6 Month Check In - The Year Of “More”
The word of the year I set for myself this year was “more”, because I wanted a year that would pull me out of sluggishness. I wanted more interests, more depth and breadth in my work, more love, more quality time - more money. Here at the 6 month point of the year it felt apt to really think about exactly how this is all going, to not just go “oh yeah, remember my word of the year?” but dig into it, be more “more” about it.
I was going to say that I have only fleetingly thought about my word since it was set, but that’s not true. Whenever I am having a lazy day or haven’t the energy to finish what I set out to do I remember my word and use it to berate myself. “Remember your word of the year was ‘more’? So much for that!” the guilt would say. This is, suffice to say, not what you’re supposed to do with a word of the year.
I am quite good at separating the helpful and unhelpful mental voices (the obvious ones at least), so I have not hung on to this guilt or ground myself down in response to it. I do, however, feel bad that I have not been any more “more” this year than in others; I don’t feel that I’m there in the depth and the breadth of it, and I still feel kinda the same. That is, until I start listing it out…
I fell in love with someone and then immediately went into four months of very long distance.
I visited friends and went to events in different parts of the country.
I made a brand new product with such excitement and joy.
I packed up an entire house and life into five car boots, and moved 200 miles.
I got rid of everything that wouldn’t fit into said car boots.
I launched with everything I had.
I began remaking and exploring my life and surroundings post-move.
I went to a writer’s group meeting even though I was so scared I hid when I got there.
I finally started a Substack.
That’s quite a lot more than the previous six months, actually. While January was long and February felt empty, there has been an awful lot more life squeezed into my life the first half of this year. I think that much of this life stuff precluded the work stuff; and it’s there that I feel I’m not doing the more I intended. Work is where what I wanted from “more” is lagging behind.
So what about the next six months? How can I do more, more?
1-
The irony of this is that you are reading this the week after I announced I’m burning my business down. That everything is on sale and at the end of this month all the courses will be gone. That kind of seems like the definition of doing less, albeit the most less you can do. But it doesn’t feel like less; it feels like the exact conditions for the more I wanted. The more depth and breadth, more truth, more get-up-and-go. I am essentially going to be re-starting a new business; what is “more” than that?
2-
I also got a job. Yes, again. But this one is different - I’m not going to be doing flexible shifts in a cafe, but be the maternity cover Head of Marketing for a small local theatre. I saw it the day before the deadline and knew “this is what I need”. A financial breathing space for me to rebuild Simple & Season without needing to act out of panic, whilst doing something fun and rewarding in (crucially) part time flexible hours. It was perfect, and it feels so expansive, to be working in a team, in the arts, to try things on - and see how I can joyfully, creatively build Simple & Season and the Substack in two days a week. It feels so much like more.
3-
It also provides more of what I hadn’t known I needed: structure. In my life in Wales, when I was only occasionally busy at weekends, I had a largely structureless existence. My working week bled into the weekend and the week after, days started late and ended early because there was no end point. Now I find myself craving more routine to fit all this life into - my weekends with loved ones and family and friends, walking, writing, events, galleries, our list of coffee shops we’re ticking off. More routine, more boundaries, for a life that feels more more.
4 -
While I am doing more development on Simple & Season, figuring out the new offerings, building something that makes sense, there is more breadth and depth I want in my writing. I want to continue to use Substack to explore my more creative non-fiction, start to figure out that platform and eventually see what a paid offering there could look like. I want to work on long form pieces for submission to literary magazines, preluding a book that may or may not be forming.
5-
And also - hold onto your hats - I want to start podcasting again. I hadn’t realised until I ended Grow With Soul just how much it was loved - and how much of a difference it made to my business. It won’t be GWS coming back, it’ll be something new that I may or may not have been playing with artwork for… (my email subscribers will be getting a v important email about this in July, just to tease you). More giving, more sharing, more connection.
My life already is so much more than when I set the intention, so the next six months are really the time for me to go for it in my work - go for it in a measured and structured way, of course. More creativity, more connection, more putting-myself-out-there, more confidence, more words - more more.
