Learning to Learn

I’ve been learning to learn. 

Since I’ve last blogged I’ve had another six months of fully calibrating the topsy-turvy changes in my life. They’ve continued to dominate my mind, heart & spirit – and you know something? It’s all good!

I saw this pivotal moment coming – I really did. I just had no idea that it would be as far away as June 2012! Yes it took 10-months to feel my life is on an even-keel since re-booting it after 14.5 months of life-transformation (including unemployment).

Experience has told me in the last 15 years that the best way to implement human development change is holistically & strategically, whilst placing ‘organic learning’ at the heart of the change journey. Submerging in a cycle of actively reflecting, adjusting, re-owning & embedding the change into your life & living with it as though its naturally part of your make up & there is simply no other way is key. I call it getting into the muscle.

“All that adjusting and reflecting while being occupied with such mentally & physically demanding stuff going on in your life?!”  I hear you say. “Yupp.” I reply. That’s why I haven’t blogged for six months – I just wasn’t in a place to reflect outwardly yet – as well as being a facilitator of strategic learning & human development, I’ve been actively learning too – living the SpiritedStrength model:

SpiritedStrength = daily life driven by: • heart • realness • liberation • purpose • learning • happiness

My focus over the past six months has been:

1. Learning How To Steady Myself Within A New Job
Settling into an intense, physically &  mentally demanding, emotion & relationship-driven job as a the UK Learning & Development Manager of a plc, with challenges that stretch from the Board-room to the front-line. I thought it’d take 3-6 months to feel settled. Turns out I’m 10-months in & only now experiencing slithers of stability & routine.

 2. Learning How To Make A Home
Getting my new home (medium-term studio let) from a ‘functional’ state after starting out on my own again, to ‘pleasurable haven’ took some thought, investment & doing.

 3. Learning To Be In A Relationship.
Did I not tell you about that?! You’re damned right I didn’t – I wasn’t ready to put it out there! After peeling off the plaster from my last attempt at a relationship & with all the other big changes I was trying to get under my belt, I needed to give my beautiful, amazing man the focus, time & space we deserved amongst the other daily ‘noise’. It’s been over six months now and I’m loving it. Well if relationships aren’t a daily test for human development I don’t know what is. Don’t let me get all mushy and talk about the wuvley stuff they bring. This ain’t the post!

 4. Learning to Get Fit Again
In all of the turbulence, my fitness routine suffered (as did my health). Since the New Year I’ve put fitness back on the agenda though – going gym before work & weekends, concentrating on cardio. I’m still struggling with #GammyKneeGate and its impact on my love of running, however I’m finding other  ways to burn & enjoy getting & keeping fit. It’s meant going to bed on school-nights at 10pm to be up for 5:15am, as well as a body-clock that fights to get me up early at the weekend. I’m into the routine & I love it though! Follow the #HeiferGate hashtag on twitter for more of my fitness escapades.

Amongst all this I’ve been living life – lots of quality time with my man, after-work meets with friends, nights out, lots of cinema & theatre, eating out, a business/personal trip to Brussels…I just haven’t blogged about them!

So now I feel I’ve fully got the reigns, the next level for me is to feel that my life is balanced enough that it can withstand the addition of part-time study. I’m starting a two-year Masters Degree in HR Development & Consultancy (including CIPD Professional Membership) in October 2012. That’s two evenings per week + 1 weekend per semester of classes, not to mention the intense study time, exams, papers & a Dissertation. I needed to feel that work, love, fitness & life were stable enough to withstand the added pressure. I truly believe they can – I’ve learned to accept and celebrate them all as natural, prime aspects of my life now & I intend to work at keeping them fed, nurtured &  happy. I can do this. Well I’m going to learn to!

I know I always end with promising to blog more.  I ammmmmuhh! Give me a break – I’m learning to learn!  I’ll blog as I think & live it, from now on. No-really!!!

HeiferGateLearningLife-TransformationRelationshipsTwitter