This year, you see… I’m picking a fight.

With cold-blooded determination and focus that I’ve never felt when setting up a healthy habit. Or a wishful “new year new me”.

It’s a quiet, steel-strong commitment rising from deep inside…

Birds chirp cheerfully, unaware of my plans to work on the second day of my long weekend far away in the Danube Delta.

Something I haven’t done in the past 3 years

There are 3 things on my to-do list, and many more on my stop-doing list:

“You’re so calm…“ he commented, as he was scrolling through click-bait news, while we stopped at a traffic light.

I smiled, realising that, though we’re in the same car, our inner worlds are so far apart.

Some time ago, I wasn’t so calm…

Today I over-slept.

I typically wake up at 5 am on Wednesdays, to write my Clarity Shots. It’s my little safe haven of writing, my untouchable space that ensures that each Wednesday morning, whatever happens in my hectic life, this newsletter finds its way to your inbox.

Today I over-slept…

A new email comes in…

A new task to add to your already busy day…

A new project dropped on you without advance warning…

Frustration rises, like water within the sinking Titanic: certain & fast, about to go beyond the tipping point.

It’s been a stormy couple of weeks, and I feel worn-out and tired of things not advancing, unexpected obstacles popping up every couple of days, and an emotional rollercoaster taking me on a ride that doesn’t seem to end soon.

Hidden behind all my complaints, there is a tipping point…

- I don’t even have time to breathe!!! - she told me, obviously breathing

Her days were full with busy times at work, a new team, many things to figure out as part of her new role, wishes to make a good impression and start on the right foot… while life went on, complex as it was.

Full with things she couldn’t afford to drop.

This weekend, I just stopped. From everything.

I stopped making plans, to-do lists, running errands or doing anything non-essential.

I put all my wishful thinking about books to read, posts to draft, wardrobe reshuffling… on hold.

I came to a full stop.

I should really do this … but when I hear myself saying “should”, my desire to go for it dissolves…

She said casually, sipping her coffee, while I contemplated how to break the news that there’s nothing casual about shoulds…

You see, some years ago…

As we’re busy with more worthy problems, issues, projects, events, we often forget to enjoy the everyday magic that’s right at our fingertips.

Especially during gloomy times, it helps to stop, for a moment, and refocus on the little joys that we already have, to connecting with the goodness that’s already here, before taking on the world…

Mid-January brings a subtle inflection point, a change in rhythm between New Year momentum and life taking over, with the usual busyness of meetings, appointments and work. We suddenly have less time, energy and focus for new goals and pursuits, as we sink back into life-as-we-know it.

Not enough time for sports, friends or books could be a planning flaw… but “there’s not enough time” could also be more about our perception of time. So how do you get out of time scarcity and start feeling time-rich? Some ideas here:

It’s early days of Jan, a time when we can be, at the same time, riding the momentum & energy of new beginnings, time-confused by how days morph into each during holidays, and dizzy wondering whether this year would really be different.

So how do you increase your chances to achieve what you’re set to achieve this year, so in December you’re filled with gratitude & satisfaction about what you started doing today?

When we reflect on the year that’s coming to an end soon, we usually look at achievements and visible signs of what we managed to bring to life in the past 12 months.

We get a more complete picture when we look at the stories we told ourselves about what’s possible, and we see how they shaped much of our success or failure. To grow, we need to out-grow our stories…

In November, it looks like many of us are handling more projects, commitments, deadlines, responsibilities, than usual. These come packed with more insecurities, sleepless nights, overthinking, ruminating, lack of focus… and an overall feeling that life turns into a hurricane that sweeps us off our feet, messing up our sense of direction, focus, progress and sanity.

So how about taking a different approach, to recover a sense of perspective and inner balance?

Do you ever feel you’re not brave enough? Confident enough? Disciplined enough? Have you taken your time to define what “enough” would be? Often we pick up some definitions, and we stay stuck into what we think they mean… obeying them, without challenging their validity.

The good news? We can always rewrite how we define them - and here’s how:

Often, when we strive to get things that ought to make us feel good enough, we come from a scarcity mindset and keep chasing what we feel that we lack.

Often, we forget to look at the goodness that’s already inside us - and we fail to appreciate qualities and traits that we could rely on, for support, in times of need. Let’s take 5 minutes to change that…

I knew it all too well. The overwhelm. The feeling of inadequacy. The invisible toll that we sometimes pay for success, unaware of it. I also knew how much courage you need to admit that the way you've gained success no longer works. Especially if you've become quite good at achieving success...

I also know it's a turning point. One with the power to convert overwhelm into curiosity and the feeling of failure into a possibility of an opportunity.

This week I’ve brewed a ristretto… short & punchy, strong, without sugar (just the way I like it!).

It’s inspired by & Juliet, the amazing musical I saw while scheduling my own joy in London - which got me to reflect on what needs to happen so we can take our power back and write better stories for the future.

Oh, I love making lists! They bring me peace of mind and the sense that everything is, even for a few moments, ok in my world.

Today is about my special list. My most treasured & most used list: my "feel-good" list…

A menu of options that is guaranteed to work, whenever I need to change my internal state for the positive… and my emergency kit for days when I feel overwhelmed, down, worn out by life and its pressure, responsibilities and unmet expectations.