End of year retreat/advance/disrupt

It's Saturday morning, I've woken with the sorest throat, but I feel amazing, happy and alive. I'm at Hawthbush farm, I've been here since Thursday morning with Emily and some other good friends. At the end of each year, for the last 6 years, I've taken myself away for a day to review what I've done, achieved, not done, avoided, been scared of, been excited about and tons of other questions that require answers.

This year I decided to do it with friends, instead of it being a solo thing. I was a bit concerned that I might drift into facilitator mode, I guess that's what I do a lot of for my day job, but, that didn't happen. What happened was a coming together of people who care about having a good life, whatever that may entail. There was lots of solo stuff, but also great discussions, which helped fill in some of the gaps in my thinking and hopefully theirs. We also learnt to bake bread with the help of the 2 James's. 

So, day 1 was about looking back, and day 2 was much more about looking forward. I decided to focus on my work with Emily at Stanley James Press.  I feel like I've spent a lot of time planning and tinkering with People Who Do, and it feels like its in a very good place right now, it was nice to have that feeling and park that stuff, although it's never completely parked.

We used Mark Shaylers Do/Disrupt book as a guide.  It asks all those simple obvious questions that need to be asked. It caused us to rethink how Stanley James Press operates and my role in it, given that it's my one day a week job. There were times the tasks made me want to walk out of the farm house and go for a walk. It was interesting to feel like that, to feel that kind of avoidance. I didn't walk out of the door, I stayed, no matter how awkward or painful the questions made me feel. By the end of the day, me and Emily ended up with a few new projects and ideas to work on in January. Because we are also in a relationship, it was good to bring the stuff from the first day together and share our personal plans and goals. And then we went for dinner with everyone at the amazing Gun Pub.

So back to this morning. I woke before sunrise feeling run down, but only in body. I got dressed and went for walk and enjoyed the fresh air before breakfast and heading back to Brighton excited about 2014.