Heading into the wind

Most weekends my friend Amelia and I go for a long walk. We started doing this when we were training for a 12 mile charity walk a couple of years ago and kept going afterwards as we had come to enjoy it. Of course we don’t walk in silence and it was the experience of walking and talking that prompted me to offer to coach clients while we are walking. It is amazing what being outside in the countryside can do for freeing up trapped minds.

Over time we have built up stamina . When we started we struggled with a couple of miles but now we can easily cover 5 or more in a couple of hours ( including a short coffee break most times)…until today.

We set out as usual. This time we decided on a coastal walk. Although it was cold the sun was shining and we stepped out at a pace that got our hearts pumping -

( side story on this. At a recent basketball game one of the players’ daughters ( aged 10) heard us planning our walk and told us how powerwalking worked. She said that we should also up our pace each time we went out..it really made us smile )

After walking for an hour or so we turned to walk back to our starting point. What had been easy at the start now became very difficult. We had not noticed that the (strong) wind was behind us in the early stages and now it was blowing fiercely into us. At some points we were having to lean into the wind and we were struggling to talk as we ploughed on.

We were very pleased to get back to the car. We both ached. The feeling of tiredness was good…

It could have been a setback. But we noticed what was different today . It won’t be like that every time.

Life can be like that. We set out on some new enterprise, the learning and practice is hard to start with and then we get the hang of it . Then something comes along to change the circumstances and it throws us off course. It only needs to be temporary but sometimes we make much more of it than we should and take it as a setback.

It doesn’t need to be that way.

Working with a coach can help you make sense of what is or has happened and to map and plan your way forward. For a no obligation chat get in touch