Wise Wednesdays

  I wasn’t born into royalty but sometimes life gives you a big seat at the table. Happy December! If you’re spending some time reflecting in this period, reflect on 2 things: what’s calling you forward and what’s holding you back. Or: what you want and what you want *to let go of*. Why? Because the 2 go hand in hand. What you want is on the other side of something that it’s time to let go of (like an old fear or belief). To use philosopher Erich Fromm’s framing, you have two freedoms: 1. The freedom *to* dream, imagine and create – this freedom usually feels exciting 2. The freedom *from* limiting patterns, beliefs and conditioning – this freedom usually feels scary. Reflecting on 2022 has reaffirmed that this is an ongoing process. So my purpose continues to be: liberating others as I liberate myself . Here are 8 things I’m (still) committed to breaking free of now and for the foreseeable future: 1. To break free of scarcity and practise flow 2. To break free ...

A small group of passionate women leaders meet in a candle-lit cave.   They’re tussling with the overwhelm of everyday life. So many responsibilities, so many things to do - a good number of them exciting and worthwhile.   Whether it’s democratising global leadership and expanding the role of Africa, equity-based sustainability or the de-medicalisation of psychiatry that these incredible women are working on – #leadership (of self and others) can be lonely and demanding.   What do you prioritise? What do you drop? And how do you figure out what deserves your time and energy in the first place?!...So much to do, so little time. If you’ve been reading Wise Wednesdays or worked with me, you’ll know that I believe: There’s no such thing as time management. It’s choice management.   You can’t create more time. You can’t even ‘manage’ time.   Why?   Because as one leader exclaimed in our cave gathering: there is no later!   2023 is a construct Holidays are...

  It’s coming to that little turning point in the calendar. In the first half of the year, my energy felt sluggish. My actions seemed rudderless. The quality of my thinking dropped. Was it long-Covid? Or working with too many clients and groups as the business grew? Or was it pandemic fatigue and the millions of changes? The war?... I’m still not sure. There are too many factors and unknowns to model. Thankfully, I had enough awareness to find the right support, work with a transformational coach and let go of old attachments that were ripe for release. I was ready to shed another layer of past experiences, beliefs and behaviours and recalibrate. This territory, I know. One thing I learned more about is how power and powerlessness FEEL to me. Powerlessness feels like hiding or avoidance and being cut off from the flow of life. Everything seems out of reach. Living seems purposeless. The synchronicities dry up. On the other hand, power feels like being abl...

  London, 2010. I found myself at the Oxford and Cambridge club facilitating a conversation between a neuroscientist and an entrepreneur. Both were concerned that our attention spans were dropping because of smartphones and social media (which was pretty much just Facebook back then). Last week, a brilliant doctor, one of the brightest of her generation, told me that she was concerned about what would happen if she took a step back from the hamster wheel and put some attention on the bigger picture of her career. She was worried about the implications…Would she have to abandon everything and start from scratch if she faced the truth?...Perhaps it was best to just stay on the hamster wheel ?... Yesterday, I had a conversation with an ex-intelligence advisor to the military in Afghanistan. He left that role and went on to lead one of the largest conservation initiatives in the world. He lamented that decision makers simply didn’t understand the complexities of conservation. Their at...