Happy Monday everyone!
There’s a definite shift in the air now, that unmistakable feeling of summer loosening its grip and autumn quietly waiting in the wings. The mornings are a little darker, the evenings a little crisper, and I find myself thinking about fresh starts and new rhythms.
It feels like a good moment to take stock. The post-holiday haze has lifted, the to-do list has grown, and real life has very much resumed. Which, honestly, I think I needed.
As ever, here’s what’s been filling my head and my heart this past little while. Take whatever’s useful.
As ever, take what’s useful and leave what isn’t.
What I‘ve LOVED
I’ve been getting back into morning meditation, and I’d forgotten how much I missed it. I’m using the Daily Calm app, which I’d quietly abandoned over the summer, and just those few minutes of stillness before the day kicks off have made a real difference. It’s not dramatic but I’m a little more grounded, a little more ready for the day.
Sometimes my mind wants to be in three places at once, solving problems that haven’t happened yet and revisiting conversations that are long done. Meditation doesn’t fix that, but it does give me a chance to notice it, which I suppose is the whole point.
Now the calendar is filling up again and there’s more to navigate, that quiet ten minutes in the morning has become something I’m protective of. It’s a small thing, but I think small things done consistently are often the most powerful.
Is there a small habit you’ve let slip that might be worth quietly picking back up?
What I’ve LEARNED
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about maps. Life as a journey is one of those analogies that gets used so often it can lose its meaning, but stick with me, because I think there’s something in it. The idea that you’re handed a flashlight instead of a map, and how different those two things are. A flashlight shows you just enough to take the next step. A map gives you the whole picture, or at least a version of it.
I’ve been trying to learn a couple of new tools and platforms recently, and my instinct was that I’d just figure it out as I went. Surely it would be intuitive enough. It wasn’t. I kept fumbling in the dark, hoping the path would reveal itself, and it mostly just revealed how much time I was wasting going in circles. What I actually needed was a guide, someone to point me in the right direction from the start.
This is exactly why I love coaching. Not because it hands you all the answers, but because it helps you read the map more clearly. And here’s the thing, sometimes getting lost isn’t a disaster. It teaches you something about yourself that the well-lit path never would. But there’s a real difference between a useful detour and wandering without any sense of direction at all.
Is there somewhere in your life right now where you’re trying to find your own way, and a guide might actually help you get there faster?
What I’ve LIKED
I’ve been starting my mornings with a stretch and a bit of movement for a few years now, right after my Daily Calm session, and I can’t overstate how much better it makes me feel going into the day. It’s nothing elaborate, just enough to wake the body up and remind it that it exists. The combination of the two has become a little morning ritual I look forward to, which is not something I’d have said six months ago. Little and often feels more manageable than trying to do too much in one go.
The other thing I’ve been drawn to recently is watching bikepacking videos whilst I am stretching and exercising, people who load up their bikes and head off into the world for weeks or months at a time. There’s something about it that genuinely moves me. The landscapes, yes, but more than that, the kindness of strangers that keeps cropping up in every story. It takes me somewhere else entirely for twenty minutes, and provides a vision of something I would eventually love to do myself one day.
After watching one of these videos recently, I was struck by a comment that was made by the producer at the end of the video, I wanted to share it with you today:
Most adventures don’t begin with confidence. They begin with uncertainty. A first step. A willingness to see what happens next. Because the perfect moment rarely arrives, and waiting for it is often what stops us from starting.
Whether you’re finding your feet after the summer or already in full autumn stride, I hope something in here lands for you this week.
Final thought:
Here is a song to kick start your week:
If you would like to read the latest Monday Morning Musings then subscribe here:
- Maps, Mornings, and Getting Gloriously Lost – Monday 14th Sept 2026.
- Perception, Corporate Crutches and the Perfect Round- Monday 29th June 2026.
- Backing Yourself, Finding Your People & Giving It a Go – Monday 23rd March 2026.
- From Disney to drinking and the moments that matter – Monday 26th Jan 2026.
- Stories, Suppers, and the Small Joys of Learning – From 8th Dec 2025.
Monday Morning Musings 
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