Time for a rethink... 🖋️✨

How I'm planning to shake things up and simplify - but give you MORE

Hello my lovely Living Journal®️ subscribers!

Ooh, this is an unexpected title… and you may have noticed today’s post is a *little* late (apologies for that) 🫢

So what happened to ‘Monday Motivation’?

Let me explain.

I’ve been giving today’s post some serious thought before sending, because I want to make some changes around here and it’s time to bite that bullet.

As anyone who’s been with me for a while will know, I’m always thinking about how I can do things better - but it feels important to me to honour the work we’ve been doing here so far, and make sure I get it right going forward rather than just jumping boldly in without communicating what I’m thinking.

The thing is, much as I love coming up with simple daily prompts for you, a few things have been slowly grumbling away in the back of mind.

1. The current format of a quick, dash it off prompt - doesn’t feel as though it connects in the right way for me.

   Sometimes, the odd comment or bit of feedback from one of you lands in my inbox - and it’s SO lovely when that happens and I hear that this has been helping! Most of the time, though, I’m firing prompts out into the wilderness without really having any insight into how they’re landing with you - whether they’re feeling relevant or in any way helpful; whether they’re what you need right now at all. I want to be sure of the value I’m delivering here, not just guessing at it!

2. In some ways, I feel a little bit like I’m cheating the gods of Substack 😅 - this is, after all, a writer’s platform and… well, there’s not that much writing going on!

3. I know that the work we do here is incredibly valuable.

   BUT - I think that value could be enhanced even further by digging in more deeply to what’s really going on in our minds, and helping you understand more about WHY I’m asking the things I’m asking.

   I did speak to one wonderful subscriber a little while back, who highlighted that this works so well for her because of the foundational work we’d done together in other group and 1:1 sessions. Had she not had that background info, perhaps this wouldn’t have landed quite as powerfully for her… and that got me thinking.

4. I have a HUGE back catalogue of content (more than a book-ful!) which I’ve written in the past which really deserves to be out there, helping people and creating lightbulb moments, rather than just shoved away in a dusty Google Drive folder 😅

Now.

Something else happened earlier this year - something that made me question whether even the simple prompts I’ve been sending out are… let’s say, overcomplicating things slightly.

I started an informal WhatsApp group, to help some people close to me who were struggling with their mental wellbeing and ability to focus on the positives.

There’s really good science behind a regular gratitude practice - really good. It can help:

• increase happiness

• reduce anxiety & depressive symptoms

• improve relationships

• enhance resilience

• boost sleep quality

• improve self-esteem

• improve physical health outcomes

… just for starters.

Only, it has to be done right to be effective - and too often it’s done in an insincere way that really doesn’t hit the right emotional buttons (more on that another time).

Anyway I started the group back in January - and I have to say, the results have been just WONDERFUL. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see the people I love really enjoying their lives and feeling worthy for the first time in months!

So it got me thinking.

Much as our Living Journal prompts are great - you’ve really got to engage with them to get the benefit. And you’ve really got to be in the right place to do that, every day, if you’re going to get ALL the benefit you could from this membership.

So… what if?

🖋️✨ What if I shifted things up here - and made the daily prompts as simple as just listing a minimum of 3 things you can reflect on and feel good about, right now?

🖋️✨ And what if I backed that up with a really meaningful and supportive weekly post - a longer piece, teaching you how to use your brain better, and helping you to naturally connect with self-worth, self-knowing, confidence, calm, better relationship outcomes, less fear and anxiety - and sharing all those things I’ve LOVE you to know, the things that have helped keep me on the up and up through the collapse of one business and the growth of another, betrayal, motherhood, financial ups and downs, difficult life decisions, and much more besides?

I wonder what you think?

Let me know… send a comment or a message, if you’d prefer it to be private.

A x

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