When your Life is Designed for Progress Towards your Most Important Goals

For most of last year — once spring, summer and autumn hit — I felt like I was on a fast-moving train. I said yes a lot. I surrendered to the pace (surrender was my word of the year). And it worked for those seasons.

But anything that needed a proper groove — nutrition, fitness, finance — felt continuously disrupted. That’s normal life, of course, but I was craving a period where I could properly get into things. I like building momentum; our nervous systems love routine. And I know how good for our sense of self it is to achieve aligned goals.

So this year I deliberately got off that train and gifted myself a quieter January and February. I’ve said no wherever possible. It’s felt relaxed. It’s felt slow. Occasionally it’s even felt a bit lonely — there have been weekends where I’ve said no to some evening social and then missed the interaction.

And often when you go slower than you think you should, the real magic happens.

When I look at the areas I really wanted to focus on, there’s been solid progress as a result.

With spring around the corner, I feel ready to step into a busier phase because the foundations are in place. It’s similar to a good morning routine: once the hard, important tasks are done early, the rest of the day feels less burdened with heavy to-dos.

That’s how these past two months have felt — a period of low key attention on what truly needed tending to. Now, as I move into the more disrupted ‘fun’ months, I can do so knowing that stuff was dealt with, systems were built.

Here are three places I can notice it:

This had to be number one. Finance is the ultimate lazy hack, the great enabler. When we have these in order, our finances can be working for us passively, and protecting us.

Apart from submitting the required returns, I finally dealt with an annoying bit of admin linked to a dormant account. Was I efficient about it? No. Did I put it off a few times in favour of easier jobs? Yes. Did it take the best part of an afternoon / early evening? Also yes. But it’s off the list.

I also cleared a few other niggly bits that were only possible on coaching-free days. Re-set my auto savers / investments etc.

Takeaway: Obvious, but if we want to do the harder, important things, we need to make space, often more space than we think we ‘should’ need. Sometimes the over-optimism of ‘oh yes I can get it all done then’ can actually get in the way. Instead, expect it to take longer, and be harder. When you do get it done, you get the positive action loop of clearing big annoying tasks, rather than the guilt and self-blame that my clients tell me they experience.

I’m down around 200GB of photo and media space, and most days this year I’ve done the daily delete. That’s deleting photos and videos that are extra or not needed for 5 mins each day. It’s been fun, although it does hurt my eyes, and I’ll be honest — I’ve gone over the five-minute cap more than once. It’s very easy to go down rabbit holes and memory lanes.

Recently, when I am pushed for time, I’ll just tell myself to go and delete 100 pics for the numbers - very easy to do from the screenshots section; and one or two videos for the GB.

Still, it’s one of those things where consistency really works. 100 pics deleted a day - 30000+ pics by the end of the year!! And so many other benefits - which I talk about here.

I now have a solid strength plan designed to be something I can stick to on busier weeks — it’s designed with my personality and physiology in mind, not a mythical, disciplined version of me.

The hardest part is still motivating myself to do the Wednesday ‘push’ arm sessions, but I always feel good afterwards. I’ve finally booked a physio appointment to check in on a niggle. Should I have done it earlier? Yes. Nutrition has been so much fun — breakfasts especially — and I’m back at dance.

What hasn’t been working so well is sleep. My husband’s been waking up at 5am, which I have no interest in doing. I don’t want to wake up in the dark anymore. I’m not in a wake up in the dark unnecessarily phase of my life.

Unfortunately my sleep is extremely light at that hour, so I’ve been getting woken up too, and for the last week or so it’s felt like I’m not getting the sleep a woman of my age should be getting!

I’m curious what the rhythm of the next few months will feel like. I’ll probably feel a bit shell-shocked once everything speeds up again. And maybe I am just built for a slower pace of life these days — which I’m increasingly okay with.

What about you, how was your Jan-Feb hibernation?

Your Executive Coach, Maya

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