Here’s how my afternoon is shaping up: dismantling a sofa and trying to follow 10 football matches all at once. How about you?
Invincibility
The weekly question in the freelancer community I belong to was: What gives you confidence?
My response surprised me…
My confidence is definitely lowest if I spend too much time alone, so getting out and talking to people is a real booster. I also look back to the point in my life where the rug was pulled from under me and when I remember how far I’ve come since then it makes me feel invincible.
Weeknote 19/22
Late again but I’m happy with my reasons… Last week I attended a 2-day conference (Friday/Saturday). It was my first in person experience for around 3 years and I’ve needed a faffing day and a full day off to recover. So I’m just starting my working week proper today (Wednesday).
☎️ Had a catch up call (refreshingly over the phone, not video) with a colleague about sponsorship and bursaries to support making coaching accessible to everyone who wants it not just those who can pay.
🛋️ Visited a new co-working space for a tour to see if it could work for me. I’m interested in how they’re approaching building a community rather than just renting space… but I’m not so sure about the physical environment of the office itself. I’ll need to trial it to know for sure.
💡 Met with another freelancers to share our Notion setups and swap ideas. Got some tweaks to make to my ‘Control Deck’ and weekly overview template.
💻 Hosted my usual mid-week co-working session for the accountability group.
✍️ Other work this week consisted of a lot of writing, including a longer than usual blog post about my new group coaching programme and the article edition of my fortnightly newsletter.
📚 Finished reading Spring Cannot Be Cancelled. It’s had a huge impact on me and I keep referring to it in conversation. Need to write-up those thoughts before they leave me!
🩳 Major breakthrough in mindset around wearing shorts to ‘professional’ events. I wear shorts fairly constantly for around 8 months of the year (usually between the clocks changing) but have had a mental block around wearing them to meetings and events. I realised this week that if I were a person who wears skirts it would never cross my mind not to wear one on these occasions, so why worry about rocking up in shorts?!
☕ Attended the International Association of Facilitators (England & Wales branch) conference in Birmingham; a hybrid conference with options to join in person or via Zoom. Attendance was roughly 50/50. What I really valued from the in person side was those chance conversations over coffee. It was also great to be off screen for two full days — I didn’t even take any notes! I’m still processing everything that happened and a full write-up is coming soon. And yes, I did wear shorts!
🌳 Stayed with friends while at the conference and enjoyed the down time. Also caught up with other friends locally on the Sunday for a walk in the woods before traveling home.
⚽ Played my second free hit (and final chip) in the penultimate gameweek of Fantasy Premier League. It could be worse, it could be better. And there’s still half the matches to be played. But let’s just say I should have trusted my gut!
Currently reading: I Didn’t Do The Thing Today by Madeleine Dore 📚
You’ll know on the first page if this book is for you. Summary: I don’t have the answers, there’s no one way to do things, it’s about experimenting and finding what works for you. Bingo!
Today I danced in the sunshine, invented a game in 2 minutes (called Pointless Popping Pirate Personas) and realised I need to redraw the edges of my comfort zone
I’ve always wondered whether this could happen with wordle and the myriad spin offs. Today’s the day!
Framed #63 🎥 🟩 ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ ⬛
First day I’ve seen the house martins back playing between the terraces so I’ve downloaded this for my journey this evening
Want to get better at logging the films I’m watching and thinking of connecting Letterboxd to micro.blog. Curious what workflow others use for this 🍿🎥
Currently reading: A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry 📚
Back to fiction today with one of my favourite authors.
Weeknote 18/22
Here’s my first attempt at getting back into the habit of posting my weeknote on a Sunday evening…
🌳 There was a Bank Holiday in the UK on Monday so we packed up our lunch and headed out into Northumberland for a walk. After a pretty meh weekend it was just what we needed.
🌟 When back to work, I made another big decision… this time to postpone the start of my group coaching pilot so I have more time to fill all the available seats.
📋 I’ve made a plan (and started acting on it!) for the next couple of weeks in terms of what I need to do to get my coaching pilot ready to run.
🍅 I did lots of virtual co-working and pomodoros to keep me focused on things I didn’t want to do and/or was struggling to start.
✍️ Had a great catch up with fellow hosts of our mindfulness community to talk about plans for the next few months including adding more sessions and organising a summer social.
🐕 On Wednesday I had another day dog-sitting Aggie which included lots of sleep and two lovely walks with playtime in the park.
🧈 On Friday morning I joined the IAF Wales meetup to demo Butter, as an alternative to Zoom.
🚮 I joined my first GoodGym community mission. We did a litter pick on the Quayside.
🌇 As the days get longer, Izzy and I have started heading out for an evening walk around the park in the last of the light around 9PM. On our first outing we spotted a couple of bats out hunting.
🌤️ It’s been a lovely weekend weather wise and I took advantage of this for a long walk on Saturday afternoon, run Sunday morning and a couple of hours working in the yard in the afternoon.
🎨 My personal goal for May is to fill a sketchbook. I’m learning to draw the birds, and other cool things, I see on my walks and need to get some practice in.
The more I read of Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy, the more I want to spend my time just looking at the trees in the park outside my back door 📚
Weeknote 17/22
How late is too late to post a weeknote? Here’s last week’s…
🚆 I started my working week taking my first three calls sitting at my Dad’s desk, then caught the train home. I usually try to postpone work if I’m traveling but this worked out OK.
⚖️ On Tuesday I attended a webinar about the legal documents I need for my business. It was a surprisingly good refresher and I came away with a list of actions to review and refresh what I already have in place.
⏪ Reversed a decision to keep a new group coaching programme under wraps until I was ready to launch properly. It’s now out in the world and I’ll be starting the pilot in June.
✅ Caught up with my co-host for the accountability groups to review where we’re going over the next few months. Participant numbers have been increasing over the last couple of months so we had some practical stuff to review. And we agreed that neither of us have the capacity at the moment to look for new communities we could collaborate with.
🤑 Started setting up new bookkeeping software.
🎱 Watched a lot of snooker and rugby.
🍿 Started rewatching The Matrix series and spent the whole of the first film wondering whether we had Internet at home when it was originally released.
🐶 We had a third member of the household for a week while we looked after a friend’s dog. She made herself right at home, turned heads in the park, and got me stopped on the doorstep by a stranger enquiring after our new family member.
Found the flaw in my plan to buy no new books this year… my wife is still buying books. Four she’s finished recently added to my to read pile today 🤷🏼
Sunny morning run before the rest of the world gets up = a good start to a long weekend
Signed up for my first Good Gym sessions today. In the next few weeks I’ll be going on a group run and a litter pick. Looking forward to helping in the community, meeting new people and improving fitness along the way
I do not enjoy getting up early however I am looking forward to an early start for Dawn Chorus Day on May 1
Weeknote 16/22
I’m a little out of the habit writing these weeknotes having been on holiday and then seemingly incapable of dedicating time to them in the week before or after. I’ll summarise the lost weeks here instead:
- Week 13 — All focus on getting everything tied up with a neat bow before going away. Overall feeling: pressure.
- Week 14 — 10 days away visiting family and friends, and exploring cities and countryside throughout England and Wales. Overall feeling: joy.
- Week 15 — Back to work trying to pick up where I left off and get used to being back inside for the majority of the day. Overall feeling: acceptance.
So what of this week?
🗨️ This week’s journaling prompts have been a selection of quotes. I’ve been writing up my responses on Fragmented Thoughts.
💻 A former colleague recently got in touch to see if I still take on freelance content work and this week we spoke to agree what that would look like.
✍️ I also got to the final stage in the onboarding process for some associate work I’m doing as an essay marker for a coaching qualification.
📋 My other main work time this week has been spent on content and marketing for a new group coaching programme I’ve put together which starts next month.
💭 And I’ve been doing some thinking about how all the pieces of my offer fit together and where there might be gaps to fill.
🌳 I’ve been making some tweaks to my daily routines, all of which so far I’ve felt the benefit of: drinking more water, creating more regular opportunities for fresh air and exercise and reducing time spent on email and social media.
🚆 Got the train home to visit my parents for the weekend. It was busy yet everyone was in good humour. A lot of groups heading to Wembley for the boxing.
🌹 Dad and I went back to Welford Road for the first time in about 20 years (we used to have season tickets there for Leicester Tigers when I was a teenager). We watched our first live Red Roses match. England only really got up to speed in the second half, scoring 9 of their 11 tries at the end opposite to where we were sitting. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable day out in the sunshine and good to see them play live.
New favourite wordle spin-off framed.wtf 🎬🎥🍿