Make excuses. Or make changes.

A wise-ish person once said, A rising tide lifts all boats.

Wherever your home is, wherever your heart is, wherever your life is, it pays to invest.

In a boatlift???

There are such things – I used to live and work not far from one. The joke is, although my ex- and the kids all had merry times cycling down the towpath to it, I’ve never even seen it. Multiple factors involved here – I didn’t have a bike. (WTH? A family of 4 with 3 bikes??? Who made that decision???) I didn’t have a life. There was no health in my work-life balance whatsoever. ‘Balance’ was, in fact, a complete misnomer. So, if my ex- wanted to go out cycling with my boys for a jolly day out, I breathed a sigh of relief and pondered the joys of some much-needed ‘Me-Time.’ The fact that I would have benefited far more from fresh air, exercise and chill with my boys clearly escaped me, back in the day. They would NOT escape Mum on a bike these days, hell, no!

Invest in a rising tide.

Or, as we might say, be the change you want to see.

DO. THE. WORK.

I’ve invested in me, financially, this week, by getting myself booked onto a coaching qualification. I’m really looking forward to learning something – not just because I believe it will help me in what I want to do to make the world a better place, but because I haven’t invested in my education for a long time. There was a full-time job, children, holding the fort when the man of the house wasn’t home till late – all the unpaid labour of women.

But I’m also investing in myself in small, incremental ways that are hard to do, sometimes, but rewarding in a way that other things that cost money aren’t.

I learned how to do press-ups in 2020. I went from 5 really fairly crappy ones to 30 really quite decent ones (I can do 50, but I’m working back up to that, steadily) which impressed the heck out of my mate Nicky’s PT fiancé. He saw me do them on Zoom whilst I was chilling out with his fiancée over tapas and a bottle of red… It wasn’t quite the way I’d seen the evening going, but I was happy with the feedback. Machine feedback tells me I have the upper-body strength of a 35-year-old. I’ll take those digits, given that the reality is actually the other way round, at least for another couple of months.

Now I’m learning how to do squats. I say learning – I know HOW to do squats. I know WHY I would do squats. I have SPACE in which to do them. I’ve done them before. Oh, yes, the squat and I have history.

As another wise person once said, we are what we habitually do. And, habitually, I didn’t do squats. They HURT.

But Great Ormond Street Hospital promised me a t-shirt and a community of like-minded, altruistic squatters to squat alongside, to lessen the pain.

And, as ADHD brains love a bit of novelty, off I went. Squat-tastic, I am, at the moment. 🤣 (The aim is 50 squats per day...)

Because it’s all about building muscle mass.

Why?

If you have a decent amount of lean muscle mass, you’re protecting yourself for the future – particularly important for women, for whom osteoporosis is a threat.  As you get older, you lose muscle mass year on year (after you’re 30, it’s somewhere between 3-8% – it’s called Sarcopenia). As far as strength and mobility go, muscle mass is a major player.

And I think a lot of people know that your body has to work harder to look after muscles than after its fat reserves, so having more muscle is good for my metabolism, as well as making as sure as I can that my older age is a fit and healthy period of my life. I’m finally redressing the balance after nearly 3 decades in an unhealthy workspace!

Hence, I’ve decided to focus this year on developing, not just my brain muscle, but my body’s lean muscle mass. And raising money for GOSH, of course, despite the fact that I joined too late for the t-shirt. (I do feel a little cheated here, I must admit.)

Is it hard? Yup. Does it hurt? Bloomin’ ‘eck, yes. Am I being the change I want to see? Hell, YEAH.

I’m also rearranging my relationship with alcohol, so that I can enjoy it on an ad hoc basis, rather than be triggered and require it to help me through tiredness.

(Marking books always required red wine, back in the day – only a glass, but it made everything better. Habits of a lifetime…

I’ve brought up a glass to enjoy, Hemingway-style, whilst I finish writing this. It could have been another 175ml. I made it 75ml, so the bottle lives to fight another day. Progress. Mindfulness in small steps.)

B J Fogg, of Tiny Habits fame, has it exactly right – design your life so that you can do the things you want to do with ease and without allowing your brain wriggle-room. My brain is a wriggler of Olympian standards, so this is a good shout. My dog sleeps downstairs. Except when the boyf is around (whom she adores…) when she circumvents the stairgate and comes up to the landing. Which basically means that my morning routine of meditation, press-ups and squats is screwed. (Ever tried press-ups with a crazy Boxer around? They get VERY excited! And the boyf, who would play with and distract the crazy one, has gone home because he wakes up at 4.00am – and that’s a time I really don’t want to know intimately…)

But it’s important. And if I don’t get it done in that slot, guess what? It’s gone. A ‘pffffttt’ on the breeze of existence. Like the carefree seed of a dandelion clock, floating in the summer air. A thing of the past.

But if I DO get it done? If I do the work? Just that one thing? What’s the net result?

I feel better. Stronger. Empowered. ‘CAN DO’. Not a failure. Somebody who can stick to a thing they’ve said they’ll do. (Because ‘Know, Like, Trust’, right?)

And that’s only in the here and now. (Did I mention I’ve invested in Sam Harris’s Waking Up app? So enjoying it. Thank you, Toby Nicholls , for telling me about it all those months ago. Yes, I’ve finally got there.)

In the future? I’m stronger. More resilient. Fitter. More able. NOT going gently into that good night – because daylight’s bloody beautiful and I’ll have as much of it as I possibly can, please and thank you very much.

***Added bonus: I enjoy wearing all the clothes in my wardrobe because they fit me well. I feel great. I enjoy life more. I have more energy to do all the things.***

So, if you can only change one thing?

CHANGE THAT ONE THING.

Create your rising tide. And feel the gentle pressure of the waves as they start to lift. You. Those around you.

In your life. Your home. Your business. Wherever your heart is.

Want to chat about the one thing you can do that’ll empower you and kickstart an explosion of productive activity? ☀️

Because confidence is a muscle, strengthened by activity. 💪🏼

Because fear is a pointless waste of your time and energy. 🙈

AND THERE’S SO MUCH YOU WANT TO DO. 🌱

DM me here.

Till next time, with thanks for reading,

   Lois x