Sunday was a very special day:

My 39.5^th birthday!

What better moment to share 39.5 reflections, thoughts, quotes and confessions to celebrate 39.5 spins around the Sun? 

So here we go:

1. Whenever I get an email or DM at work that starts with “quick question”, I know that question will still be rumbling on a month later

2. When I try to please everyone, I please no-one (including me)

3. “There is no perfect time for anything. There is only now” – Jack Canfield

4. The more I’m in my head, the harder life becomes

5. Celeriac is underrated

6. The best way to solve a problem is to change my perspective on that problem

7. Despite working for a bank, I still don’t really understand how mortgages work

8. Everyone (yes, everyone) is creative. If you think you’re not creative, you’ve just proved my point

9. "We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we expect" – Henry David Thoreau

10. What’s familiar is not the same as what’s true

11. Life is always nudging us in a certain direction. It keeps nudging until we listen

12. Success is about alignment, not achievement

13. I’ve got four new books arriving today from Amazon (don’t tell Lauren!)

14. We can only be afraid of our thoughts

15. “The quieter you become, the more you can hear” – Ram Dass

16. Happiness can’t be achieved. It’s already your natural state

17. Writing my next book has somehow become a really good way to avoid publishing my (almost ready) current book 

18, The only person who knows what’s best for you is you

19. The most important relationship you can have is your relationship with your own thoughts

20 . “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.  It will not lead you astray” – Rumi

21. Life isn’t a game you play to win. It’s a game you play to play

22. I’m about to open the doors to a new coaching offer. I’m curious (and excited!) to see who jumps in and what unfolds for them

23. A good night’s sleep makes a lot of problems disappear

24. Personal growth is about subtraction, not addition

25. “The only limits you have are the limits you believe” – Wayne Dyer

26. You already know the answer to your big decision

27. Peace comes from understanding, not from fixing

28. My top 3 bucket list destinations: China, The Philippines and The Rocky Mountains

29. You can't be yourself if you’re trying to be yourself

30. I wish my office had napping booths. The toilets just aren’t the same

31. I used to see my anxiety as a problem. Now I see it as my best friend (I'll write more about this in a future email)

32. “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong” – Groucho Marx

33. The biggest barrier to clarity is overthinking

34. It seems bananas that I’ve run 32 Mindset workshops in one year for my colleagues at work and even more bananas that I’m now being invited to run sessions at team meetings and offsites. I can't wait to see what the next 12 months will bring for these workshops 

35. My workload, deadlines, colleagues, boss, targets, feedback and job aren’t the cause of my stress

36. “We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are” – Anais Nin

37. External changes won't fix internal struggles

38. The best productivity hack is presence

39. I managed 12 back to back games of blitz chess yesterday as Baby Grundy snoozed on my lap

40. The meaning of life is…

So there we have it.

39.5 thoughts as I turn 39.5.

If you’d like to put forward a suggestion for the missing 0.5, I’m all ears.

Just hit reply and let me know.