Today’s email comes to you live from the Wetherspoons by the departure gates at Stansted airport.

In 55 minutes I’ll be boarding a flight to a place called Torp in Norway for a three day Rupert “The Spiralizer” Spira retreat. 

If there’s a better way to prepare for three days of peace, happiness, truth, love and freedom than with a pint of Timothy Taylor’s sweetest nectar at an airport Wetherspoons then I’ll eat my boarding pass.

My plan is to write about the event over the next few days. Stay tuned to these emails if that tickles your fancy.

But writing this email next to a family of six munching four pepperoni pizzas has got me thinking about something else:

Routine.

I’m normally holed up in Fort Grundy’s battlements when I write these daily emails. 

In fact, I’m so used to writing at my desk, surrounded by my knick-knacks, sipping a Nespresso with my laptop plugged into my monitor that this routine has almost become part of my writing process.

To the point where it would be tempting to think “I need to keep doing it this way!”

But just because something worked yesterday doesn’t mean it’s the way to do it today.

In fact, it might be the very thing that holds me back today.

When the time comes to take Baby Grundy for her first bike ride in the park, I’ve no doubt she’ll be wobbling along valiantly with a trusty set of stabilisers to keep her in check.

But at some point those stabilisers will have served their purpose. They’ll be blocking an older & bolder Baby Grundy from blazing her own trail. 

I think it works the same way for jobs that once felt like a perfect fit, beliefs that no longer serve us, personal identities we’ve outgrown, friendships that have had their moment in the sun and oodles of other examples.

I know it can feel risky to let go of things that once worked well.

But actually, I don’t think the real risk is letting go.

I think the real risk is not letting go, staying exactly where we are and never discovering what we’re truly capable of. And never living the life we really want to live.

As I write, I realise it sounds like I’m trying to justify more daily email drafting sessions in Wetherspoons.

Maybe I am!

Anyway, time to do a shifty to my gate.

If you have a stabiliser of your own you’re still riding, I’d love to hear about it.

If you feel like sharing, just hit reply.