In this post we are looking at goals. And we’re going to start by getting really clear on what your success will seem like, be like, look like or feel like, so you can start taking steps towards it.

Start with Your Success

“Everyone’s dream can come true if you just stick to it and work hard.”

Serena Williams

Before you set any goals, there’s something that will really influence how you think, write and talk about them – your track record with, and view of, success. Whenever you feel successful, it boosts your confidence and spurs you on.

What does success look and feel like for you? What is it? How does it seem? Jot down some ideas now of what success is for you. See if you can come up with at least five.

We all have our own personal blend of definitions of success. Check that yours are specific, e.g. ‘success is being happy’ is very vague. What specifically do you mean by ‘being happy’? How do you recognise it, describe it, define it? In what circumstances do you want to feel happy? As you write this list notice how much success you’re already achieving, too.

How Do You Want Your Life to Be?

You may already be very clear about what you want to do with your life, how you want your life to be or what your goals are. If you’re not, here’s a tool that can help – the Wheel of Life.

You can think about how your life is made up of many parts. Each of these parts contribute something to you as a whole person and your overall feeling of wellness, success and being in control of your life. When the parts are out of balance it can lead to the opposite of feeling in control, you could feel unhappy, frustrated, discontented and sometimes stuck. By assessing your level of satisfaction and happiness with each part of your life individually, you can start to get ideas about where you want to make changes and that can lead to your goals.

For example, if at the end of every week you feel tired and overwhelmed that could be due to lack of control over your finances, your career, your home environment or your health. Sorting out which of those to pay attention to will help you feel more like you are taking control and will give you back some energy.

The Wheel of Life tool invites you to score how happy or satisfied you are with each part of your life. It’s not about having a perfect score in each area, you decide how you measure your satisfaction or happiness. This allows you to notice where something is out of balance and needs attention, where dissatisfaction in one part of your life might affect other parts.

In the circle there are pie shaped sections relating to different parts of your life. I’ve given titles to the six which many people describe as the most important and left some blank sections so you can add your own. If you prefer, you can divide the sections further to make smaller parts, for example you could have sections for mental and physical health, or sections for debt and savings in finance. You can also rename sections to suit you better, perhaps religion or belief sits better with you than spirituality. Do whatever seems right for you to describe your life.

Give each section a score from 1-10, where 10 is a high score, as to how happy or satisfied you are with that part of your life. Draw a line across the section at that score or colour in or shade the section from the centre up to that number.

When you’ve done this for all the sections, you’ll have a picture of your overall level of satisfaction in each part of your life.

How Do You Feel?

How do you feel about the balance in the parts of your life? Where you’ve given a low measure of happiness or satisfaction, this is an area of your life where you can start to set goals. And if all your scores are great for you, then your goal becomes how to keep it that way!

Which parts of your life will you choose to set goals in first? Will it be:

• the one with the lowest score?
• the one with the highest score?
• the one that has the biggest effect on the other parts?
• the one that seems most urgent?
• the one that seems easiest?
• the one that seems most important for your happiness or satisfaction?

Your Dream/Reality Gap

You Wheel of Life represents the reality of your present. It is data, factual and a measurement of a moment in time. We all imagine or dream or have ideas of how life could be in the future. Between your dreams of the future and your reality of the present, shown in your Wheel of Life, there is often a gap.

Setting goals allows you to bridge that gap. It allows you to take that spring energy with you to the seasons ahead. For some of us, reviewing that gap from this side, the starting line, it can seem really big or insurmountable and it can put you off even trying to cross it. When you look at the gap you can:

• find choices where there appears to be no choice. Often adding a third way can broaden your choice from just an A or B decision
• look for the first small simple steps to take you in the right direction. You don’t have to take huge leaps – small steps still get your there in the end and you get boosts from small successes on the way
• challenge your assumptions about your constraints. All of us have already had some successes in life where we felt it unlikely. Where have you already succeeded?

You have much more freedom than you think, you can go farther than you think and you can always rest on the way. Not all your goals need to be completed by next week, the end of spring or even by the end of the year.

Create Your Wheel of Life

Here’s the fun, practical part. Take some time now – as much time as you need – to create your Wheel of Life. Print it out or draw it on a huge sheet of paper. Have some fun with it and get creative, if you’d like to.

Remember to make it personal to you.

There’s no right or wrong – it’s your Wheel and your Life and it’s helping you achieve a happier more satisfied future designed by you!

When you’ve done it reflect and notice what it’s showing you. Where will you start? Who will you share it with – maybe your bestie, maybe your partner or a coach. Also, I’d love to see how your Wheel of Life looks. Take a photo or scan it. However you can, do send it to me. You can do it by sending it to me at sue.hewitt@develomenta.co.uk. Or you could try sending it by carrier pigeon …

The post What Does Success Seem Like for You? first appeared on develomenta.

Pick a particular challenge or issue that you’re facing currently. Now imagine what would Hermione Granger do? What would your best friend say, if you asked them for help? How would Gisèle Pelicot, a very brave French woman who spoke out about how she’d been treated, approach your challenge?

Put together your Dream Team – the people to whom you could go to or consult for advice, ideas, verification and validation. These can be real people – including ones you’ve never actually met; they can also be fictional or loved ones no longer with us. What is it about these people that allows you to trust them in supporting you?

Once you have selected your Dream Team, think about how you could put into practice their ideas or approach. What can you learn from how they have dealt with issues in the past? How can you apply their ideas to your current situation? And remember you can add to or shuffle your Dream Team at any time. They work for you.

Many of us are brilliant at coping, managing and pushing through, often quietly and often alone. Becoming the best assertive and authentic you isn’t just about speaking up for yourself; it’s also about recognising when you don’t need to do everything on your own. Learning to ask for help – and asking the right people – can change everything.

If you’d like me to join your Dream Team, let’s have a chat! Call me on 0797 707 2760 or email me at sue.hewitt@develomenta.co.uk.

(Image Credit: Marcel Strauss on Unsplash)

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You don’t live in a vacuum and we can all achieve so much more when we work together with others, to find the support we need. But of all the people out there, who do you decide to ask for help? Who are the people who might actually hinder your progress? This article will help you do just that.

Do You Need a Dream Team?

“This is not courage, but determination.”  Gisèle Pelicot

You might have heard that while we may each know up to 1,500 people in our lives, it’s suggested that we can only maintain meaningful relationships with around 150. That’s still a lot of people! Within that number, people tend to fall into three broad categories when it comes to supporting others:

• 10% are Active Cheerleaders – they’re firmly on your side and want you to succeed
• 80% are Passive Bystanders – they’re neutral, and will help if you ask
• 10% are Active Adversaries – they resist or undermine your progress.

This means that in your network you might already have 15 active cheerleaders (you can probably already name them!) There’s another group of 120 people who you could ask for help and they are likely to deliver.

The key to building a strong support network isn’t trying to win everyone over. It’s learning where it’s best to invest your time and energy.

Your Active Cheerleaders already believe in you. They are a shoulder to cry on, inspiration when you’re a bit down and will join you in celebrations and excitement for your successes. They are a bit like your PR team; they’ve got your back and are a source of ideas, hints, tips, advice and wise words. They are already on Team You. Nurture these relationships and let them know what you’re working towards.

Your Active Adversaries, on the other hand, can drain enormous energy for very little return. They can seem to be deliberately obstructive, wilfully unhelpful or actively destructive to your confidence or ambitions. You don’t need to fight every battle or convince every critic. It’s best to simply limit your time and contact with these folk.

The real opportunity lies with the 80% — the Passive Bystanders. These people aren’t against you; they’re simply unaware of what you need. Often, one clear request is enough to turn them into allies.

Get to know your Passive Bystanders

To help you spot who’s who, it’s useful to look at the different roles these Passive Bystanders may already play in your life.

1. Energy Givers – they lift your spirits and leave you feeling lighter and stronger. Spend more time with them, particularly when you are stressed, busy or need a lift!
2. Role Models – people who’ve walked a path you admire or aspire to. Learn from them, selectively. Maybe your future self is a combination of their qualities, skills and experiences.
3. Heroes and Heroines – those who inspire you to think bigger, even from afar. Ask yourself – what would they advise in this situation, how would they handle this particular struggle?
4. Gatekeepers – people who control access to opportunities, information or networks. Show genuine interest in these people for who they are, not just for what they control.
5. Accidental Gardeners (Bosses, Coaches, Mentors) – these people have actively supported your growth and development now or in the past. They are just waiting to be recognised, thanked and asked to join Team You. Thank them, work out with them what is their best way to continue to support you.
6. Apprentices – people you’re already supporting or mentoring. Giving back is a natural flow in development and gives you energy. It also strengthens your network for the future. Be careful to set and reinforce boundaries so you protect your energy and resources.

Take some time to reflect on those 120 people in your network who could become Active Cheerleaders. Some people in your 80% may appear in more than one of the categories above, depending on context. What matters is noticing patterns. Where are you well supported? Where are there gaps? Where might one brave conversation unlock unexpected help?

It’s worth taking the time to strategically work on the gaps. In my next post I’ll share an exercise to help you do this. If you’d like to know now how to do this, get in touch! Call me on 0797 707 2760 or email me at sue.hewitt@develomenta.co.uk.

The post What Would Hermione Granger Do? first appeared on develomenta.

A good administrator can be described as ‘just an Admin Assistant’ or as being very skilled at understanding instructions, getting on with people making decisions, interpreting information, using co-ordination, pacing, breaking things down … where else can these skills be applied?!

Women, particularly those who’ve had a career break or who are not in paid employment, tend to underrate their skills or not recognise how transferable they are. Make sure you don’t do this.

For example:

• The skills used by a call centre worker will transfer into any job dealing with people. Could you transfer your skills to teaching or caring for other people?
• Planning and buying groceries for a family can be translated into skills needed by a Retail Buyer or Project Manager. Anyone who has taken a break to raise a family will have buckets full of skills needed for these roles!
• Do you enjoy using social media to keep in touch with your friends? If so, you could use these same skills to support a charity or local cause.

Take some time now to really think about what you’re great at. What skills do you have, that you can transfer? If you’re feeling stuck in your job, or you don’t think you have the confidence to apply for that promotion, carefully consider your skills. You’ve got so much more going for you than you realise!

If you need a little top up of confidence, or a bit more guidance, let’s chat. Just call me on 0797 707 2760 or email me at sue.hewitt@develomenta.co.uk. No skills required to reach out to me!

The post Time to transfer your skills? first appeared on develomenta.

What went well? What have you learned? What will you take into next year?

This article is all about appreciation and awareness: appreciating what you’ve achieved and being aware of what helped you to grow, so that you can carry those lessons confidently into the new year.

How have you grown this year?

Growth comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s visible and measurable, like reaching a specific goal. Sometimes it’s quieter and more internal, such as finding your voice in meetings, trusting your own judgement more or trying out things despite your fear or anxiety.

Take a moment to think about how you’ve developed this year. Have you grown in confidence? Have you made progress towards your professional or personal goals, or discovered new strengths you didn’t know you had?

You can ask yourself:

• What have been my biggest or most significant wins this year?
• What did I do that made these happen?
• What else contributed to those successes?
• Were they what I expected to achieve, or surprises that unfolded along the way?

Often, the most meaningful achievements are the ones we didn’t plan for – the challenges that stretched us, the opportunities that apparently came from nowhere, or the times when we simply said “yes” and saw where it led.

Gratitude and support

As you reflect, think too about what and who helped you along the way. Where did your best support come from this year? Perhaps it was a friend or colleague who believed in you, a mentor or relative who challenged you, a team that worked brilliantly together under pressure or your family pulling together through a difficult period.

Gratitude has a quiet power. When we take time to acknowledge the people and circumstances that supported our growth, it deepens our sense of connection and strengthens our motivation to give back. So, ask yourself: how can you pay that support forward next year? How might you be that same source of encouragement for someone else?

The power of connection

I’ve talked in previous newsletters about the importance of growing your network – not just in size, but in depth and quality. This is another great area to reflect on.

How have you positively expanded your network this year? That might mean building stronger relationships within or outside your organisation, joining new professional groups, or reconnecting with old colleagues. Who have you met who’s inspired you? Who has helped you to grow?

Networking, at its best, is reciprocal. It’s about shared growth and learning. As you plan ahead, think about where you can nurture those meaningful connections next year and how you can contribute to the growth and development of others in your network.

What did you miss out on?

It’s also worth gently asking yourself: what did I miss out on this year and why? Was it through lack of time, confidence, or opportunity? Was it about saying ‘No’ when you could have said ‘Yes’? The goal here isn’t to criticise yourself, but to notice patterns. Once you see them, you can make conscious choices to do something differently next time.

Looking ahead to 2026

From what you’ve learned in 2025, what will you carry forward into 2026? What will you leave behind that maybe held you back or got in your way? If you could go back to January, what two or three pieces of advice would you give yourself at the start of this year? Something like: You’ve got this. Or Trust yourself more. Or Say yes – it will work out.

As you complete this reflective exercise, I hope you can see that you’ve achieved more than you thought you had. Even in challenging times your resilience and ability to keep getting up and getting on with things every day should still be acknowledged. How can you positively recognise the year? Has it been a learning year, a moving year, a growth year, a treading water but not going backwards year, a grab whatever comes year? A year of firsts, a year for you, a year of changes or a year of settling? Well done for your achievements!

Positive Practice – Write Yourself a Christmas Letter

Here’s a simple and inspiring exercise to end the year. Write a letter to yourself dated December 2026. In it, recognise and thank yourself for everything you’ve achieved in the coming year, as if it’s already happened. Describe what you’re proud of, what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown. Write about how you’ve looked after yourself and what you’ve done for others. Tell yourself what was exciting, what you tried out that seemed difficult at first and what was new and different. End with your learning from 2026 that you’ll take through to 2027.

It’s a powerful way to focus your energy and intention for the months ahead. You’ll be surprised how often what you write now becomes your reality next year. It’s worth holding on to the letter until December 2026 just to see what has come true.

As we wrap up 2025, I’d like to say thank you to all of you – for reading, reflecting and staying connected this year. Here’s to celebrating how far you’ve come and to an exciting, fulfilling and positive year ahead.

The post End of Year Celebration! first appeared on develomenta.

If we are connected to those people we can reach them. And we can reach them every minute of every day.  That means that we can send out positive vibes to them when they need support and they can also reach us.  So when we need support we can ask for it and allow ourselves to receive it.

My friend James works in Canada and was going through a particularly tough time a couple of years ago so I sent him positive vibes across the waves.  It really helps to know that your support network are thinking of you when you have a tough day or difficult assignment ahead of you.  Today I’m sending positive energy across to a friend working in Reading where he’s facilitating a tough business development workshop.

Send positivity.  Ask for support.  Receive that positive energy.

Send autumn crocuses to make someone smile!

The post Purple tingly stuff first appeared on develomenta.

I bet you do have the skills and the experience that you need, to apply for that promotion, ask for a raise, or even set up your own business! Very often, we don’t see the skills that we have and how we can apply them to other situations. Let’s look at what you’re great at and how you can use your skills!

You’re great at this!

A skill is an ability to do something. You’ll feel more confident when you’re doing something at which you’re already skilled. You can assess the level of your ability to do anything. You could be great at doing something; you have no skill in doing something else. That simply means that you have a gap you could fill.

The first stage is to carry out an audit of your skills. What are you already great at, good at and not so good at? You get to choose which skills you put onto your list, to assess. There are literally hundreds that you could choose from, so here are some pointers, to help you decide what to assess.

1. Planning Skills. These skills are about the future. Having good planning skills minimises risks and gives a structure to whatever you want to make happen. They allow you to look at different possibilities and make decisions. They use your creative and pragmatic qualities. Your list of planning skills might include gathering information, setting goals, using your imagination, coming up with ideas and budgeting. What other skills do you want to add to your list?

How would you rate your planning skills, overall? Are you great at arranging fun days out for your family? Do you enjoy setting up team meetings? Or would you rather not think about the future?!

2. Doing Skills. Doing skills are about the present. Having made your plan, they get you started and help you to carry it out. They fall into three categories – in relation to yourself, other people and ‘things’. They might include understanding instructions, attending to detail, motivating others, organising resources and following plans.

What score do you give your doing skills? Are you great at getting the kids to school on time and keeping the house tidy? Do you enjoy working in a team with friends or colleagues? Or would you rather leave the detail and the doing to someone else?

3. Keeping-Going Skills. These skills help you to maintain action and help you to enjoy what you’re doing. They can include knowing when to keep going, knowing when to stop, encouraging others, finishing tasks and coaching other people.

How good are your keeping-going skills? Can you pick yourself up and when you’ve had some bad news? Can you rally your friends and neighbours to support a local cause? Or do you get knocked back every time the boss doesn’t thank you publicly for your work?

4. Evaluating Skills. Evaluating skills are about getting the best from the past. They help you to learn, make decisions and make better plans next time. These skills could be reviewing your progress, measuring results, decision making, letting go and stepping back.

How would your score your evaluating skills? Do you love measuring how far you’ve run (or walked) this week? Can you easily decide with film to go to this month? Or do you try to keep control of everything that’s going on in your family, instead of letting someone take charge for a while?

What Does it all Mean?

Got more going for you than you thought? Got less going for you than you thought?

Don’t let your modesty or lack of confidence prevent you from boasting a bit. Make sure that the perfectionist in you isn’t stopping you being satisfied with something that is less than perfect. If you’re not sure, talk to your manager, colleagues and friends. How do they rate you? Use their rating to challenge your own, as they may score you more accurately than you score yourself. Who’s got it right?

You can find more information on how your unique blend of skills could match with particular jobs or careers by doing a Skills Health Check at https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/

Or call me on 0797 707 2760 for a chat! Emailing me at sue.hewitt@develomenta.co.uk to book time to talk works too. No skills required to reach out to me!

The post You’re great at this! first appeared on develomenta.

1. It’s perfectly normal for most of us to talk to ourselves the whole time
2. Since these messages are playing in your head, no-one else can hear them or know they are happening
3. Since they are playing in YOUR head, you can take control and do something about them.

Here’s how to do it.

Stage 1: Spend a day or so simply noticing and observing what actually goes on in your head. You’ll probably be surprised because:

1. the chatter may have been inaudible to you until you took the time to notice it; you may have just thought it was the wind in your hair
2. there may be so much going on in your head that at times it sounds like a massive conversation or tirade of messages; yet it only lasts seconds
3. some of the messages may be self-destructive and others may be supportive or more positive
4. there may be a range of different ‘voices’ in different circumstances
5. you may ‘hear’ nothing at all. You might simply get a sense of there being an inclination or push towards a particular direction or thought.

Stage 2: Make some notes about your noticing and observing experience.

• What were the messages?
• Whose ‘voice’ were they – yours or someone else’s?
• How much did you take notice of the messages?
• What did you notice about how you were affected by the messages?
• What was the balance between messages that helped and supported you and those that weren’t supportive or helpful?
• Were there some ‘voices’ that were more helpful and others that were not?

 Stage 3: Now pick several of the least helpful or supportive messages, perhaps the ones that sapped your confidence or turned you away from what could have been a better attitude or an important step forward.

Step 4: What happens for many of us is that we have a repeating pattern of unhelpful messages and we can get stuck in a loop. Now it’s time to change the record.

For each of these unhelpful messages try any of these approaches:

• How could you simply change the message to be more helpful or supportive?
• Imagine the message coming from someone you could not take seriously – a cartoon character, a comedian, your daft friend, your pet
• Imagine how your best friend, Mum, coach or hero would respond if you actually said this message out loud to them
• Imagine how that message might sound if it was speeded up, or really, really slowed down so it was unintelligible
• Imagine how it might sound if it was repeated over and over again until it simply became a string of meaningless sounds or tones
• Counter your message by asking yourself the “Yes, but …” question. For example: –It’s not worth applying since I’ll never get an interview. “Yes, but what if I do get an interview? Yes, but what if no-one else applies? Yes, but I already did this job for the last year?!
• When messages seem to be warning you of danger, try countering with “What’s the worst that could happen?”
• Let the messages play – let them simply pass like clouds – and decide which helpful ones you will pluck from the sky, pay attention to and use
• Get a sense of the messages that come from your best self and allow more of those through
• Block or shield yourself from unhelpful messages with mindfulness, music, movement, being in nature or focusing on others
• Make friends with the cheeky, teasing, disruptive messages and put them away in a cupboard, even if they still rattle the door!
• Write out the unhelpful messages and have a ceremony to destroy them – shred them, burn them or throw them into the bin!

Experiment with these and notice which ones work for you in which situations. Come up with other approaches, if you’d like to and play with them. Take control, listen and take heed of the messages that help; choose not to be affected by others.

By gradually working on your internal messaging over time you’ll find shifts in your attitude towards being more open, responsible, flexible and positive and others around you will notice this too.

Oprah Winfrey said that you can change your future just by changing your attitude. If you’d like some help with developing better messaging, to create a more positive future for yourself, let’s talk. Oprah isn’t available, so call me on 0797 707 2760 or email me at sue.hewitt@develomenta.co.uk!

The post Change the record first appeared on develomenta.

Your attitude to life develops out of your experiences, and from the way you think and feel. Your attitude is one of the keys to your success, so in this article, let’s take a look at that attitude of yours – and how you can use it to your advantage.

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude.”

Oprah Winfrey

What sort of attitude do you have? Since it’s such a significant element in your life and your success, it’s important that you understand your attitude and how it might change in different circumstances.

Here are some examples of positive and negative attitudes which will greatly affect the outcome of situations. Some of them affect situations so dramatically that they become self-fulfilling prophecies. For each negative attitude, I’ve suggested a more open, responsible and positive one:

Your attitude colours how you’re perceived by others. It can warm the space between you and help them respond to you more positively. People who are optimistic, energetic and open-minded will generally get or be offered more and better opportunities than those who are cynical, inflexible and narrow-minded. This means that you need to keep your drive and energy strong and focused. If you’ve lost it, what action can you take to find it again?

Your attitude is also the filter through which you see your life. It affects how you choose to respond and react to events and how you perceive your ability to progress, grow and develop. You may not want your attitude to be rose-coloured, but making it positive, responsible, curious and open is a good start!

Attitudes change depending on your relationships, the time of year, your level of motivation, the reward in view, or changing events. They are affected by our experiences. It’s really important that you’re aware of your attitude and what affects it.

What are your basic underlying attitudes? Are you generally a positive, tolerant and open person? Or do you tend to see only the downside of situations?

Just Listen to Yourself!

One way to understand more about your attitude is to be aware of your own internal messaging. This is like a commentary or script that plays in the back of your mind. Or it’s that little voice that you hear sometimes or maybe often!

These messages, the things you tell yourself, may not originally have been your messages. They may have come from someone important in your life: parents, friends, colleagues or other significant influences such as school, magazines or the media. This means that they are part of your conditioning, how you’ve been shaped by your environment or those around you – even if unintentionally.

Here are some messages you could have internalised about a range of topics:

• Attitude – don’t take the risk; settle for what you already have
• Bosses – they always look after themselves
• Actions – first steps are always hard
• Young people – how can they know enough to vote
• Other women – we have the same experience, but I’ll never be as good as her
• Appearance – you can’t make a good impression unless you dress super-smart
• Men – don’t listen, always want to just jump in and fix it
• When things go wrong – it must be my fault
• When things go well – I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

How are your messages similar to these? How do they affect you? What would happen if they were different?!

Oprah Winfrey said that you can change your future just by changing your attitude. If you’d like some help with developing better messaging, to create a more positive future for yourself, let’s talk. Oprah isn’t available, so call me on 0797 707 2760 or email me at sue.hewitt@develomenta.co.uk!

(The seagull of attitude image is by Dariia Lemesheva on Unsplash)

The post Don’t give me that attitude! first appeared on develomenta.

I love working with people like that, because inside each one of us is unlimited power and potential. Let’s look at the global and international influence that you might not realise you have!

You Do Have the Power!

“You cannot take your freedoms for granted. Just like generations who have come before you, you have to do your part to preserve and protect those freedoms, you need to be preparing yourself to add your voice to our national conversation.”

Michele Obama

Many people feel very strongly about an issue, and also feel totally unable to do anything about it. Keep your eyes and ears open for examples of individual people living ordinary lives, making big changes, little by little, by standing up to be counted and by acting locally.

Alan Bates made a big difference for many who ran Post Offices and were wrongly charged with fraud. Donna Williams didn’t give up seeking change after her daughter Amber was abducted and murdered. Now there’s a standard protocol – The Amber Alert – used internationally, which is followed after child abductions. Legislation in England (Lucy’s Law) restricting the sale of puppies and kittens came about due to campaigning by Lisa Cameron. She adopted a spaniel, Lucy, who had been used for breeding on a puppy farm.

You don’t need to start out with an aim as big as changing the law. The influence of micro-local initiatives ,such as community gardens, neighbourhood healthy walking groups and letter writing campaigns can be inspiring examples of the difference each of us can make. You just need to take a small step toward change!

We live in a complex world that can sometimes seem chaotic and uncertain. Our local issues are played out on the national and global stage where you can also take action. Do you have concerns about:

• The environment, such as climate change and biodiversity?
• The treatment of migrants working in UK industries such as agriculture and the care sector?
• The plight of women trafficked into the UK?
• The effects of microplastics in our bodies or our food?
• The growing problem of fly-tipping?
• The fate of those setting out to cross the Channel in small boats?
• The questionable use of copyright materials in the AI field?
• The loss and closure of libraries, banks, post offices and other community resources?
• Victim’s rights in the plans for early release of offenders to reduce prison overcrowding?
• Israel’s campaign in Gaza?
• Support for homeless people?
• The lack of research funding for dementia research?
• Children spending less time outdoors and more time in front of screens?
• Where our food will come from, if more farmland is used for housing or carbon offsetting?
• The health and welfare of refugees escaping conflict zones and living in camps?
• The ethics of keeping wild animals in zoos and safari parks?
• The loss of green spaces in towns and cities?
• How the world is affected by Trump’s presidency?
• Benefit changes that could negatively affect vulnerable people and increase poverty?
• How to react to the ongoing war in Ukraine?

Most people are touched in some way by what is going on around them and can choose to do something about it too. Yes, even you!

Let’s look at just one of these issues in more detail. How does this affect you? How do you feel reading this? Could you make a difference?

Green Spaces in Towns and Cities

Parks and green spaces give us the chance to stay active, meet friends and take a moment for quiet reflection, vigorous exercise or family time. It’s no wonder that the availability of a local green space is directly linked to our sense of wellbeing and that they are estimated to save the NHS £111 million every year by reducing the number of GP visits we need.

They are the lungs of our towns and cities, absorbing pollutants and improving air quality. Providing habitats for a diverse range of wildlife and helping capture and store carbon dioxide, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and urban heat effects.

Yet in the UK, parks and green spaces are constantly under threat from construction, budget constraints, planning law as well as lack of awareness of their value.

Fields in Trust publish a Green Space Index every year, looking at data such as how much green space there is per person, how far away from it we are and its health and development. Here are some figures:

• The UK is the 8th most densely populated country in Europe, with 83% of its population in urban areas
• 3 million children in Britain under the age of nine (31%), live more than a ten-minute walk from the nearest playground
• 4,000 new parks are required by 2033 to maintain the current green space level per person
• On average, a single playground serves 376 children
• 3 million people live more than 10 minutes away from a park or green space
• Guidance for planners sets a minimum recommendation that for every 1,000 people there should be approximately 2.4 hectares of accessible green space
• The average amount of publicly accessible green space per person is 30 square metres
• Densely populated cities like London fall below the average, emphasizing the need for increasing urban green space to meet the needs of residents and promote a healthy living environment
• Only 7% of parks and green spaces in UK are legally protected.

Shocking Statistics?

I’m not sharing these green space numbers here to shock you. I am sharing them to get you thinking about issues that worry or upset you, over which you might have more influence that you believe. When you read the news or hear reports, which strike a chord with you? Which news stories make you angry or upset? What statistics do you find most disturbing? Which of the 20 national and global issues listed above really concern you? What small step or action could you make, right now, to get involved in an issue that is close to your heart?

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