Season 4, for me, occurred during the British summer holidays - and for a few reasons I absolutely LOVED it this year. It’s not always the case in the summer - the heat and feeling of ‘I should be out there’ can sometimes be too much pressure. But what I noticed, having been through Seasons 1-3, was a sense of playfulness coming through. A touch of lightness to everything. With all the experimenting I was doing, I was slowly acquiring more knowledge and insights, which gave way to more confidence and a real sense of freedom. I was in a full flow state of creating things, which helped me build a sense of inner trust. And that’s because I was continually investing in activities, like the ones above, that nourished me and gave my sense of identity back. Because it was the holiday season, with so many others having moments of freedom, there was an increased sense of permission to forge plans on my own terms.

And it was on one of those days, flying back from the summer family holiday, I was listening to a podcast with Dolly Alderton brilliantly describing her ‘perfect day’. Now, I love Dolly - her storytelling is just so life-affirming. I’m a massive fan of her ‘Dear Dolly’ advice columns. In this podcast, Dolly spoke about her ideal working day writing at home, without interruption, only taking breaks to eat (ordering from Deliveroo). In short, writing can be a joy, but meetings are not. ‘I hate meetings!’ she cried, and went on to talk about the utter boredom of sitting through meetings.

What truth to behold! The clarity! The freedom to express! And on that plane ride back, I vowed that my new work life would never involve a boring meeting. Sorry guys, it’s not me, it’s you.

After that, I promptly folded my seat table back up, zipped the hoodie and napped for the rest of the flight.

Now to the practical bit, supporting your freedom to build your new plans:

One fantastic exercise is from the folks at Careershifters and their ‘Lean Career Change’ model. It’s based on a ‘validated learning’ approach, where you test out your ideas for change based on facts in the real world, not on the fears you've attached to your theories, as highlighted in The Liminal Season. It’s taking your research and seed of an idea and doing the smallest possible thing to test it out. This helps minimise the uncertainty of your own journey but also, making it a lot more fun.

The Oh Yeah Juice