Jo Langhorne - Coach

23/11/2023

This is what we need to teach our young people at school about life!
What a great way to represent the journey.

14/10/2023

Dare to dream.

14/10/2023

I read something yesterday about taking the time to see the wonder in the everyday!
This took my attention this morning.

08/10/2023

What kind of Sunday afternoon feeling do you have right now?
That Sunday afternoon feeling, has always been a great guide for me about the week ahead. If I'm excited about what's coming or I have a clear sense of what's ahead, I generally find my Sunday afternoons are pretty cruisy, and there's not a lot of angst about the weekend drawing to a close. When I've been unhappy with my work life or there is something that I'm anxious about, it's usually around this time on Sunday afternoon that I start to feel it. When the work I'm doing has been completely out of sync with who I am, my family would often report that I start to get into a mood around this time on a Sunday evening.
Part of my way through this has been to fill my week with a variety of work. When I can, I don't work Mondays, and for me this has been a conscious strategy. When I've had to, I am now selective about what that work looks like and it's more a choice for me. When I was working full time, and Mondays were not optional, I was careful about what I planned for a Monday, choosing tasks that were more suitable for a Monday. Maybe that's something more creative, or more solo time rather than straight into meetings. Sometimes we don't have a lot of control over this, but where you can, think about how you set up your Mondays, and see how it impacts your Sundays.
Have a great week.

04/10/2023

Many years ago I read Bronnie Ware's book "The top 5 regrets of the dying". She wrote about the lessons learned after working with palliative care patients, and their reflections on their lives. Today I listened to the podcast below where she speaks to Dr Rangan Chatterjee on his "Feel Better Live More" podcast about each of the 5 regrets.
Although I've read the book and have heard her speak before, today I resonated with the 2nd regret "I wish I hadn't worked so hard".
For me it's not that I regret the hours I've put into my career, but more recently it's been about how I've let my boundaries down with work and let it absorb my waking hours as well as the hours I should be asleep. Like anything we need to experience both ends of the spectrum to see where we land on something. At times I've been completely bored in my work and other times, fully consumed. It's the duality that allows us to work out where we want to be.
As I went for my 2nd walk of the day with Daisy the dog, after working from home, in my 2nd day of a new role, I really heard the message that we need to "create space for our life" when it comes to work. Bronnie's advice was to start with just 1 or 2 hours a week where you take back some of the time you've overcommitted to your work, and allow some space for life.
I've done just that, and I have to say 2 days in, it feels flipping fantastic.
Whether you have or haven't read the book, the podcast is worth a listen.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1No9zECBrV864hhuwLU4pK?si=fDhNF-srT5e6EcLUzNmk3Q

Listen to this episode from Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee on Spotify. What do you think you might be saying on your deathbed? Will you be looking back at your life with a sense of joy and completeness, or, do you think that you might be consumed with regret? As this week’s guest...

05/09/2023

Still something I don’t like doing but the benefits are worth the effort.

21/08/2023

Do you have a teenager at home?
This is a poem I was introduced to by Dr Wayne Dyer many years ago. It's a great reminder that our kids are their own people with their own thoughts, personalities, will and soul. My favourite line reminds me that they don't belong to us, they are here to live their own lives.
Something I need to remind myself of daily!! Some days more than others.

"And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran 1883 –1931
From The Prophet (Knopf, 1923).

19/08/2023

Thinking of changing your career. Here's what I've learned about changing careers at 50!

If you’d told me that I’d be about to start my 7th job in three years I would’ve called you insane and described someone that couldn’t hold down a job. Instead, this has been my reality since Covid, and I’ve really struggled to get my head around that. Prior to the pandemic I’d worked in...

07/08/2023

Sometimes even the Coach needs a teacher and like the universal message, “when the student is ready the teacher appears”
Thank you to the teacher that walked back into my life on Saturday and reminded me that sometimes you have to have a chat with your future 75 year old self.
The dumplings weren’t bad either!

17/07/2023

The only thing we have control over is the space and the response.

31/05/2023

Anyone else discovering this the older they get?
It’s all about the balance but practising JOMO feels so good sometimes!

19/05/2023

This is a great reminder for me. Stay present and take one step at a time.