What do gardening, finding your inner adult, and cycles of self-defeat have in common?

They are the topics of blogs I have written this month.

It is not the content of the blogs themselves that is so interesting (although I would love you to have read here), as much as it is the fact that I wrote three in as many weeks.

In my very first blog ever I spoke about how hard it was for me to commit to something so public because I am generally someone who struggles to stay committed to projects once they are up and running – I thrive on the start-up phase and find the follow through less than engaging. I called my blog “Commitment Issues” for this very reason. And I was right.

In the two years that my blog has been up and running I have written 10 entries. Ten! In two years! And three have been in the last three weeks!

Being a person keen on self-improvement and self-awareness, I have given the issue of my lack of follow through some thought over the last few years, and what I have found is that - in common with many adult children I know and love - while I am exceptionally good and honouring the commitments I make to others, I am exceptionally bad at honouring those I make to myself.

Go for regular exercise on my own? Not a chance. Arrange to go for a walk with a friend? Only something dire will keep me from it. Write a book just because I want to? Nice idea, but not so much delivery. Sign a contract with a publisher that requires delivery by a certain date? At your service, and I may even hand in early, so committed am I to the process. Write a blog regularly? Well you get the idea…

I have learned that I need to make myself accountable to someone else in order for me to follow through on loads of things, no matter how important they are to me. It is just how I am wired. Instead of working against that particular idiosyncrasy of mine, I have learned to work with it. Which is why I signed up for Laurie Foley’s “Blog More Stress Less” blogging programme last month. The results speak for themselves. Now I just need to find an accountability partner for once the course ends….

What about you? What and where could you do with some help honouring commitments you have made to yourself? With the new year looming, now is a good time to be thinking about how to get the most out of your life, and this is a good place to start.

I have all sorts of exciting things lined up for the first quarter of next year. Here is what is finalized so far:

• The next “Find Your Voice, Use Your Choice” programme. The last one got rave reviews and I am planning the next to start in February.
  Please email me to be put on the list.
• I will be in the USA in March and will be offering a weekend adult child workshop on the weekend of either 10/11 or 24/25 March. I am still working on the details but it will probably be in Washington DC and I am hoping that many of my USA based colleagues and clients will be able to come along! Watch this space for more details…
• I am also hoping to fit another “Life Lessons for Adult Children” coach training programme into the first quarter of 2012. This course trains and certifies already qualified coaches, counselors, therapists and others involved in personal development and support work to use my adult child materials. Let me know if you would like more information.
• I now offer half and full day intensive coaching sessions. They are great for people who aren’t able to come to weekly in-person sessions, or who are looking for a kick-start to their change process. Email me for more details.

In the meantime, I will be continuing with my coaching, writing, and plotting new offerings. I will be going on my summer holidays on 21 December, and reopening in mid-January, but will be open for business before and after then.

Here’s to a productive and accountable November.

Love Judy