It’s a Christmas Miracle!
206 days. 44,177 words. I hold excitedly in my hand the first full draft of my book, Intentional Careers for STEM Women.
You may have already spotted on the front cover, “plan and write your book in 90 days.” This is why I like to work with intentions rather than goals. If my goal had been 90 days and it actually took 206 days, I could easily have classified this major life achievement as a failure. Whenever someone said, “congratulations.” I would have responded with, “thank you but actually it’s 4 months late and other people in my writing cohort made the deadline.”
Intentions change the game completely. Setting the intention to write the book was something I was committed to completing and it was one of my top priorities. I even set myself the 31st September as the initial deadline. I naively believed being off with the kids in August would mean lots of writing time. Erm…..no! I must remember the real truth of the situation when it comes to next summer 😉.
When the end of September arrived, I was 20,000 words in. I didn’t tell myself off or stop writing, I simply recommitted to my intention and set myself a new deadline, the beginning of November. I realised small one-hour chunks were not working for me and blocked out half and full days focus time to write. Again, the November deadline came and went and still I plugged away at it.
I was watching the strictly final last week and when Hamza won, he gave his top 3 tips for life.
- Surround yourself with people whole eyes light up when you enter the room.
- The top of the mountain is the bottom of the next so keep climbing.
- Slowly is the fastest way to get where you want to be.
Superwoman is not sustainable long term. She loves goals and will do everything in her power to meet them. Including working way beyond her limits, pushing her health and relationship to the side because that goal is in sight. One goal though is quickly replaced with the next and so the depletion cycle continues.
It’s hard to think that slowing down is the fastest way to get to where you want to be but hear is the real truth.
It’s not just what we do but it’s who we are while we do it that matters.
I want to take this moment to thank you all for reading Coffee & Notes this year. I hope you have found some golden threads to weave into your own life. hit reply and let me know what has been most helpful for you.
Wishing you and your loved ones a very festive period filled with peace, love and joy.
Keep Opening Up,
Hannah
PS I have been interviewing some of my clients about their coaching journeys on the Women in STEM Career & Confidence podcast. Catch the latest episodes here:
- Dr Natsuko Suwaki: Governance & Standards Director in Legal & Compliance at GSKiTunes / Spotify.
- Dr Rachel Dunmore: Project Manager in HR at York University iTunes/ Spotify
- Dr Catherine Holden: Platform Lead – Automation Chemistry at Syngenta iTunes/ Spotify
- Dr Kaneenika Sinha: Associate Professor of Mathematics at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research in Pune iTunes/ Spotify