45 – So, What Was 44 All About?

On Friday 9th August I turned 45!

As always happens in the lead-up to my birthday, I’m as unsettled as a hatching hen. I’m up. I’m down. I jiggle. A constant process of feeling unsettled until the big day.

It’s a crazy two weeks! 🙂

Throughout this time I have flashbacks to moments over the last year. Assessments made. Lessons learnt. Gaps identified. Map re-defined.

Then the birthday comes along and I’m as right as rain.

I have a real thing for birthdays being the start of your personal year. So it’s good to de-clutter the brain and to start clear-headed.

Headline Definition for Last Year

As an individual, I’m analytical. As a coach, I’m forward-focused.

This year I had a nagging desire to create a headline for the previous year. Then I would know where I stood for the year ahead.

A lot has changed in the last five years and recently there have been some health & family issues in the first half of 2013. So this was most likely my way of getting a gauge on my personal situation & progress.

The phrase that conjured itself and readied itself for dissection was: Elegant Frustration.

Why Elegant?

For three reasons:

Finding an elegant balance does not mean that everything needs to exist in equal measure. That comes with learning how things work best together. Constantly refining what is optimal; which combinations complement each other and you. Analogy: A recipe
Underlying this is my keenness for keeping things simple. Yet simplicity is actually complicated ; often shaving away layers of the unnecessary while understanding the purpose and redefining the form of what works best for you. Analogy: Danish design (fair enough, I know it’s a William Morris quote here, which does lend itself to the beautiful!)

Elegance is also about taking technical details and refining them into something less clunky. Analogy: the extended hand or the pointed toe of a dancer with those long lean moves either held longer or clipped shorter as the dance requires. Either way their timing is perfect and their dance is powerful

So, that’s the elegant part. Analogous with food, design & movement. How well I know myself!

Why Frustrating?

Because Frustration comes about when a goal or outcome is blocked.

Let’s be real. We all want to create the perfect lifestyle for ourselves and that’s why we have ambition and goals to achieve. I swear by it.

Equally, we must recognise that life isn’t always the way you design it and part of our progression is learning to adapt to the physical or mental blocks or set-backs along the way.

And so, like everyone, I dealt with a few. To coin a fine Maya Angelou phrase;