I sit here, a year since writing my last piece (how time flies!), invigorated by what has been a turbulent, challenging but also incredibly rewarding year. For those who were kind enough to give a thumbs-up / like to any of my previous articles, please accept my sincere apologies for being so quiet…2018 was NUTS! With all that said, before heading in to 2019, I wanted to share with you some musings from the year through a couple of stories which I thought you might find thought provoking. Below is my Story #1 & story #2 will follow next Friday 28th December.
2018 Story #1:
My first learning is one which I didn’t see coming and relates to my own experience from the past twelve months. I had spent three wonderful years in Portland, Oregon and I had a lot figured out, or so I thought. Work life balance was great, I had developed some incredible new friendships, I had a new level of consciousness and philosophy of open mindedness and also a discovery of the importance of spending time in nature (reference ART theory) which all meant that I was often feeling in balance, whatever the world threw at me.
On December 30th 2017, I flew back to London. Back to big city life, a new job & most importantly a time to use all of my ‘toolbox’ to full effect to keep myself firmly in balance and in a great mindset. Rule #1; never be so confident that you think you have life worked out (!).
My formula had been refined over three years and it was working like a well oiled machine. Meditate, eat well, sleep well, visit nature often, keep fit, work hard, crave new experiences, spend time with loved ones. The strange thing in this instance was that in theory, I was moving ‘home’ & it should have been simple, but strangely enough, moving ‘home’ felt now more like moving away due to the new culture I had adjusted to. People no longer said good morning to me or ‘have a nice day’, which sounds silly, but I did in fact miss the sense of positivity & smiley faces. Having tried to re-introduce elements from ‘the formula’ at various stages, things weren’t clicking in the way they had, I wasn’t in flow and after a couple of months (chest infection amongst other things) I certainly was not in balance.
It was time to change approach and try something new, so I resorted to an approach I had learned in some tougher stages climbing mountains which was to ‘focus on the process…focus on simply putting one foot in front of the other’. Which was a metaphor for taking one minute, one hour, one day, one working week (!) at a time, and trusting the process and keeping things really simple. Keep the faith that the rest will take care of itself. Slowly but surely it worked, slowly but surely things got more comfortable again. Slowly but surely I kicked in to my stride which felt like it had left me a little while back.
This approach was uncomfortable, it took patience, it took resilience and it took focus. I learned an important lesson to stay humble, to keep a beginner’s mindset and lastly do not rush and always play the long game. I truly believe that everything in life happens for a reason and when you stick to your values, work hard and treat people with the respect and kindness they deserve, good things generally happen, and in this case stripping things right back to basics was what was needed, before I could re-introduce the building blocks to achieving a strong balance and flow once again.
I leave this year having learned that you can never rest on your laurels, whenever you have something 'figured out' you will be challenged by a greater force from somewhere out there. I think the important thing is find what works for you, be positive in your mindset, share good vibes and good things will come back to you, and whatever you do, however slow it seems, keep learning and keep moving forwards.
Tune back in next Friday 28th for my second 2018 story & learning #2 to close out the year!