SUNDAY NIGHT SLIDES
New look who dis 💅🏻
It’s been a minute… howzit?
Unfortunately, the previous platform that we used to facilitate our relatively informal and infrequent rendezvous was closed down by its parent company, Twitter, earlier this year. And to be honest, it was a blessing in disguise as 2022 has been one of those years(!) for sure.
There’s also something to be said about the impact that impending doom we’re all now collectively facing, on top of the impending doom we all navigated through for two years prior, has had on our abilities to perform well as human beings.
Everything seems to be tougher these days.
Or have we just gotten weaker?
What used to come naturally, no longer feels that way, in particular:
My energy levels are lower
My creative output struggles
My people tolerance has reduced
And I’m hearing similar stories from those close to me, too. If like me, you can’t even think about the festive break yet but it also couldn’t come any sooner, then you’re likely to be experiencing the same sort of slow burn down that we’re all going through. Acknowledgement is the first step to a healthy recovery in the New Year – the mind can only take so much.
No exceptions to the rule.
I’m interested to see how you’ve fared… 👇🏻
As inherently social mammals, we work better together as a collective force, but the best course of action we can take to manage better is to put our own metaphorical oxygen masks on first. Prioritise going for long walks, running warm baths, reading more books, cooking up a storm, start running, playing sport etc. Whatever it takes, whoever needs to be let down and whichever news bulletin can (certainly) wait.
How can one keep pouring from an empty glass?
More on mechanisms and interventions soon.
A new addition 🧡
In brighter news… earlier this year, we welcomed our first next-generation (Taylor) Penwarden into the world and we all couldn’t be prouder of Katie & Joe for bringing beautiful baby Nell into the world. They’ve blessed our families with a glorious gift and she is already so very loved. I’ve never known a love quite like it.
As a writer, it’s not often that I find myself speechless as such but when they announced their pregnancy in the summer of last year, it really did flaw me.
Especially when they delivered a hand-written card that wrote:
As Josh is not here in person, we hope you’re up to covering his role as well as yours <3
Cue the floodgates. And a promise that Nell will know all about her Uncle Josh.
Which makes it a bittersweet year for us, too, as August signified the 10th anniversary of Josh’s passing and November would have been his 31st birthday. We also returned from a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, in October which was one of – if not – the last place he visited on holiday.
I often see fleeting moments of his influence in my life and take solace in those as they come and go. But by far the greatest influence has been my dogged determination to deliver better mental health care to the masses.
A new investor 🤝🏻
Over the past 12 months, as you will have seen in previous editions of this, I’ve been working on creating a new mental health education and management platform.
A system that works for all, individuals.
That’s why I’m super excited to announce that we’ve just signed our first financial partner, albeit a silent one, to help accelerate our growth strategy for the next 12 months.
The key problems I’ve observed in over a decade of research analysis are two-fold:
People are generally still uneducated on mental health
People are generally still unable to manage theirs effectively
It’s a chicken-and-egg situation at play but it’s one that I’ve been designing a system for; which works more like a Trojan Horse concept than the current digital solutions that are as exclusive as they are inclusive due to the homogenisation by design.
The solutions I’m currently working on are:
An educational online platform
An integrative community
A personal operating system
If you’re willing and able to, I’ll soon be calling out for early-stage testers to put the prototypes through their paces and give feedback to rapidly develop the first iteration. And for those fans of Notion, there’s a mega template about to launch too!
Thanks for sticking with me through the void.
A normal(ish) service will resume here on out.
Charlie
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