What’s up everyone? I’m back on the blog and this is the first instalment of phase 2 at RoryFleming.com. This is just going to be an update of why I stopped, where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to. At the time of stopping I know there was a relatively large readership judging by the data Squarespace shoots over so hopefully you guys are back with me.
I stopped the blog for a few reasons, the main reason was after a year of writing every week I was experiencing some writers block and the motivation for it wasn’t always there. It got to the point where it became a bit of a noose around my neck, thinking of a topic and writing it to a standard that I felt was worthy of publishing. In the final weeks I didn’t feel I was doing myself or the blog justice with the quality of info going out, I hold myself to pretty high standards so anything below that I’m not too happy. When it comes to that point it has to stop. I was facing a bunch of other stress in my life too so I started to look at how I could improve things and taking a break from this was one.
If anyone follows me on social media, Instagram in particular, you might have realised that from about the time I stopped doing the blog I also got big on posting more about mental health and normalising chat around it. That was 100% part of why I stopped the blog too, I was going through a bout of depression that I’m still working through with a fantastic therapist. Truth be told the last 6 months have probably made me grow more than any other period in my life but I’m feeling refreshed and much more well equipped to handle life now.
Stopping the blog wasn’t the only thing I swapped to destress and refresh. I took a backseat approach to the usual obsessed drive I have in wanting to get better professionally and personally. I still attended a couple of amazing CPD workshops and checked out some stuff on StrengthCoachNetwork.com but it wasn’t every day and it didn’t eat away at me. If I’m in this for the long haul I need to learn to manage myself better and ditch the moronic strength coach mentality of being on call 24/7.
I actually really enjoyed the last few months, I went sea swimming at least once a week from June to November, which I couldn’t recommend more! It might have been the thing I looked forward to most to destress but now it’s a tad cold and I’m a whimp so we’ll pick it up again in the new year. I knocked the Dublin Half Marathon off the to-do list and really, really enjoyed it and I’ve taken up golf. Most importantly though, these things I’m doing are opportunities to spend time with my mates. I went swimming with James every week, we went to a few Ireland games together, I golf with my Dad and have a solid group of running pals.
At the moment I’m trying to find a better balance between the two mentalities I’ve been in over the last couple of years. I know I need to get back to bettering my career and equipping myself with more tools but not to the detriment of my mental health. I know starting phase 2 of this will definitely make me up my CPD game and get back on the education train but to be honest most of the podcasts I listen to and books I read won’t be reverting to S&C stuff, they’re more downtime activities for me to switch off and tap into different industries. My favourite podcast at the moment gave me the inspiration to kick this back up and call it phase 2, I straight up stole it from the Phase 3 podcast by former All-Black, Lima Sopoanga, Titapu Pairama-Lewington who has become a guy I chat to every now and then and their mate Carl Filo. They do an incredible podcast just chatting life so I hugely recommend going checking that out.
Anyway, slightly new rules for phase 2, it’s not going to be a weekly publish. I’ll be going a bit more ad-hoc. There will defo be weeks where I put one out every Sunday but I’m going to focus on more quality information vs regular info, I’m also hoping to line up some guest writers to feature as regularly as they can on the blog. As always, if there’s anything you want me to cover you can reach me on Instagram via the social media handle at the bottom of the page.
That’s all from me guys, it’s good to be back,
Rory.