One of my mantras to keep me – and those around me – flexible is this.  

“There’s what you plan and then, there’s what happens” 

and I say this out aloud and to myself a lot.  

Next week will be a logistical helter-skelter in that I’m hosting my 19th (!) 2-Day Private Retreat for my Mastermind group plus attending a dinner at Mansion House hosted by the Lord Mayor of London and then dinners and meetings in between.  From Wednesday to Sunday!

I share this with you  not to impress you in any way but to encourage you, like me, to stay loose with the plans, the logistics, the outfits, the timing, the who’s who etc when you have a lot going on too.  

• Things shift.  
• Travel plans get skewed.  
• Stuff always happens.
• Expect the unexpected.

Last year we had our Retreat right in the middle of a national rail strike.  

This year there’s a rail strike either side of the Retreat.  I nearly passed out when I found out about another strike and then, phew, found out exactly when it was 🥴.

It’s easy to get so caught up in all the planning, time, expense, expectation of a large project, event, gathering that we forget the human side of it all.

We all have things going on with shifting sands around us all the time.

I’m not saying this to say it’s OK to be flakey and cancel plans at the last minute.  What I am saying though is to expect the changes, shifts, surprises.

To show up yourself, as fully as you can, to prepare, pack (in my case) and then let go and trust it will all work out has served me well over the years.

It’s not always easy and I’ve definitely had moments (as Snowy will attest to) where I’ve thrown my proverbial toys out of the cot in a fit of pique at yet another plan pivot.

But, it’s less so now and doesn’t last long…

The more grey hairs and laughter lines we gather as we get older, and hopefully wiser, we realise that phrase “There’s what you plan and then there’s what happens” is designed to help you stay loose.  

To help you breathe through disappointment and frustration and to keep yourself calmer and on an even keel is good for you AND for those around you.  

It also helps you stay resourceful in the moment so you can come up with answers to  “OK, now what do we do?”

I’ll let you know how it goes…

In other news…

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I’ve got a whole weekend of enjoying 3 of my best buddies coming to stay!  I have a feeling I’ll have run out of words by the time they leave on Sunday but it will be worth it – this was us on Zoom when we couldn’t gather live during lockdown (and we allowed our husbands to join us then).