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Opinion Process Story

On being mentored by Jo Unwin.

When I was five and had just moved to a new infant school, I remember not being brave enough to put up my hand and ask to go to the loo. I remember the warmth and shame, and the stretchy nylon knickers—navy blue with red and white—they sent me home in. I kept them. When […]

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Opinion Process

Go and vomit (or: meet my muse)

Okay, I get it. You want to be a writer, you’ve always dreamed of writing, and you know you have a novel or a story or an epic dystopian fiction set in terza rima just bursting to get out of you like an alien in that terrifying film Alien. So you sit down at the […]

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Opinion Process

The creative process

Marcus Romer shared a tweet which, in one day, got retweeted over 7000 times. I think it struck a chord. It goes like this: The Creative Process: 1. This is awesome 2. This is tricky 3. This is shit 4. I am shit 5. This might be ok 6. This is awesome. This cycle is so familiar […]

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Opinion Process

How to stop fizzling out

Exams were over. I’d graduated with a first class degree in Nothing Really and I’d a cushy job offer at a tech firm in London. It was all Yellow. At least, it was on the radio at my temp job: I was matching, batching and coding invoices at Virgin Media HQ, where Coldplay held sway. Returning from […]

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Opinion Process

To play or not to…oh, never mind.

It’s Monday, although where I’m sitting it’s close to being Tuesday. I write these playful prompts on Mondays, usually. I send an image or colouring-in to my mailing list and ask you to play with them. With me. I was about to do that this morning at about half past ten, when the irony struck […]

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Colouring Pictures Process

How to be brave

So you’re sitting there in your pyjamas, wondering whether to write that scary blog post, record that cringeworthy video or say NO to that lovely offer in your inbox which, if you’re completely honest, won’t do a jot to move you towards your goals. But it feels nice, and safe and warm and somehow less […]

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Opinion Process

You’re a fraud and you know it

“A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” ― Steven Pressfield, Do the Work I got an email newsletter the other day from someone I’d consider a peer in my industry. […]

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Opinion Process

Don’t let me fry, superhero…

Imagine you are on the top of a very high building. It’s on fire. There’s no way out. Then, enter Superman. Great, you think. Superman’s gonna save me. Awesome! You need Superman more at this moment than at any other moment. You’re on the edge. If you had marshmallows, they’d be toasted. Imagine, though, if […]

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Pictures Process

Corrina Gordon-Barnes

Corrina Gordon-Barnes of You Inspire Me is an engaging, funny and fiercely talented coach whose home on the internet is a sparkling hub for difference-maker entrepreneurs. Of course, Corrina herself isn’t fierce. She’s almost transcendentally iridescent (but also very, very grounded, which is a tricky trick to pull off. She does it with aplomb). You Inspire Me has had a […]