Let us harken back to my days as a studious pupil.

And some of my less usual revision methods.

I remember lying on my bedroom floor weeks before my English GCSEs and rote learning my old essays word by word, sentence by sentence.

This seemed like a clever idea at the time.  I’d got good marks on these essays and if a similar question came up in the exam, why re-invent the wheel?

As it turned out, that was exactly what happened.

On exam day I morphed into a metaphorical tape recorder (remember those kids?) and “pressed play” on a 3 page essay I’d learnt by heart.

The strategy worked.  I got an A*.

And so I did it more. 

By the time I finished school, I’d memorised everything from English essays to German oral exams, Maths times tables to French vocab, Physics formulae to Latin declensions.

Secondary school became a seven year memory test.  And my memory became something I knew I could rely on.

So much so that I can see directly how this “skill” translated into other areas of life like my career, dating and even the early days of my coaching.

Some of this was helpful.

But in many ways it was unhelpful too.

Relying on my memory meant the more creative, spontaneous part of my brain started to wither away.  And it’s taken a while to build this muscle back up.

This is one of the problems I have with the education system. 

It encourages behaviours which are undoubtedly useful when it comes to nailing an exam.  But when it comes to living life, these behaviours are utterly unhelpful - and even counterproductive.

And that’s not all.

It’s not just how things are taught at school which ruffles my feathers.  It’s what’s taught too.

I’m sure there’s a time & place to learn about the Battle of Hastings and igneous rock formations.

But the education system doesn’t even attempt to turn the spotlight back on ourselves and explore how we, as humans, work.  And how life works, where our experience of life comes from and the amazing resources we all have at our fingertips that most people never even realise are there.

And before anyone gets the wrong idea:

I’m not talking about Biology class!

I’m talking about how we’re built to thrive…

Where happiness really comes from…

And how life has our back, if only we let it.

These ideas lie at the heart of moving on from anxieties, insecurities & struggles to a life of peace & fulfilment and actually feeling truly alive, rather than just going through the motions and drifting from day to day.

I count my lucky chickens that I’ve started to discover all this now, at the relatively spritely age of 37 & 11/12ths.

And now I have, I want to share it.

I’m not exactly sure how yet.  I don’t have anything planned out or defined.

But I’m very open to exploring.

So if you have a network, community or group who might like to hear more about this, hit reply and let’s start a conversation.

That’s all for today.

 - Tom