When I was at university, a good friend, in a thoughtful moment (quite possibly after a few 🍷🍷), offered the wisdom “Life is the bits in between”.
It struck me as profound then, but even more so when I stepped into the daily grind of professional life and often found myself simply trying to survive the working week. I was living for the weekend – or in the toughest moments – the holidays, and I was taking too little joy from the ‘bits in between’. Frankly, I was missing out on life. I knew I should be ‘enjoying the journey’ more, but I didn’t know how.
The answer? For me, there were two key moments. The first was when I left my city job to work on climate change and the environment; the second, many years later, was leaving the city again (this time physically) to live in the countryside.
At the time these moves were instinctive but having trained as a coach I now understand why they worked. In each case I was honouring one of my key values: first, making a positive contribution in the world; and second, being connected with nature.
Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learnt as a coach is that if there’s a secret to living a rich and fulfilling life, it’s simply to live our values every day. (Conversely, when we ignore our values or they’re trampled on by others, we invariably suffer the consequences 🙁😖😡).
As a coach there’s nothing more rewarding than helping a client to identify their values, take practical steps to living them, and seeing them step into their full glory – though it doesn’t always look quite like this 🤩!