Three weeks in, and the gym is starting to feel like a known quantity.
Keep showing up.
I’ll get stronger, fitter, more skillful, more capable.
Anything I do regularly will improve.

That’s known.

So I can take my attention off the known for a bit and notice what’s happening around it.
The side effects, in other words.
The field.

“We are rotational beings. So much of what we train is right in front of us.”
— my gym coach, introducing rotational kettlebell swings

Or, in the immortal words of Ferris Bueller:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

I’ve often believed it was necessary to stop and look around — and that’s still true.
But what feels different this time is trusting the inertia of commitment to a longer-term program.
Scary, but necessary.
Trusting my own knowing of what I need, and who I choose to help me.

Now I’m moving — consciously — through my own shifts and changes.
And from that movement, I can look around and glimpse what’s slower-moving, even timeless, within my life.
Something like identity.

I’m allowing that to come intuitively — sometimes through curated media (yes, socials).
Not entirely healthy or controllable, but still a mirror of thoughts and desires.
Yes, it plays me — and I play it too.

I saw an ad for a personality test: colours and words.
I noticed I’m drawn to purples and yellow/orange — complementary, hmmm — both personal and brand colours.
Two types appeared: kinesthetic extrovert and intrapersonal introvert.

When I tried to find the ad again later, I only found an AI description of the terms:

• Kinesthetic extrovert: energised by hands-on, active group projects
  

• Intrapersonal introvert: motivated by reflection and values,

It’s possible to be both — to be outwardly active yet deeply reflective.
Two sides of my whole self.
Side effects.

Suddenly it made sense why I’m drawn to both coaching and business.
Coaching is the intrapersonal — the reflection, the awareness, the inner world.
Business is the kinesthetic — creating something real, practical, often with others.

Approaching it as a solopreneur makes sense: rooted in introversion, but learning by doing.
I’d rather do the thing, especially with others, than write a report about it.
And maybe that’s why co-working feels so nourishing — it brings both sides into balance.

I think of myself as introverted, yet in friendly environments I’m joyfully outgoing.
And I see how all my mindfulness, embodiment, and radical self-acceptance practices have helped me show up in the gym — to stay in my own skin, to not be overwhelmed by the distance between me and the younger athletes, and to recognise our shared desire: to show up and do the work of becoming stronger, more integrated, more alive.

That invisible desire.

So, three weeks in, things are going well.
I’ve settled in. Found my place. Still a little edgy — but the pre-game nerves fade once I’m moving.
And mostly, I’ve increased my ability to look around while in motion.

It’s this same experience I aim to facilitate in my coaching:
Moving beyond the to-do list — the known, the reliable — so you can look around and actually see your life.
 – maintain momentum AND enjoy the rewards.

Feel the joy and delight of your own complexity, as a rounded and rotational being.