Sunday 31 December 2017

2017: Reflections and the year ahead

2017 was the year I grew a baby and landed a new job!

This time last year I had almost completed the taught element of the Aurora Women in Leadership course, was waiting to find out if I'd been awarded FHEA accreditation and was hoping to develop a more holistic approach to my life and work.


Positives

The Aurora course and the mentoring aspect of it had an incredibly positive impact on my year and most of what I have achieved since then stems from its completion.

For me, the course was a real luxury in that it provided me with the time and space to really focus in on my passions, values and motivations as well as practical advice on finding work which correlated with these. In addition, it provided useful tips on dealing with some difficult situations I was experiencing.

I was successful in my FHEA application and this paved the way to my new job. Again, I found this piece of development rewarding due to its focus on reflection.

I am still very much interested in coaching so had some refresher training and joined a lovely group to practise with. It is still one of my longer term aims to become a qualified coach.

I'm a great believer in passing things forward so used what I had learned this year to write several articles for CILIP, blogposts and provide a guest lecture at University College London for the Leadershp and Management module of new LIS students. I'm not the greatest or most prolific of writers but I do enjoy it. While it's extremely unlikely that I'll be writing much while on maternity leave I do hope to continue when I return to work

Challenges

There was a lot I'd hoped to do in my home life that having a toddler, being pregnant and working full-time didn't really allow. I didn't do any running but did continue to practise yoga, my garden is still a mess, and while I still ran the monthly mindfulness classes at work I neglected to practise it as much I'd like myself.

A note on the latter - doing these classes really gave me a sense of joy - I love seeing the change in people's demeanour and attitude as they progressed through the activities.


Aims

I'm on maternity leave for much of this year so my aim is to recover as much possible as two pregnancies, one labour and two caesareans have taken it out on me both physically and mentally. I've already started this by choosing to take longer leave, even if it means financially we are under more pressure.

Along with helping my new baby to develop, I hope to get out into more green spaces, see more of the UK, fix the house up a little, squeeze in as much yoga as is practical and try to fit in lots of small things to make me feel more human.

Longer term aims still include coaching qualifications and yoga teacher training but these will have to wait a while...

I'd love to hear what your hopes and dreams are for 2018 (especially if you have any tips for making it all balance out!) so feel free to comment below. 

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