Health

On your deathbed.
 
What are the three things you will have wanted to have done? 
 
Now, come back to the present and pick 3 happiness habits that you need to do each week to get there.
 
What does this tell you about what is most important?

Wealth

If we want to build for the long term, for a prosperous future, to make stuff that will be around for the next hundred years, we also need to love change. 

Our ability to embrace change, to learn from it and adapt from it could be one of the most necessary skills in current times.

Jonathan Weiner, in 'The Beak of the Finch' describes an insect found preserved in amber, millions of years old and almost identical to its modern counterpart.
 
But there’s one major difference. Today’s version can now shed its legs and regrow new ones, a survival mechanism that developed only recently, in response to pesticide exposure, something that didn’t even exist until the 20th Century. 
 
Evolution didn’t wait for permission or a perfect plan, it happened in the wild, right outside our windows, driven by necessity and change.
 
If you look outside your window you will see never ending examples of necessity for change. In the coming years without personal evolution and adaptability truly thriving will become increasingly difficult.
 
Journal Prompt: In what ways are you resistant to change? What change could you embrace right now that would later become a gift to yourself?

Relationships

I heard this story this week. It's a little cringey but I like it none the less. 
 
A professor stood before his class holding an empty jar. He filled it first with large rocks and asked, “Is the jar full?”
 
The students agreed it was.
 
Then he added small pebbles that fit between the big rocks and asked again, “Is it full now?” They again agreed and nodded along. 
 
Next, he poured sand into the jar, which filled even smaller spaces, and asked once more, “Is it full?” This time, confidently, they said yes.
 
Finally, he took a cup of coffee and poured it into the jar, saturating the sand.
 
The professor then explained, “This jar represents your life. The rocks are the truly important things, family, friends, and meaningful relationships. The pebbles are your job, home, and car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff. If you put the sand or pebbles into the jar first, what would happen? There would be no room for the rocks, the things that really matter. Prioritise your relationships; they’re your rocks.”
 
One student asked, “What about the coffee?”
 
The professor smiled and replied, “That’s just a reminder that no matter how full life seems, there’s always room for a cup of coffee with someone you care about.”

Who is someone you haven't had a cuppa with in way to long?? You know what to do. 

Freedom

If it won’t matter tomorrow, don’t let it steal your joy today.

We recently had the chance to support an amazing organisation, PIE UK, as part of their Wave of Change and Creative Wavers programmes.

PIE helps women in Stockport build confidence, community and direction, whether that’s through creative workshops, career coaching or just having a space to reset and reflect. It’s proper grassroots, person-first support that actually makes a difference, it's been a real pleasure getting to know their organisation.

As part of the most recent programmes, we shared Evolve Journals with all the women taking part. The journals were used to help track goals, reflect on progress and, hopefully, give each person a bit of daily structure and momentum as they moved into the next phase of their journey.

We’re genuinely proud to have played a small role in something much bigger. What PIE are doing is important work. We’d encourage you to check them out and read more about the impact they’re having:

Read more on PIE UK’s blog

Health

The Wild, True Story of a Man Who Refused to Give Up

You might not know his name.
 
But you should.
 
Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was a soldier. A real soldier. The kind they write stories about. He was born over 140 years ago, but his story still teaches us something today.
 
He fought in three different wars.
 
He was hurt more times than we can count: shot in the face, stomach, leg, hip, ear… and even in the head. He lost one eye. He lost a hand. He literally tore off his own fingers when a doctor said he wouldn’t.

He was in four plane crashes. He escaped a prison camp by digging a tunnel for seven months… with one arm.
 
And after all that?
 
He still didn’t quit.
 
Adrian was born into a rich family in Belgium. His dad wanted him to be a lawyer, so he sent him to Oxford University. But Adrian had other plans.
 
He left Oxford without telling anyone… and went to fight in a war. He even lied about his age so they’d let him join.
 
He was shot in the stomach and groin.
 
But when asked how many enemies there were, he just smiled and said, “Not many, but they were very good shots.”
 
That was just the beginning.
 
Later, he rode into battle on a camel (yep, really) and got shot three times in the face. He lost his eye and part of an ear.
 
His response?
 
“It was all most exhilarating fun.”
 
During World War I, he was hit with shrapnel. His hand was hanging on by two fingers. The doctor hesitated to help.
 
So Adrian just pulled the fingers off himself.
 
They cut off the whole arm later. He didn’t care. He just wanted to get back in the fight.
 
At the Battle of the Somme, he led three groups of men. There were no phones or radios. So he ran between them, through gunfire, with messages.
 
He threw grenades with his teeth. Reloaded a revolver with one hand.
He got shot again, in the head, hip, leg, and ankle.
 
Still. Didn’t. Die.
 
He kept going.
 
In World War II, at age 60, he got called back into duty. His plane was shot down over water. Instead of hiding in a life raft, he swam with one arm until the enemy flew away.
 
Another plane crash later, he swam again, this time while carrying an injured teammate.
 
He got caught by the enemy. Was locked up in a high-security prison.
 
So what did he do?
 
He dug a tunnel. For 7 months. With one arm. Then escaped dressed like a local farmer. He couldn’t speak the language and had an eyepatch, but still made it 8 days on the run before being found again.
 
He eventually ended up on missions in China assigned especially by Winston Churchill’s. He then retired in Ireland. He lived to 83 years old and said:
 
“Frankly, I had enjoyed the war.”
 
I found his story fascinating, it is a story of agency. Of choosing your own path. Of not waiting for permission.
 
It’s also a story of how strong and adaptable the human body and mind really are.
 
No matter what life throws at you… You can handle it.
 
You can rebuild.
 
You can keep going.
 
And if all else fails?
 
Pull your own fingers off and get on with it.

Wealth

Vikings use to burn their boats on the shores of foreign lands as they would arrive for the first time, it wasn’t recklessness it was intention. It was a mental message to themselves that would impact their every action. They knew there was no turning back, only forward.
 
Journal prompt: If today was the day you burned the boat, what would you do differently?

Relationships

How do you cut through small talk and skip the automated responses of "I'm good, and you?"

Some ideas:
"What’s the highlight of your day or week?"
"What’s been good?"
"Working on anything exciting at the moment or recently?"

Similar to the standard questions most people ask, but you'd be surprised how different the answers are.

Freedom

“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realise we only have one.”
― Confucius