Julie Drybrough questions where and when we start our learning and reflection
Can you begin in the middle? The middle of a month? The middle of a process?
Can you take that neat list of intentions and bang right through the middle of it, messing things up?
I’m asking because I hoped to begin at the start – the start of the month, of the year, like proper people do. I hoped to adhere to the conventions I had set myself for writing:
- January: New-you intentions and an intro to my world.
- February: Learning We Love – a light-hearted view on valentine-themed live/ love/ learning vibes
- March: Setting the Hares running (along with gentle reflections on the burgeoning spring etc).
I hoped. I really did. But instead I find myself, baffled as to how nearly a month is gone, panicking slightly that I will fail to write anything, singularly and very noticeably NOT at the start.
Yet still, I’ll begin. Right here in the middle.
Begin as I hope to continue – a little rude salute to convention.
Because without beginning, there is no next step or step after. No progression or movement. There is just static-state and same… and who wants that?
So I’ll begin with some sense of what these blogs might be about – leadership, learning, coaching, culture, reflections on practice, on what it is to live and work in organisational life and on the edges of it.
I’ll strive to be kind, heart-felt and straightforward in how I see the world. Sometimes the words will resonate, other times, they will fall away without merit or mark. But in creating them, I will have fulfilled what I promised myself and the good people at TJ – I will have begun and can therefore continue.
So if any of you are grappling with new-you, new-year, resolution, intention, self-imposed rule-based tangles right now. Just begin. Even if it’s again – even if you started yesterday and stopped – begin and take another step and another and see where it takes you. From Duolingo to sorting out your streaming subscriptions, to gym goals to professional qualifications – go little and daily and begin over and over if you have to.
Here’s to beginning.
Even in the middle.
Julie Drybrough is and Organisational Consultant, Executive Coach/ Supervisor, Writer and Speaker at fuchsiablue
