career change

Getting Ready To Cross The September Threshold

Getting Ready To Cross The September Threshold

For many people, January is the moment for change. I'd argue September is the true one. Drawing on John O'Donohue's writing on thresholds and real stories from a coach, a designer, and a recruiter, this piece is an invitation to use the next twelve weeks well and a free printable worksheet to help you do it.

What I Learned About Work Before I Ever Had a Job

What I Learned About Work Before I Ever Had a Job

I press the number 4 in the elevator, turn left twice, and I'm back in the corridors of my mother's workplace - a room full of women who built something real while somehow also building a life around it. When she retired, she asked me a question I still can't fully answer for her. This is what stayed with me after a conversation about flexibility this week.

Getting ready to cross the September Threshold?

Getting ready to cross the September Threshold?

The first question I ask a stranger is never small talk - I want to know what they've dedicated their life to. Today it was a farmer at the sauna. A year ago it was me, closing a business I'd built over thirteen years and starting again from nothing. September has a way of turning summer's dreaming into real decisions - and this year it's brought me to a conversation with Karen O'Reilly of EmployFlex about what's changing in how people find work.

Drop your tool and save your life

Drop your tool and save your life

There's a story about wildland firefighters who are told, in the moment of greatest danger, to drop their tools and run - and who, again and again, choose to hold on instead. It costs them their lives. I've been asking my clients a version of the same question ever since: what are you holding onto that, if you dropped it, would let you move with more ease? My own answer came from three generations of women in my family who never once took a relaxing holiday.