The Blog
The emotions, actions and thought processes of my creative work.
This is where I share what I’m doing and why, how I’m thrashing out problems and what I’m trying to achieve.
But What’s It For?
A few weeks ago at my workshop about time there was an artist who couldn’t find the time to paint. This, as you can imagine, is something of a problem. I suggested that she paint just for an hour with no expectation in order to get back into the habit. “But what would it be for?” she asked, “I can’t just paint without there being a point”. “The point” I said, “is that it’s your life”.
Find Yourself On The Inward Attainment Map – And Know What To Do Next
When you feel disconnected and don’t know how to get out of the funk in your business, it’s easy to try to work your way out of it by doing whatever trick or “must-do” you stumble upon first. Maybe you decide the way back to falling in love with your business is to start getting really serious about your Instagram photos, or that you will feel more joyful if you create a one-to-many offering.
Experiments in Time Management: Turning Off The TV
I’ve spoken about the effects of neglecting your phone on your productivity before, but this week I’ve been practising ignoring another technological intrusion: the television. At the risk of sounding like a pearl-clutching commentator from the 1990s lamenting that TV is ‘desensitising the children’, I have to admit that it has desensitised me. But let me start somewhere at the beginning.
Getting Into A Focused Mindset For A Productive Day
Sometimes we just need to have a really productive day. Maybe there’s a looming deadline, maybe you’ve got behind on your to-do list for the week or maybe you’ve got a precious free Saturday to work on your business. Whatever the reason, there’s an amount of pressure on that day – it weighs heavy with your expectations and you’re worried that you won’t be able to ‘make the most of it’.
The Power of ‘Being’ vs ‘Having Goals
It seems trite to say it, but goals are important. They help you keep an eye on where you’re taking your business (and your life!), they translate your dreams into actions and they are a motivational force. I don’t think anyone is under any doubt that setting goals is a Good Thing.
A Rallying Cry To Your Deep Down Dreams
Whenever I start working with a new coaching client, there’s a one question I always ask them. Among the usual questions you’d expect from an introductory questionnaire (“what to do you?”, “how do you feel about your business?”, “what are your goals?”) there is another: what is your deep down dream that you never say out loud?
What My Working Week And 4 Hour Days Look Like
“It’s rare I work more than four hours a day.” The words came out of my mouth quite nonchalantly; it was, after all, the truth of my day to day in my business.
Turns Out, I Could – Stories from August 2019
Last week I ran a small community project on Instagram, inviting people to share a story of something they never thought they’d be able to do, but did; something it turned out, they could.
A 3 Step Process To Lose The Dread Of ‘I Have To’
Something I encounter pervasively is the feeling we ‘have to’ do something in our business that feels draining or just ‘not right’. This is not just in the women I work with, but also within myself – I really feel the weight of expectation and duty without remembering to really question it.
When You Feel Ashamed Of Your Goals
A few weeks ago, in my 6 Month Business Check In, I shared a new goal that had come up from the planning process: to start making six figures and scale from next year.
Accepting Your Version Of Ambition
Lately, I’ve seen the anti-hustle mentality start to creep into the mainstream, with articles in national press like Red magazine and the New Statesman.
Can You Start A Business Before You’ve Got A Product Or Service?
I was asked this question directly, but have also seen variations of it wafting around the internet: “can I start a business when I don’t know what I want to do yet?”
Loneliness and the Lies We Tell
When we first told the family we were moving away, my mum told me “you’ll be lonely”. And of course, from that point on, I was adamant I wouldn’t be.
My Experience Using Tarot In Decision Making
In last week’s The Little Chapters podcast episode, Jess and I talked about ‘Woo’ – the beliefs and practises we hold that aren’t governed by empirical science or logic, and are perhaps a little ‘out there’.
Postcards From Bruges, A Slow Travel Guide
We got the train to Bruges, an affair infinitely more civilised than air travel. Although the Eurostar trains are sleek are modern, there is still a hint of the golden age of travel in the air as, laden with luggage, you saunter along the platform toward your cross-continental journey (this is not the ‘stick your elbows out to get a seat’ train travel we’re used to on the West Coast mainline).
5 Simple Living Shifts For Summer
What kind of a season is summer? With it's endless, cloudless days, sticky drips of ice cream and overhead buzz and flutter of transient birds and insects? It's a season, to me, of both rest and projects. After a spring of 'hustle' and growth there is now space and opportunity to enjoy the fruits of that labour, while this same space reinvigorates inspiration and creativity and brings new ideas to the fore.
How To Plan Your Own Micro-Adventures - with Victorinox*
[Sponsored content] Over the last month I’ve been undertaking a series of micro-adventures as part of Victorinox’s Modern Pathfinder campaign, and you know what? It’s been one big realisation for me about this whole simple living thing. I’ve written before about how I always feel like I need to be doing more in order to be slow living ‘properly’, and this is something I find very difficult to shake.
Winter In The Mountains
When we first moved to Snowdonia, I’d only really experienced it in summer. And we’d always been really lucky; the odd gloomy day but more often than not roaring sunshine, the sea sparkling turquoise and the white beaches giving the Bahamas a run for their money.
How To Style A Cup Of Tea
You’ve probably noticed, but my go-to prop for Instagram photos is a cup of tea. Partly this is because the photos I take featuring rosie-lea are always my most popular – take a look at my most popular posts below for that evidence. I always know that if I’m in an engagement slump then a good ol’ cuppa will be sure to get me out of it. But of course, it’s not all about the likes and validation, there are lots of reasons why I’m drawn to tea as a prop.