Your June ‘HEAD Garden’: What’s Really Growing?
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Stop Watering Plastic Plants
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There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from looking productive without actually growing. You know the feeling - I know you know because you tell me! And guess what, I have it too! Just think about the colour-coded calendar, the endless “just circling back…” emails, the LinkedIn victory laps of those crowing about their brilliance, and the frantic pace that looks like ambition but feels strangely hollow.
In nature, a garden doesn’t bloom because it’s busy. It blooms because the conditions are right.
So in June, we are halfway through the year and its time to check in and ask: Are you cultivating growth… or performing it?
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Focusing on our HEAD means focusing on our Habits, Emotions, Attention and Decisions.
These four essential human systems determine whether we are truly thriving, or just surviving, while we are building businesses, careers, teams, and lives. We are keen to explore all four with you and what to do about them. |
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🌿 This month, let's focus on Habits 🌿
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The Garden doesn't notice your motivation
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It only notices what you actually do!
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Motivation is like the weather. Habits are like the climate.
One changes daily. The other determines what survives.
Neuroscience shows us that habits form through repeated neural pathways involving the basal ganglia — the brain’s automation centre. Repetition reduces cognitive load.
In simple terms: Your brain loves efficiency more than inspiration - which is deeply inconvenient for people waiting to “feel ready”!
Because thriving businesses and people are not often built from heroic bursts, they are built from embarrassingly small consistencies. A ‘wise woman’ gave me the most wonderful list of these truths as I set out on my business journey and she was right! I do know who my friends are, who can be there when I need them and who are the ones who commentate (positively or critically) and how to work with each type.
Tiny actions compound to great results:
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1x difficult conversation |
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1x evening rested instead of “catching up” |
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And yet most high performers dismiss small wins because they’re addicted to dramatic transformation. But gardens don’t bloom overnight either. The roots grow first. Invisible progress is still progress and so it is with us humans.
The Science Bit
Behavioural psychologist Karl Weick’s “small wins theory” showed that breaking progress into tiny visible victories increases motivation, momentum, and resilience. Dopamine (the one we think of as the “reward chemical” or ‘happy hormone’ is actually deeply connected to anticipation and progress tracking. Your brain thrives on evidence that movement is happening.
So celebrate:
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the uncomfortable meeting survived |
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the habit resumed after missing two days |
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the team member developed |
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the panic interrupted before it spiralled |
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These are shoots breaking through soil. Its not glamorous, you won’t get an award, but you efforts are showing the team/project/business is alive. |
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Take a moment to reflect honestly:
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Q: What in my life only looks alive from a distance?
Q: What habits, routines, or performances are draining energy without creating growth?
Q: What needs pruning?
Q: What deserves more light, attention, and care?
Healthy things grow slowly, honestly, and in connection. Thriving is not a performance.
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🌿 Celebrate one small win publicly
I know you don’t want to, but its actually good for you (dopamine hit!), and inspires others to recognise how to do something similar.
🌿 Acknowledge one truth privately
Yeah, that one! The one you know you know but keep pretending isn’t true! I have them, you have them…. Go on just to yourself. You can only change what you know, so begin with that awareness for yourself.
🌿 Collaborate where your ego wants control
A toughie, can make you feel vulnerable (on the inside!) but actually, who knows what ideas or skills others can bring unless you actually work together!
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If you use your Habits, Emotions, Attention and Decisions in the right way then you get better results. Hear some of the dichotomies and challenges and where belief fits in!! |
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“Always be a first rate version of yourself rather than a second rate version of somebody else”
Judy Garland |
Grow your leadership skills
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Wherever you are in your leadership journey, in any setting we use both taught and interactive aspects to help you develop a language and skills that you can use immediately to make an impact and better support others, and yourself.
Growing effective teams takes effective leadership and teaming, which begins with the self.
Drawing from our 8-petal model, our leadership development course will help you to:
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Develop knowledge, skills and experience
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From growing effective teams to tackling toxicity |
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With learning underpinned by evidence-base approaches and practical tools
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Learn in your own time, at your own pace
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With three accessible and unique e-learning modules, all just a CLICK away! |
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Look forward to seeing you in the Garden!
We are there every Friday lunchtime for course members to talk with, coach, or explore the learning.
The HEAD Gardener
Habits · Emotions · Attention · Decisions |
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