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Weeknote 24/22
🏆 My Pod co-host and I have been shortlisted in the Freelance Impact category at YunoJuno’s Freelancer Awards. Voting is now open!
🖐 Finalised materials for next week’s group coaching session on identity to send out to participants.
📅 Added details of the regular events I run to my homepage (a job that’s been on the to do list for too long).
📰 Sent my newsletter which includes a new article on metaphors for goal setting.
🔮 Gave myself some time to zoom out and think ahead to what I want to work towards the rest of the year.
📢 I’ve committed to spending a block of time each week on marketing as it’s something I typically avoid doing. I’m about three weeks in now and slowly building a habit.
☕ Had a virtual coffee with a fellow facilitator to chat about what we’re both working on and agreed to do a LinkedIn live conversation about reflection.
📷 Revisited my Flickr account to find some images for a coaching activity. Had a tidy up and started planning an inspiration jaunt while we’re on holiday to get out exploring with my camera again.
👀 Went to the cinema to see Everything Everywhere All At Once.
🌳 Saw Hockney’s A Year in Normandie exhibition at Salts Mill. Spent considerable time with one tree. Bought a poster of wildflowers from the Arrival of Spring exhibition and a few postcards from the Normandy series.
🐯 By some miracle I was able to avoid hearing the outcome from Saturdays Gallagher Premiership Final so I could watch it on catch-up on Sunday night. As a Leicester supporter I was on the edge of my seat for much of the second half and practically holding my breath for the final 5 minutes.
The ground beneath our feet
On my walk to work today I listened to an episode of On Being that was a conversation from 2016 between Krista Tippett and the poet David Whyte. About 10 minutes in, as a precursor to reciting his poem Everything is Waiting for You, Whyte said:
we have so many allies in this world, including just the color blue in the sky, which we’re not paying attention to, or the breeze or the ground beneath our feet.
I have to be honest, although the rest of the episode played on, I wasn’t giving it my full attention. I was too hung up on these words and how they made me feel.
I looked up to the blue sky above me, with barely a cloud in sight. My world felt vast. I turned my attention to the feeling of the solid concrete under my feet. I felt supported. Safe.
I know the benefits of feeling connected to the world around me, of grounding myself, and feeling a sense that I’m part of something bigger (sympatheia is what the Stoics call it). But, I haven’t had a hook that calls me back, or reminds me of this connection. Now I do. It’s the idea that when I need it most these things will be there, without fail, to support me and lift me up.
Tags: #quotes #DavidWhyte #OnBeing #nature
Everything Everywhere All at Once, 2022 - ★★★★
I'm glad I went in to see this without expectations. I'd seen the trailer months ago and then avoided everything else.
It took me a while to warm up to it. But when I let myself go, I thoroughly enjoyed this film for its ridiculousness and ambition. What I particularly liked was that underneath the fantastical at its heart this is a family drama.
My enjoyment was topped off when I returned home to find two googly eyes randomly placed on the mantelpiece.
Weeknote 23/22
🌟 The first session of my group coaching pilot was on Tuesday and it couldn’t have gone better. We started with a benchmarking activity which we’ll review at the end of the programme to help judge what progress has been made. The theme of the week was values, so the rest of the time we explored how these show up in the work we do and set actions to work on before the next session.
🏗️ This week I watched my first co-working/office space get razed to the ground… and moved into a new space where I’m planning to spend a couple of days a week for the foreseeable future.
🐠 While my co-host is away I’ve been running June’s accountability Pod solo, so that’s been taking up a bit more time and energy this week.
🔮 I spent a little time this week looking ahead to map out some business goals for the next 6 months.
🤯 I’ve had contracts to read for my new co-working space and associate work, as well as a long overdue update to my website’s privacy policy. I’m still trying to get my head around a couple of clauses which are anything but clear!
👨🏼🍳 I’ve been pretty grumpy and not very nice to live with for the past few weeks. Managed to turn things around this week and cooked an apology curry for Izzy; butter chicken, onion bhaji and roti.
🏏 We visited my sister and family over the weekend. Most of this was spent playing football and cricket with my nephews.
Weeknote 22/22
📆 It’s been a funny old week. Through travel and Bank Holidays I worked three days (two full, two half). It was quiet as we’re between Pods and many people are away for the school holidays. Without my usual standing commitments I had the opportunity to zoom out a little and think about longer term plans.
🧠 One thing I’ve been trying to figure out if the connections (and gaps) between the different things I do, how I communicate that and what I can do to make it more coherent.
📋 There were still a few logistical things to set up for June’s Pod and my group coaching pilot programme that both start next week.
👑 I have mostly been avoiding anything to do with the Queen’s Jubilee. My one concession was baking some scones for Izzy to take to her church gathering.
🏏 I spent the end of the week pottering at home with the first test match between England and New Zealand on the radio.
🥃 Joined friends on Friday for a birthday celebration in the local beer cafe. Sadly they’d run out of whiskey for our final drink of the night, but they did have some coffee tequila as a back up. It was delicious — I may be a convert!
🎨 I’ve been meaning to get back into watercolour painting for some time. This weekend I finally started a Domestika course to ease me back in.
Weeknote 21/22
🗓️ Monday brought another monthly plan with me session. It was the largest group so far this year with a good mix of first timers and regulars.
🍷 We experimented with adding a social hour to the Pod. Not everyone was able to make it this time, but it went down very well with those who came.
📋 I had a catch up with the hosting team behind our daily mindfulness sessions to review developments and write prompts for the next few weeks.
📄 I’ve mostly been working on the activities for the upcoming pilot of Inner Work for Independent Workers.
🔗 I sent May’s link round-up newsletter.
🤔 I’ve done four-day weeks for the last couple and I think I’ve realised that I work more effectively this way. Definitely thinking of making this permanent.
🛋️ Our new sofa got delivered on Thursday. I spent the morning in anticipation and the afternoon faffing… very little work was done.
1️⃣ I’m giving Day One another try to start keeping a kind of log book. I’ve hooked it up to other services so other updates and activities get sent there too. Let’s see if it sticks.
🩸 I gave blood on Wednesday. The waiting room was full which is always good to see. This was donation number 33 for me, so I’m on course to reach 40 in my 40th year.
✂️ One of my favourite times of the month is going to get my hair cut. I find 30 minutes in the hairdressers chair is as good as a trip to a spa.
🧩 Visited my parents over the weekend. We chatted, walked and ate well. It also meant we got to do our weekly crossword in person.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, 2019 - ★★
I enjoy the interplay between (and performances of) Ridley and Driver, but the rest is a bit meh.
Ocean's Eight, 2018 - ★★
I’d been waiting to see this for so long. Perhaps I built my expectations up too much. So very disappointing.
Paddington, 2014 - ★★★★
Finally got round to watching this and it was everything I expected/hoped it would be. Perfect holiday film.