Well the removals lorry has arrived bright and early this morning. Years of family life packed up into boxes and odd shaped packages. It’s been a long and arduous journey to get to this point and during that time we have taken the opportunity to declutter. To declutter, definitions vary “to simplify or get rid of mess, disorder, complications.” “To remove things you do not use so that you have more space.” A simple verb to say, but to implement, gosh has that been challenging and tearful at times! However, we’ve also had the opportunity to reminisce, to look at smudged blobs that were apparently pictures of the family, according to the messages sent from nursery. We’ve basked in the warm glow of wonderful memories.

Three weeks on and we’re still surrounded by boxes, but I’m already feeling lighter and freer, a fresh new start. All this has got me thinking about the parallels with our psychological processes. How often do we drag the past around with us when it’s no longer serving us? Coaching is an opportunity to declutter our lives, recognising what’s still important to us and what is useful to support our future and what might need to be left behind. My experiences tell me we tend to focus on and hold onto the critical voices and difficult memories and I wonder how many of us bask in the glow of the good stuff we’ve done and experienced.

We’ve just completed running another EMCC Practitioner Programme and one delegate commented it’s been life changing. An opportunity to learn to coach but also to learn about ourselves, our patterns and processes and re-evaluate those in the light of the future we would like to create.

So, note to self, keep on decluttering both physically and psychologically. It may not be easy but it can enable a fresh new beginning. I’ll keep you posted!