Known as being able to move at speed when it comes to executing plans and dubbed the “Account Manager” of my relationship, I have a knack for balancing many things at any given time and getting s*** done. This innate skill of mine has served me well over the years and on the job front has allowed me to thrive in project management roles (or, as I like to call them, herding cats 101). But, it was recently while watching psychologist Orna Guralnik’s TV show “Couples Therapy” that I was hit with a hard truth about this approach to life.
NB: If you haven’t watched Orna Guralink’s TV Show “Couples Therapy” and you are interested in the psychology of relationships I highly recommend it - Orna is a wizard as you watch her unpack the complexities of the various couples she meets with.

Orna was working with a couple that were consistently having life put them to the test - their house renovation wasn’t tracking to plan, they had recently found out their eggs weren’t viable for IVF and one of them was embarking on a new job that they were apprehensive about. Orna watched them list off all the things that were “going wrong” until she stopped them and cautiously, yet confidently said, “you are young and impulsive. You put so many things on your plate at once and when they inevitably don’t all work out simultaneously you become deflated and dissatisfied”*
This. Exactly this.
Is me.

Intrigued by this insight from Orna, in the last couple of months, I, the overachieving perfectionist, have been trialing this alien concept of “one thing at a time”. It has felt so unbelievably unnatural, yet so calming at the same time.

Being a conversationalist and often loving the sound of my own voice (seriously - I listen back to my own voice notes), the biggest shift for me has been redirecting conversation with friends and family. I have needed to avoid going into a state of obsessively talking and overthinking the different aspects of our Cayman move if I really was to test this new method from Orna. So, when the questions have come about timelines, work, lifestyle, travel, visas and all the rest I have been trialing a holding statement of, “It still feels quite a while away so I am just enjoying London summer for now”.

Some have commented that I am in denial or am being less willing to share, but what I know I am doing is discovering a new side of myself and learning what true presence really is - enjoying the gym class I went to, the podcast I listened to or the “too good to go” deal I scored at Tesco.

Now, as the moving date approaches in 7 days, for perhaps the first time in all my moves, I can say that me and the waiting game found co-existence. Don’t get me wrong, it has been a mental gymnastics to stay focused and I have not landed the Vault in the way Biles seamlessly does every time, but I am getting there.

So here’s to move #5.
Wish me luck!​