Blog

It’s late. You’re exhausted. You’ve had a long day, you had a broken night and it’s only Monday.

Lately, I’ve been dealing with a severe case of Perfectionism. As I’ve been launching a new coaching programme and webinar, ironically about reclaiming your confidence, Perfectionism has been “making” me spend inordinate amounts of time head down at my desk making sure I have “everything” in place and that “everything” is “right” before I even think about putting anything Out There.

I used to go to Ceroc classes – it’s a partner dance which fuses lots of different dance styles. There are venues all over the country where you can turn up of an evening and dance with whichever men have also turned up on the night.

The other day, I was playing in a group tennis coaching session. There were 6 of us and, at one point, we were playing 3 against 3, the winning side being the first to get to 21 points. My side started off winning several points in a row but then had a losing streak at which point the coach, Brian, piped up saying we’d “regressed”.

The second webinar of the 4-part series I ran back in the summer, Confidence for Women in Finance, was all about how to build a confident mindset. One participant asked the question, how do you tell the difference between whether you’re worrying, or thinking productively?

I’m not a baker but I do enjoy the annual entertainment that is The Great British Bake-Off . In case you’re not a follower, this year’s winner was not the bookie’s favourite, Steph, winner of Star Baker 4 times in the series, but David.

I was recently introduced to the current affairs magazine, Positive News, which reports on the good things that are happening in the world rather than the bad. For example, the latest issue features rewilding in Sussex, a Canadian doctor prescribing money to low-income patients and people who are creating solutions for challenges facing UK society, such as racial and religious intolerance and young people in need.

When I’m working 1-1 with professionals, particularly professional women, I often discover a Missing Conversation. For example, there was the finance manager who wanted to know her prospects for promotion yet was afraid to have the conversation with her manager because they might think she was being “pushy”.

Sitting in a traffic jam in town the other day, I saw a friend walking past on the pavement close by. I called out to him several times, but he was lost in thought, walking along head down, seemingly unaware of the world around him.

I’ve been meditating almost daily for over 6 years. Now let me qualify that : I assume the position on the sofa first thing every morning then set InsightTimer for 20 minutes – it marks the start and end of my session and every 5 minutes inbetween with a rather lovely singing-bowl sound.