I took a year out to think. I wanted to clear up loose ends and unfinished projects, and to see my way to the next part of my journey. I used the metaphor of “clearing the weeds to allow new growth”.
This was apt because I had started things in and around the home – my writing cabin in the garden for example – which were hindering and distracting me by their unfinishedness.
My original plan had been to stop everything, to do no work and to become some sort of urban hermit for a year, but I didn’t have the courage to do that, and in the town where I live that post is already taken, so I compromised.
Instead of stopping everything, I stopped taking on new work projects. I cleared the decks of the old ones and dropped a couple that were planned. I used my ‘weeds’ metaphor and people seemed to understand.
I continued to my regular work as a trainer and solution-focused practitioner, and paradoxically,the more I tried to stop, the more the work came in; I actually got busier!
But I also got better organised and throughout the year I finished all my home and garden projects and cleared a lot of space, literally and metaphorically. As I was doing quite a lot of manual work I also got a lot of time to think (by this I mean my thoughts could roam), which is nourishing in itself. Nourishes the spirit, I mean.

And now, almost a year to the day, I can see the way forward. I have a new sense of purpose, new enthusiasm, and greater energy than I have had for years.
You may ask “What has grown in the space?”

Reading

Crawford, M., (2010), The Case for Working with Your Hands: or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good, Penguin, London

Pollan, M., (2008), A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams, Penguin, London

 

I’m a psychologist, coach, and therapist. All my work is aimed at enabling people to improve personal aspects of their lives and work.

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