Claire writes: “It was really icy a couple of weeks ago as I set out on my early morning walk. There was no one around, and I couldn’t see into the next field.  I just kept walking. Within half an hour, the mist was beginning to clear, and underneath was an azure blue sky. The following day it was even more difficult to see more than 100m, but close up, the frosty grass was crystal clear and the path opened up just enough as I walked through the fields.

Life can feel like that sometimes – when it’s hard to see what’s ahead.  Conversations can feel like that, too. You work out together what the work is and then suddenly it feels unclear what we are doing.  When I work with coaches, listening to recordings of them working with others,  they often tell me that the start must have been messy because they’ve hit a place in the conversation where it’s unclear what they’re doing.  That’s normal! We set off in a conversation. We seem to be clear enough on what we are doing today, how we are doing it, and how we will both know by the end of today that we have done it. And then it’s misty or slippery or circular.  That’s almost certainly not a mistake you made at the beginning. It’s normal. So be normal as you get it back on track. ‘Where are we? What’s your question now?’ feel a whole lot more empowering than ‘when we started we said we were doing <this> and now we’re not!

I’m walking 15000 steps a day in January to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. That’s more than two hours a day to think and learn! If you feel like popping a little something in my fundraising pot, that would be wonderful. It’s here, if that’s useful?”

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