Woody Wonders

I've always had a love / hate relationship with change.  I love change when I'm the one in control and making it happen.  In fact, there's nothing I enjoy more than mixing up my routines, learning something new, going to new places and challenging myself.  I hate change when it's not me who's doing the changing and I feel out of control. When it comes to change, I've always associated  'anticipation' with excitement about a positive change and 'anxiety' with changes that I'm feeling not so good about.  To throw something else into the mix, I've discovered there's such a thing as 'anticipatory anxiety' which is defined as '... when a person experiences worry and fear when thinking about an event that may or may not occur in the future' . I thought it was quite apt as many companies, including my own, have started communicating to their employees about returning to work and what the future will look like.  16 months on...

Have you noticed that when you do something for someone else, it gives you a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling inside. How often do you do that for yourself?  Do something to brighten up YOUR own day?  I'm guessing not as many times as you do something for someone else right?  We're often that busy taking care of the needs of others, whether it's colleagues, partners, friends, parents, children, pets, that we often forget to do something to brighten up our own days. Well, this week I'm going to be doing just that, brightening up my own life with a little ME time.  I have a whole week off work - woo hoo, first break since Xmas so I'm in desperate need!!  Yes, there'll be times when I need to do things for others but on the whole I'm planning some ' be kind to me' time. No time like the present so I brightened up this morning with a run through some very colourful fields! So, what else am I planning this week? More running! Catching up on my reading Going fo...

  Flexible or 'hybrid' working as it's being referred to is here to stay and many of us are happy about that, including myself.  I've gained an extra hour every morning and evening thanks to no commute and I've been using it wisely.  Right from the first day of working from home, I made the decision to use my extra time productively and not waste it by staying in bed longer every morning, or working late every night. BUT , the success of working from home, and keeping sane and healthy, relies on one thing ... boundaries.  Creating those gaps between your work and home life.  Back in the old days, it was easy as you had your commute time to make that transition from home to work and work to home.  When that disappeared, some people struggled to create those same kind of boundaries and things became a little fuzzy round the edges. This topic is particularly important to me this week because in all honesty my boundaries have been smashed to pieces, gates left ...

Are you in need of some excitement in your life? This is going to sound bonkers I know, but hear me out. It’s only in the last couple of weeks that lockdown has hit me. Yep, I told you it was bonkers. Despite feeling optimistic about this year, I’ve felt quite flat recently. Why, I pondered?   We’ve been in this situation for almost a year so what has suddenly changed.   Then I realised what it was. I’m missing an adrenaline rush of doing something different. Until now I’ve been pre-occupied with other things.   In March we’d just bought a house so had lots of things to plan. When we could eventually move we then had lots of DIY and garden projects. The mornings and evenings were light so I was out walking and running at every opportunity. I was busy getting to grips with moving my fitness sessions to Zoom and trying to see people in person in-between lockdowns. When it got to around October time, my thoughts then turned to Christmas.   Throughout everything I’ve als...

Don't sweat the small stuff this Xmas I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year.  I don't know about you but I always find the run up to Xmas really stressful .  There's never enough hours in the day.  You're trying to clear your 'to do' list at work before the end of the year so you can start afresh, and you have home stresses of trying to sort out Xmas presents, family and such like. I'm not going to bang on about what a difficult year it's been, we all know that and quite honestly, I'm bored with the whole thing now and it is what it is.  However, I have missed my annual kick-off to Xmas shopping which would have been a trip to Beverley around mid-November to visit my friend.  Although let's be honest here, there's usually more coffee drinking and chatting going on than Xmas shopping.  Online shopping is not as much fun, I like to see and touch things plus I spend 10 hours staring at a screen all day for work, I don't wan...

Commute time ...  more important than you thought The first thing that popped into my head when I was told I was going to be working from home for the foreseeable future was “hurrah, no more commuting for a while” .    However, your commute is actually a very important part of your working day - it’s the transition period from home to work and work to home.   In the morning, i t’s an opportunity to look ahead and plan the day and in the evening it's a time to reflect and unwind from the day.    It’s for these very reasons that I didn’t want to lose that ‘commute’ time when I started working from home as I realised it played a vital role in my day.  I usually left home around 7.15 am and returned home about 6.30 pm.  So I had a huge chunk of time both morning and evening in which to do something productive.  I didn't want to fall into the trap of staying in bed then immediately starting work in the morning and then finishing work and getting s...

It's a great feeling when you're within  touching distance of the other side I was determined not to be a house bore this week but quite honestly that's all my life consists of right now, along with work and running.  Sad ... but true. However, after almost 4 weeks of what can only be described as 'challenging' to say the least, I feel like we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Having said that, it still hasn't been all plain sailing this week as we had to call a plumber out 3 times, yes 3 times!!  I feel like I've missed my calling in life, I can sniff out the smallest of leaks before disaster strikes.  Hopefully, we've seen the last of the plumbing problems and we can now move forwards with decorating. Saturday was a major breakthrough as we finally got the flooring finished in the hall (when I say 'we', I actually mean Mr Bob's son, highlight of his week coming round to help us on the weekend!!) and we sorted ...

Have you reached your 'FI Point' yet? It's been a funny old week, I feel very much in limbo land at the moment.  We're due to move house in two days so there's been lots of to-ing and fro-ing recently and I don't feel like I belong anywhere at the minute. Change, as we know, is stressful.  It often involves a step into the unknown.  Sometimes it's forced upon us due to things out of our control and at other times, we instigate it ourselves.  Any kind of change is stressful, even positive change.  We made the decision to buy the house, we know the area and, best of all, it's still close to my running trails, I literally have to walk round the corner to the footpath.  It's all positive so why are we stressed about it. Well, for a start, there was lockdown to contend with.  We'd arranged for several major things to be carried out on the house before we moved in - digging up the garden, fitting a new kitchen and having an orangery built.  These shoul...

Easy Tiger It's the first proper holiday after Christmas so here's a few tips to ensure you don't hurtle headlong into chocolate oblivion and family stresses! Give yourself a mental health overhaul You shouldn't wait until life gets tough before you take time out to engage in preventative measures to keep stress and anxiety at bay, but all too often we simply get caught up in life itself until it's too late.  Don't wait any longer!  With the long weekend upon us, now is the perfect time to step back and take some time to understand your emotions and mental health.  Write down some really simple changes that you can incorporate into your life to help keep on top of things.  Even just 10 minutes relaxation / meditation has been proven to be beneficial in reducing stress levels. Add in some good stuff! Worried about overdoing it at the big family get together?  At the very least, start the day with a really healthy breakfast.  Why not try ...

"The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness" This week I'd like to talk about resilience which seems to be THE buzz word at the moment.  Everyone talks about it, whether it's in the boardroom, relating to sport or life in general.  The above definition is just one of a few that I found but this is the one that I relate to the most when I hear the word 'resilience'. The word resilience means different things for different people.  In fact, I'm going to give you three different scenarios of how I've demonstrated resilience this week. In my other job as a PA, you need to develop a skin thicker than an elephant's to cope with some days.  95% of the time it's extremely rewarding and satisfying; you're making someone's life easier and they are very appreciative of your efforts.  For the other 5% you are public enemy no.1 with everyone convinced you are trying your damn hardest to make life difficult for them and n...