now I can’t remember what it was. Doesn’t really have a lot of value then, whatever the idea was! It was while I was out running – a lot of ideas for doing things and blog posts come to me while I’m out running. Since I’m not PB oriented or particularly time driven, I could just stop and make at least a note of … Continue reading I had this great idea earlier, I think

And immediately felt something of a fraud. Certainly that I’d fallen short. No matter. It’s not a club you can only join when you’re perfect. It’s a philosophical journey you embrace and make progress with. I’m a practising Stoic. Kindly, keep going. Continue reading I’m a practising Stoic, I wrote

A couple of months ago I signed up for the Rombald’s Stride. 21 miles or thereabouts, up and down some hills. I haven’t thought much about it other than I really ought to do some running. This evening I took a proper look at the route and that’s a good bit cheekier than all the training runs I’ve done in the past six months. I’m … Continue reading Energised by the right challenge

Over dinner with friends there was talk about folks whose political views don’t align with ours. I was struck by the assumption that it was because ‘they’ didn’t think, they merely consumed different news unthinkingly. In my experience this isn’t true. Other people, with different backgrounds, values, and experiences can absorb the exact same information and reach a different conclusion. It’s not that they don’t … Continue reading Not thinking about their thinking

Too often I’ve bought into the mindset that I don’t feel up to doing ‘that thing’ just now. When I’m a little happier, or more knowledge, or energised, or something. Having reached out for accountability though, and with an underlying desire to create the change I want to see, I’ve got things done. When I’ve felt low. Tired. Annoyed. Harassed. Unenthused. I’ve got it done. … Continue reading You don’t have to feel great

In the last week I’ve got a bunch of stuff done that I’m really pleased with. I don’t know that I’ve done them all right, or quite how I might have liked them given more time thinking about it. The key point is I got them done, though. Perfect execution wasn’t critical so self-appointed super standards were becoming very unhelpful. Hooray for progress. But wait … Continue reading Doing things, quite imperfectly

I’ve made good progress on a number of fronts I’d been stuck on. Two things have made a huge difference. 1. Broke the big things down so I could concretely set daily goals were met 2. Brought in some accountability Kinda like having a coach, really. Imagine that! Kindly, keep going. Continue reading It was overwhelming, till I looked closely

It’s not great, being slow and inconsistent. But it beats not moving at all. It’s progress. And if you’re feeling broken, any progress is welcome. Now, build on it. However you can. Kindly, keep going. Continue reading Slow and inconsistent