Mr Tickle’s wiggly arm…

August 9, 2026

There’s an image in my head that I can’t unsee. My child running towards me screaming with what can only be described as a wiggly arm (for those of you who know this reference, it was like Mr Tickle’s arm. You can view the x-ray here if you are not squeamish!).

I was smashing the summer holiday juggle. I had worked until 13:30 and then took the kids to Greystone’s in Manchester which is a skate park/gymnastics combo. Perfect for everyone.
Until 20 minutes before the end of the session, Elsie’s trampoline backflip went wrong.

I could feel the moment I had to switch from just wanting to hug her and cry, to responsible adult driving to A&E.

And my beautiful daughter underwent x-rays, bone alignment, and then titanium nails surgery. (So, for the eagle eyed among you, that’s why there was no Insight to Action written last week.)

Not everything in life works out according to the plan.

  • Someone other than you did well out of the restructure.
  • The project you spent two unsustainable years working on got axed.
  • The promotion you were promised, still hasn’t materialised.

What Elsie showed me is that when life throws you the unexpected, you can adapt.

But the way in which you adapt is…adaptive.

You can choose to layer suffering on top of the original hurt…”Why did this have to happen to me?”

Or you can consciously choose what you make the situation mean…”[Insert a new perspective]”

Here’s Elsie’s, “I’m now super strong like the wolverine.” 💪💪💪

And that’s not toxic positivity. Believing you must keep a happy and optimistic mindset no matter how bad a situation is. Because toxic positivity dismisses real feelings and replaces them with forced cheer or hope, which stops people from dealing with true emotions.

This is about not adding a second layer of suffering on top of the original hurt.

In fact, Elsie was actually activating the fourth core principal in what psychologist Richard Wiseman calls ‘The Luck Factor’. There was a decade-long study tracking people who felt consistently lucky versus unlucky. He found that lucky people create their own fortune through four core principles:

  1. Maximising chance opportunities
  2. Listening to gut hunches
  3. Expecting good fortune
  4. Turning bad luck into good

One question

Do you consider yourself to be a lucky person?

One insight

If luck was split into three distinct forces:

  1. Heaven luck (the cards you are dealt with)
  2. Earth luck (the table you sit at)
  3. Human luck (how you play your hand)

You have zero control over the first, partial control over the second, and total influence over the third.

One action

So which lucky practice will you activate today?

  1. Maximising chance opportunities
  2. Listening to gut hunches
  3. Expecting good fortune
  4. Turning bad luck into good

And for me that looks like listening to a gut hunch. One of my all-time favourite personal development books is Martha Beck, The Way of Integrity.

She now has a coaching certification called Wayfinder which I’m going to start in October 2026.

This will form part of the training hours required for me to transition from and ICF PCC (Professional Certified Coach) to MCC (Master Certified Coach).

And becoming an ICF MCC coach will mean that I will join 1,800 coaches worldwide that hold this credential out of tens of thousands of practitioners. It accounts for fewer than 5% of coaches that ever reach this level.

And I consider that to be pretty lucky indeed!

 

Keep opening up,

Hannah

P.S I have 1 space left for 121 coaching from September – December 2026.

If you have anxiety in relationship to other people, whether that be pleasing tendencies with people hierarchically above you, having standards so high that you take on too much yourself or avoid doing certain activities, or holding the weight of responsibility for everyone or everything.

I call this making the shift from doer to leader.

Send me a message on Whatsapp to book a 45-minute coaching consultation call.
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