Author: Maren Deepwell

At the start of this year, alongside planning for work and life, I set out some small changes for myself, intentions to do things a little differently in 2025. I wanted to try to make more ethical choices and also to support local businesses more, as well as finding more joy in small things. It was a bit of an experiment of how much I could change things for myself, and also how to build new habits to replace behaviours I wanted to stop.

If social media is anything to go by, these kinds of changes take 30 seconds and look idyllic and idealised. So, using various coaching approaches, I wanted to find out how easy or hard these kind of changes are. Here is how I got on:

Amazon abstinence

Giving up ordering things on Amazon seemed the least achievable of my goals, and yet it has been very straight forward to make happen. I stopped ordering things in January, and although in the first month I found myself in situations in which I did revert back to ordering something (for example when the dog was will and I needed probiotic paste at the weekend) I haven’t found it difficult to give up since.

One hairy issue has been audiobooks, and I am still in the process of moving from Audible to something else, currently I am trying out both our local library app, BorrowBox, which is amazing, and also Libro.fm, which I am just getting started with.

The most difficult situation was a work trip for which I needed a specific adaptor and I wanted to get this in an electronic shop, which it turned out doesn’t stock them anymore (because everyone orders them on Amazon). Although I did eventually find the item I needed in a shop, it taught me to check ahead and compare pricing, instead of just assuming that the shop will have it in stock.

The upside has been that I have reverted back to buying things from more specialised stores, which often have a much better selection, infinitely more customer service and more related products to discover. Which brings me to my second aim… .

Shop local

I love living in Cardiff, a small capital city which has a wonderful selection of independent local shops, cafes and businesses. I do most of my shopping locally already, and this year I have tried out a few new things to increase the ratio even more. I have joined a local book club which meets once a month in an arts centre which is near to a whole high street of small shops, so I can pick up things when I go to one of our meetings.

I’ve also tried out a “wine passport”, a local initiative to discover new bars and restaurants, which enables you to try a glass of wine at participating local spots and comes with a handy guide to them. This turned out to be more successful than I had expected, and at least a few of the places we tried are now firmly on the radar for the next outing into town.

Trying out things in person has really helped me shop local more often, and become a lot of fun along the way.

Veg Box

One thing I have found however is that I don’t have time regularly enough to rely on fresh produce from shops or markets, particularly not during the week when things are busy. After some trial and error I found a veg box delivery service that fits well into my routine, and allows me to get fresh produce delivered regularly.

The added benefit is that it makes me try new things, and eat more variety than I otherwise would, and there’s the option to order the occasional treat alongside the veggies as there is a whole selection to choose from. Packaging, all plastic free, goes back each week to be re-used and recycled, which is another bonus.

Declutter

In addition to buying less and more local, I have started to focus on decluttering, trying to bring some order to the remnants of pandemic years spent largely cooped up at home. This is the least well defined intention, because I don’t have a particular end in mind here. It’s more of an overall sense of trying to get individual spaces, like a bathroom or my desk, to be aligned with their purpose, rather than stacking and storing everything everywhere.

Running my own business has made me more appreciative of local businesses supporting each other, and I am looking forward to continuing with these small changes in the coming months.

This blog post is a professional fan letter, a heartfelt hat tip to Bryan Mathers of Visual Thinkery fame. Over the past ten years his creative genius has provided me with so much inspiration that when I started looking for projects I could refer back to by searching my blog and my archive for work we have done together, there were too many examples to count.

From playful remixes and conference campaigns to organisational strategies and international frameworks, I have been lucky to work with Bryan. We first met around a ministerial meeting table in Westminster when I was a brand new CEO, a rookie at influencing policy and finding my voice.

As you can see from the photo that headlines this blog post, I still have my rookie sticker and badge. Reminding me regularly that being new at something, learning something new, is a powerful position to be in. It’s a privilege and the same can be said for many of the initiatives I have worked on with Bryan over the years and fortunately I continue to do so across Open Education and beyond.

Over the years Bryan and I have become friends and I was grateful to meet up with him recently and swap ideas for new ventures that we are each working on. It reminded me how often over we’ve met up for conversations like this over the years, at conferences and in parks, after a busy session of Visual Thinkery or a quiet pint celebrating the end of an event. Bryan never gives me advice, but he so often says the right thing, and helps me see things differently. He’s been a source of encouragement and support as well as someone who has excellent judgement.

Bryan describes listening as his superpower, and I would add kindness and patience to the list of these. Creative genius and artistic skill may be what makes everything he creates pop and sparkle, but it’s the deep humanity that creates the connections that have us send his conference stickers across oceans via post, and treasure zines and t-shirts for years afterwards.

I have a Bryan drawer in my desk, where I keep all the treasures I have collected over the years, and every time I open it there is a little spark of connection, inspiration and joy.

So here’s to you, Bryan!

I’ll be a fan #4life.

A couple of things that have been percolating in my mind over the past couple of weeks have come together: the reflective post in which I shared a story of my career prompted me to think more about where I am heading and why; then I completed the review of my tech stack which made me focus on whether I have the right tools for the work I want to do and what that is… ; and thirdly I have been preparing for the next run of my hybrid working leadership course (incidentally, if you’d like to join us, register before 26 May), which includes a topic about how to find your own measures of success.

My Directors Report

I also should mention that I write my Directors Report for my business every 3-4 month, which is a good exercise in reflecting on and tracking progress, and also prompts me to articulate exactly what I have achieved and why that matters. Which is where the reframing idea comes in, because my report applies metrics of success at different levels.

I started with the measures I was familiar with from my years as a CEO, with Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, related to financial goals, operational requirements and risk management. I set out a business plan that I review each year, and each year I review, update and refine short, medium and long term goals. This way of thinking gets me to focus on the performance of my micro business, which is useful but not everything I am interested in.

There is also a question of how well I perform and develop in my business, including the feedback I get from coaching or consultancy clients, the impact my mentoring and outreach work has, the research and publications I produce and the professional development I undertake. Many of the things I spend time on, such as attending events or writing a new book were not initially covered in my reporting, and yet they are important elements of what I view as success.

Partly why I track these elements is to have a record of how my career choices contribute to my personal KPIs, and how I can evolve year on year.

Before we go further, I just want to emphasise that I’m thinking about my career or my work as in professional practice. Over the course of my working life that has included paid work, funded work, unpaid work and everything in between. I don’t really conceptualise my work in terms of a main (day) job and side hustles, paid and unpaid work. However you think about these things, the approach can still work, you just need to adjust your mental picture accordingly.

Reframing with metaphor

I found it difficult to articulate all of this in the graphs or tables my report initially contained, and so I used a metaphor to help me reframe how I think about the different levels of success I aim to achieve and what they mean to me. What I came up with is a menu of drinks: a glass of water, a cup of coffee and a cocktail.

A glass of water (nourishing success)

The glass of water, big, cool and refreshing, is the biggest element. It contains within it everything fundamental that my work has to provide to keep me financially, socially, physically and mentally healthy. Contained in my glass of water for example, is money to pay the bills, to have a purpose and to have a reasonable work/life balance. Other things that I might include here is having a safe place to work and to have adequate benefits.

A cup of coffee (energising success)

Next up is an aromatic cup of coffee (or your preferred equivalent) that represents everything that gives me energy. Activities like attending events or collaborating with colleagues that spark my creativity, or projects that allow me to increase my impact and make a difference. In my case, I would include things like recording my podcast, blogging and writing in my coffee category, as all of these are energising elements of my practice, without being essential. I also find joy in the degree of flexibility I have, giving me time for walking the dog or going for a run during the day and that in turns allows me to work with greater productivity and drive the rest of the day.

A cocktail (sprinkling gold dust success)

For the cocktail (or mocktail!), I am thinking of a beautiful glass garnished with an umbrella and colourful fruit, a drink perfect for a moment of celebration! The cocktail embodies those special moments in my working life that make everything worth it. For me, I would include things like publishing a book, giving an exciting keynote, travelling somewhere new for an event, or having the chance to work with people I love and connect with. It’s moments that are sprinkled like gold dust over the years, giving everything an extra shine.

Success Reframed and Personal KPIs

I find it super helpful to think about what success means to me and how I can quantify it in this way, as it reminds me why things are important and what role they play in my life. If I get the things that nourish me and keep my life going in a very practical sense, things like saving for my pension or finding time to exercise, then that enables me to have more capacity to enjoy activities that I find energising.

Similarly, if the only things that feel good are big highlights that are few and far between, i.e. if my metaphorical work diet consists only of cocktails and the occasional cup of coffee, but the foundation is all wrong, then my work becomes unsustainable in the long term and doesn’t serve me no matter how glitzy the high points may be.

This kind of reframing also enables me to set out more specific personal measures for how what I do contributes to what I want to achieve long term, and to find balance between things that are fundamentally nourishing, energising and sparkly.

My personal KPIs are not about how well my business performs or how much I achieve, but how well what I do works FOR ME. How well does how I work, what I do and so forth contribute to my life in terms of nourishing me, energising me and bringing my sparkly moments of joy and inspiration?