Saturday, November 28, 2015

Interview with James Prescott

James mid sentence!
I've been conducting various interviews for The Potting Shed Podcast recently, and this week I was joined by writer, podcaster and coach James Prescott.

James and I talked about the need for authentic identity, the creative process and grace - the topic of James's forthcoming book "Mosaic of Grace".

I'd love for you to listen in below, and if you want to hear more from James he blogs at www.jamesprescott.co.uk and has his own podcast called James Talks.









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Thanks for taking the time to check out this post. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

I was recently interviewed for The Zone Show and the Changeability Podcast, both of which are well worth a listen!

Friday, November 20, 2015

Juggling

How good is your juggling?
How are your circus skills? At every family festival we went to this year there seemed to be a circus tent, giving old and young the opportunity to learn various circus skills.

I can proudly say that I am reasonably adept at plate spinning (as long as they're the plates with a cone in the middle), and am passable at diablo (I used to have one growing up). The one thing I've never mastered is juggling.
"The one thing I've never mastered is juggling."
For some reason my juggling technique ends up with the balls hurling into my face. Despite years of practising on and off, I haven't quite acquired the proper circular motion to juggle any number of balls with ease. Proper jugglers look like they're making no effort at all, and are almost motionless apart from their arms - on the other hand I have to move all over the place in a vain effort to hang onto the increasingly wayward orbits the balls take!

I've always been a bit jealous of my brother who can not only "properly" juggle at least four balls, but he also learnt to juggle clubs as well. As a nine or ten year old I remember accompanying him on an exciting drive into the outskirts of London to a dedicated circus equipment shop - it was a real Aladdin's cave of marvellous artefacts! If I'm honest I've just never taken the time to master the art - spending my time learning different instruments and other skills that captured my attention instead.
"Recently it's felt like quite a juggling act keeping all our balls in the air"
I mention all of this because our life has been quite full over the last few months, and it's felt like quite a juggling act keeping all our balls in the air and plates spinning. I'm sure that's something you can also relate to!

Are you feeling the squeeze?
It's not that life's been full of hardships, not at all, just that even lots of good things can be disruptive and tiring. The main thing has been the house extension we've had built, which involved three months of builders inside and outside out house. Whilst the builders have been great, the mess, work in progress and clouds of dust made it an extra effort to maintain normal life.

Now that the main work has finished we've been busy decorating the extra rooms, fitting in sanding, priming and painting in the evenings and weekends.

Meanwhile as autumn turns to winter and the days become short, we've all been fighting off colds and other bugs. Add to that the normal demands of home life, work pressures and church commitments and you get the picture!

Unlike the graceful and skilled circus performers, we've become a little ragged trying to keep our various items from dropping!

For me personally, it's my writing and podcasting that feel the squeeze the most in seasons like this. My creative output requires a certain amount of brain space during the week as I mull and muse over topics, ideas and metaphors - recently I've got to Friday nights and have felt a bit mentally wrung out instead!
"It's better to be creating *something* than nothing"
Perhaps you feel the same - and it's easy to shelve our creative projects until tomorrow, or the next day, or when such and such is over etc. Sometimes we just get so wrapped up in daily life that we don't notice we've even stopped doing some of the things that we love.

It's most important in the times where we're juggling everything that we try and keep our dreams aloft - even if we don't feel we're creating our best work. It's better to be creating *something* than nothing - like athletes putting in the hard hours during winter training so they're in peak shape for competition season in the spring. It's ok to feel like you're just going through the motions - even this is going to keep you supple.

So take heart if you're feeling ground down by the demands of life. We all go through squeeze seasons, where juggling is a struggle. And funnily enough we sometimes need a squeeze to really get our creative juices flowing...
"Sometimes need a squeeze to really get our creative juices going..."

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Thanks for taking the time to read Juggling. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

I was recently interviewed for The Zone Show and the Changeability Podcast, both of which are well worth a listen!

div align="center">My Random Musings

Friday, November 13, 2015

Go Coaching Interview

Have you ever wondered what a life coach is? Well this week Luke has Stefan, Lou and James from Go Coaching in the Potting Shed to answer that question!

They share how they became life coaches, when you might need their help, and how they get deeper than the questions you may think you're asking!

Do check out their website and other resources, and you can listen to the interview directly below.




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Thanks for taking the time to check out this post. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

I was recently interviewed for The Zone Show and the Changeability Podcast, both of which are well worth a listen!

My Random Musings

Monday, November 09, 2015

Changeability interview

As you may know I reached out recently to the other two shows who made the finals of the "Best Self Help Podcast" category at the recent UK Podcaster Awards, and I was delighted to be joined by Kathryn Bryant and Julian Illman from Brilliant Living HQ, hosts of the award winning Changeability Podcast on this week's episode of The Potting Shed Podcast.

As well as sharing some of their story they had some great advice about how to be happy and how to live more creatively, and you can listen directly below. Do check out their podcast, website and other resources too!










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Thanks for taking the time to check out this post. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

I was recently interviewed for The Zone Show and the Changeability Podcast, both of which are well worth a listen!

Friday, November 06, 2015

Migration

We've not had much snow in recent years!
Well the leaves are off the trees, the temperature is falling, the wind is picking up. The seasons are
a'changing once again and before we know it we'll be scraping the frost off the car in the morning and  - fingers crossed - bracing ourselves for snow.

Ok, perhaps the snow thing is wishful thinking - ever since I made my kids a proper wooden sledge a couple of years ago we've not had any "proper" snow! (Much to our collective disappointment!)

It's the time of year when birds start to gather together and migrate south for the winter. The summer visitors to our shores such as swallows, martins, flycatchers, hobbies and ospreys will be returning south with their young. As one set of visitors leaves, another set arrives from further north, ready to enjoy our mild winters (at least someone does), like Bewick and whooper swans and all manner of geese.
"It's the time of year when birds migrate south for the winter"
I always notice that there are more adverts around during autumn and winter for sunny holidays on exotic beaches. It's unsurprising that we yearn for sunlight during the winter months - it's a bit depressing when the days are short and the nights are long, and clearly the advertisers know it too!

We've got family in Florida, and in the over the winter they have an influx of visitors - people also escaping the cold winters, affectionately known as snow birds. And who can blame them!

Whooper swans visit us in winter
I wrote recently about creating refuges, safe habitat, for our dreams during difficult seasons. It occurred to me this week that perhaps our ideas, dreams and visions need a season to migrate, get more daylight and some unseasonal warmth, to flourish and prosper.

When I interviewed Jeff Goins over the summer, we talked about Mihaly Csikszentmihali's book about Creativity. Jeff pointed out that sometimes, in order for our creativity to flourish we don't need to change our technique particularly, but instead place it in a different environment.

So instead of sitting home alone trying to be creative, to find some place where other people are being creative and take inspiration and encouragement from that.
"In order for our creativity to flourish we don't need to change our technique but instead place it in a different environment."
Routines, rhythms and habits are good for us, I truly believe that, but sometimes we need to shake up our routine and do something different. Take our dreams on holiday, to absorb some different scenery, immerse ourselves in a different culture and see what takes shape.

It's easy to get stuck in a rut, and if that means that a metaphorical winter is setting in and your creativity has gone dormant, then it's time to thaw out by doing something different. I was interviewed for the Changeability Podcast last month, and I suggested that we take inspiration in different ways from time to time.

For instance, I love reading and read a lot of books, but there are times when I need to stop reading and spend time listening instead - listening to podcasts for instance, or maybe watching documentaries. Or rather than filling my brain up with stimulation, going for a walk and NOT listening, or reading or doing - just being.

Migration looks different for different species, and your creative migration will look and feel different to mine. But as the days are shortening, why not shake up your routines, stretch your wings, and fly your dreams and ideas south for a change - who knows what might happen if you do!
"Why not shake up your routines, stretch your wings, and fly your dreams and ideas south for a change!"
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Thanks for taking the time to read Migration. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher for expanded musings and much more (direct RSS feed is here). 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

I was recently interviewed for The Zone Show and the Changeability Podcast, both of which are well worth a listen!

Monday, November 02, 2015

Interview with Tom Evans

I reached out recently to the other two shows who made the finals of the "Best Self Help Podcast" category at the recent UK Podcaster Awards, and I was delighted to be joined byTom Evans from The Zone Show on this week's episode of The Potting Shed Podcast.

We had a great and wide ranging discussion, and Tom had plenty of helpful advice about managing our time well amongst other things. You can listen directly below.