Mission Imperfect: navigating life with coaches Kirsty and Kathryn

This week, we’re pondering whether it’s possible to be judgement free…spoiler alert: we don’t think it is. But nor do we think judgement is necessarily a bad thing - providing you can notice you’re doing it and are willing to change your mind. This one was recorded when we were both pretty tired, so we’ll let you judge for yourselves (see what we did there?!) as to whether our moment of biscuity s...

These days we are all so busy, it takes conscious effort to slow down.  In our quest for evidence on why slowing down is important, we discover some fantastic new words including ‘spuddle’ and ‘boondoggle’ and spend rather too long if that might make a person a ‘boondoggler’ or someone who just spends time ‘boondoggling’?! On a slightly more helpful and practical note, we discuss why we may want t...

Being fearless might sound cool, but it can get you into all sorts of bother with sabre-toothed tigers and axe murderers. We consider how fearing less might be a healthier - and longer lived - alternative, and suggest some ways of dealing with fear… if, that is, you decide the regret of not facing the fear will weigh heavier than the fear. Because sometimes the fear is right. Just consider those f...

Routines, patterns of behaviour, habits (e.g. eating biscuits with a cup of tea) are often done without our conscious awareness.  This week we are talking about forming new habits, and breaking old ones, and just why that can be so hard! But we also have some top tips for supporting habit development and desired new behaviours, although Kirsty and I agree that biscuit-eating isn’t a habit we want...

The Black Knight and the last biscuit help us take a look at how positivity can turn toxic. On a more positive note (see what we did there?!), we also suggest the red flags to look out for, and how to keep to the positive side of positivity (which can often sound counter-intuitively negative). You’ll never hear the phrase “At least” in the same way again! Today’s question for you to mull over and...

‘What if’: two very powerful words that can take us in many different directions! Today we talk about the human tendency to ask ‘what if’ (or as we call it, ‘what iffery’ ), both in a positive and a negative way, and where it can lead us, for better or worse. Also, we discuss adding one small word to the beginning – ‘ so what if’ and just how this can change our thinking about what may come next!...

We explore what people pleasing is and isn’t, why it’s a problem and how to start to stop it. Bad news: if you think people pleasing is simply being a nice person and putting others first, then this might be an uncomfortable listen for you - especially the rather ouchy definition Kirsty offers… Good news: easing up on the people pleasing doesn’t turn you into a selfish arsehole. And if you want to...

This month, Mission Imperfect is 6 months old! We have released an episode every Wednesday since our launch in Oct 2024, and decided that is worth a moment of acknowledgement and celebration. Whilst as coaches we spend a lot of time helping others look forward, focusing on the what now and next, there is value in appreciating just how far you've come too - which we encourage you to do in this...

This week, we realise it has taken us until series 2 to talk explicitly about life coaching! We bust some myths around what life coaching is and isn't, so you can decide if it is of interest, or isn't - either answer is fine! 3 myths we discuss this week: 1) Coaching is like counselling, therapy or mentoring (or is the poor relation of those) 2) A coach will tell me what to do / how to sort my lif...

We couldn’t put this one off any longer… procrastination! We probably all do it, but it’s often misunderstood. This week, we are talking about why we put things off, is procrastination really a problem and how might we overcome / manage it. We also coin the term ‘positive procrastination’ for when it’s not always a bad thing.   Biscuits even manage to get a look in, because more often than not for...

As a society, we’re pretty obsessed with the rich and famous… but talking about money is often a bit of a taboo, isn’t it? Not in this episode of Mission Imperfect, though!! Join us in considering all the benefits of money and all the ways in which we’ve been conditioned to think of it as bad – confusing, much?! We also have some suggestions as to how to start addressing that cognitive dissonance...

Welcome to series 2 of Mission Imperfect! We’ve spoken about failure before… so it's only fair that it’s now the turn of success. What are markers of success and how do we translate success in our lives? We discuss signs of success and on whose terms in this week’s episode, along with being up the wrong ladder, success ‘traps’ and how to define it imperfectly your way instead!  Today’s questio...

It’s not just about how we look, it’s about how we feel, howwe value ourselves, and what we think we are capable of too – which the beauty industry knows too well! This week we are discussing all things related to howwe see ourselves,  the negative filters we have and how to remove them! We discuss ‘re-blonding’, eyelashes likeescaping spiders and one-legged high jumps; biscuits just sneak in.    ...

Kathryn talks about the idea that our lives are like books, with whatever phase we happen to be in being the current chapter, not the whole story. And, no matter how dramatically or sadly one chapter might end, there’s always a new chapter to follow it - and we always get to choose whether we’re the hero or the victim of our own stories. Kirsty, after wrongly claiming that this episode breaks with...

It’s just a word, but a troublesome one – in this episode we talk about all the reasons we dislike ‘should’, or as Kirsty puts it why it sucks the joy out of life, makes us feel inadequate, and separates us from our sense of who we are and what matters to us. And biscuits make a return!   Today’s question for you to mull over and which we also answer in the episode:   ‘What is the main feeling you...

Values are not something we tend to discuss with each other - but maybe we should, and today we’re doing just that! Values are invaluable (see what we did there?!) guides in life, alerting you to what/who is right - and not right - for you, and enabling you to carve out a path that feels good to YOU. Values can also be carefully curated tick box exercises, serving only to create an impression…espe...

In today’s episode we are talking about the areas in which we may want to have personal boundaries and how to communicate them (without having a personal rulebook to hand!). We think they are needed because without them we are in danger of entering ‘people pleasing’ land or ‘I wish I wasn’t here’ land – both undesirable!  Today’s question for you to mull over and which we also answer in the episod...

What if acceptance is not a sign of weakness or powerlessness, but is what allows you to tap into your strength and power to find positive ways of moving forward? We contemplate the possibility that resisting what you don’t want actually keeps you stuck in it, while acceptance allows you to process events and emotions; find ways of changing what can be changed, and make choices about what can’t be...

Many of us struggle with decision-making and place a lot of pressure on ourselves to make the ‘right’ one. This week we discuss thinking traps around decisions and making choices, including that there isn’t really any such thing as a right decision!  Today’s question for you to mull over and which we also answer in the episode:  ‘Can you identify one (or more!) of the 6 thinking traps playing out...

A trip to the introvert end of the introvert-extrovert spectrum, which turns out to be a lot less anti-social than you might expect, and not all the “loners” are serial killers! Needing quiet time to recharge your energy, and space to think before you speak, can lead to introverts feeling drained and “othered” by a society geared towards extroversion - we discuss how understanding introversion and...

Experiencing some doubt is normal, but what about self-doubt? What about when it becomes obstructive? This is our focus in today’s episode – how we can get stuck in a cycle of self-doubt and how to get out of it!  Fortunately we can still have healthy questioning and become more self-assured.  Today’s question for you to mull over and which we also answer in the episode:  ‘Do you recognise thought...

In a nutshell, our self-talk matters. In this week’s episode we are talking about what we are saying to ourselves about ourselves and how we can make this kinder.   Today’s question for you to mull over and which we also answer in the episode:  ‘What word or phrase are you going to look out for in your self-talk going forward, and how will you respond to it?’ Resources: Kirsty’s kinder self-talk e...

Thomas Edison helps us shed some light on the problem of the usual “boom” reaction to perceived failure, and the difference between being a failure and failing at something. We consider how our feelings about “failure” can be changed by the word “yet”; understanding what we truly want, and acceptance of the impermanence of both failure and success. Kathryn tells us how “failure” later resulted in...

We explore how our comfort zones gradually become less comfortable, leaving us with the choice of familiar discomfort or unknown discomfort…and the longer term possibility of a bigger and better comfort zone. We offer 4 tips to help you take that first step out of your comfort zone: focus on what you want; commit to one small action; journaling, and…coaching. Well, we would say that, wouldn’t we -...

It’s probably no surprise we are talking about new year resolutions for this episode, our first of 2025!  We discuss our aversion to SMART goals, and some general pitfalls of new year resolutions… and yet we both concede that we are in favour of direction, purpose and thinking about how we want to be and feel. So we’ve decided to talk about resolutions (at any time) the Kirsty and Kathryn way!  We...