How has your 2022 been so far? Looking around us everyone appears radiant with faith, full calendars and overflowing order books. Not us. Yet. Although we are hanging on for dear life to that wish of hope and dreams fulfilled even as we slip slowly off the soggy bough.
For us at 5th Place this year has started with an ungainly dance of two steps forward and five stumbling steps back and three to the side. Nothing has flowed, except the rain. It has felt like we have been squelching through mud, deep, sticky and messy.
We implored 2022 to tell us what it wanted. We made our plans, wrote out the lists of wishes and desires and yet 2022 seems determined to challenge us. It rains when there should be sun, it shines hot and heavy when the soft coat of cloud is anticipated. It sends scores of ravenous beings into our vegetable garden to feast on anything with a leaf and wash away any attempt to fend off this hoard.
Computers work at the pace of the snail eating another spinach leaf. Any attempt to get things done is intercepted by stock outages, detours, faulty ordering systems, tired assistants and updates gone (very) wrong. This is not how the year is supposed to begin!
Mid January can arrive as something of a downer. The festive season is long gone, the fanfare and resolutions a dim echo. At this time of this month the finance well is drying up faster than the bills raining in. It can be quite difficult to remain upbeat. It is easy to fall back on old habits that you committed to breaking on that sparkly night a few weeks ago.
The trick, of course, is to just keep on going. To take the step that is in front of you. If the ship has wandered or been blown off course, to come back, to right the wheel and get back on track. For us it is useful to remember who we are and why we are doing the things we do. Refocusing on our purpose, reconnecting to the meaning that our work brings helps steady the uncertainty.
There have been a number of changes to our daily routines so it is still taking time to get our bodies and minds comfortable with them. We are sticking with the practices that have supported and worked for us. Getting enough sleep, eating well. Discovering that Christmas carbs do, in fact, count and so earnestly keeping up that exercise routine, even if it means walking in the drizzle or doing a workout in the kitchen. Meditating and taking time to reflect. And knowing that tomorrow the sun will shine again.
We have been blessed with some beautifully serendipitous encounters. We are looking forward to visits from family that we have not seen in quite a while and are holding our collective breaths that all will go well for their trip into Africa. The fixing up and sorting out and making nice for the visits resulted in the production of a spectacular piece of art. There is an important celebration taking place at the beginning of February that we are looking forward to.
At the end of the day, or the week or the month, we know the sun will shine on all of it: our work, the connections, the new friends and old family members, even if it does not actually come out from behind the clouds.
we are offering you a 20% discount on the course.
Use this coupon code: TimeAgain2022
Matthew Green
Reducing the Certainty Deficit in high-performing people and teams · Emotional fitness coach
Matthew works with athletes, performance teams, and anyone who wants to reduce the Certainty Deficit in their situation or context.
The Certainty Deficit is the space between what you can do and what your body will let you do when it counts. It is context-specific and situational. A person or athlete can have zero deficit in one situation and a significant one in another.
The body holds beliefs that keep the Certainty Deficit in place. These beliefs run deeper than self-talk and faster than any conscious strategy. When they shift, the ceiling shifts, and new possibilities arise.
Matthew is also an emotional fitness coach who supports individuals to live and lead from a place of inner clarity and stability. The work is somatic-first, practical, and grounded.
If you're seeing a pattern that current approaches haven't shifted, let's talk.
My origin story: Why elite athletes underperform when it counts
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