Reflections – A lot can happen in a year

Funny how a year can fly by without you realising. It has been almost 12 months since I started writing this blog. Initially I thought I might write every few weeks. At that stage I was going through some turbulent times and trying to figure out how I fit in the world. Putting things down in writing seemed to help.

My last post was a few months ago now and life has been very busy. I am working full time as a Senior Advisor, HR for the Department of Conservation. I get to travel around our beautiful country on a regular basis. That has its good and bad points. But overall, I enjoy the work and the people are amazing. We have common values and motives for wanting to make NZ a better place for the future.

I coach Crossfit at a great wee box called FRF in Lyall Bay, Wellington. I really enjoy doing this. And the other day I realised that being a coach has helped me in my work life too – I am not so freaked out about standing up in front of a group of people anymore. I still like to make sure I know what I am speaking about, but I no longer have dripping armpits when I do (sorry for the visuals there).

Yesterday I ran my first workout for women only. I had to write the programme i.e. figure out what I was going to coach. This was a little hard, as I didn’t know how many ladies I would be coaching. So I came up with a scheme that would work for both a small class and a very big class. Luckily the total class was 17 ladies. I think everyone had a good time. I know that I enjoyed coaching them. They knew that what they put in was what they got out. Hopefully their bodies aren’t too sore today and they will come back again next month.

My last post spoke about the nutrition programme I run. Since then I have had 12 clients complete my eight-week programme. There have been some great successes and I check in occasionally to see how they are doing. Most have managed to keep to the program overall and have said it is the easiest to follow with the best results. But we all know that changing or initiating a new habit takes a lot of effort. We all fall off the wagon and have to give ourselves a good talking to and try again. Me included! Hubby and I have a trip planned for Bali in a few weeks and I am going to wear a bikini, so I am more aware of what I am putting in my body than normal.

I have enjoyed reading some interesting books in the last few months and two have stood out for very different reasons. One was called “Sorry I am late – I didn’t want to come’ by Jessica Pan. It was a book about an introvert trying out extrovert things for a year. And boy did she put herself out there – Improv, meeting random strangers, to see if they would become friends. She did it because she realised that her friends were all around the world and she had no one in London. As I am mainly an extrovert, I purchased the book as I wanted some insight into what the world is like for an introvert. It was a great read and made me realise that maybe I am not that much of an extrovert after all?

The other book was by Dr Paul Wood called ‘How to escape from prison’. It is an inspiring read of a boy who became a man while in prison and turned his life around. He is very lucky he is alive to write the book really. Some of the book can be quite confronting, but the five principles to get you our of your own mental model and how you view the world are thought provoking.

I highly recommend both books, but for very different reasons.

The year had it’s ups and downs, and I wouldn’t want to do some of it again, but it has made me stronger and more confident in myself. I am a better person for the experiences. Onwards and upwards I say!