The Beauty of Anchors Amidst Chaos
Do you feel busy, overwhelmed, or scattered?
Could your time and attention could be better aligned with your priorities?
Are you ready to feel more centred and ‘in charge’ of your day-to-day life?
It might be time for you to create some anchors.
What the heck are anchors - and what can they do for you?
My clients are LOVING them - and I think they are kinda magic!
Anchors are steadying practices that provide structure and nourish our sovereignty amidst the chaos of life.
So often we operate reactively when we’re overwhelmed, stressed, or beaten down by decision-making fatigue. (Yup, that’s a real thing: our brains get fried when we make too many decisions in a short period of time).
When we create anchors as thoughtful habits, we can reduce our stress levels and enhance our wellbeing.
Rituals that punctuate our days, weeks - even months and years - can help us achieve a stable mind.
Whether your life at the moment feels best characterized as a ship navigating heaving waters or serene waves, there’s something powerful about knowing you’ve got an anchor available to toss overboard.
It gives us peace of mind to know that we have the capacity to slow down; pause and orient; create a bit of respite from non-stop movement.
In our lives, anchors are a calming force, a tool we can employ to experience agency and control amidst conditions that are larger than us - and that can feel unsettling and even terrifying.
So, why are consistent, predictable routines like anchors?
Because our brains are wired for oscillation between the novel and the predictable.
To thrive in life, we need:
the richness of new stimulation AND soothing familiarity
stretching and reacting to the unknown AND resting and ‘grounding’ in the known
Building anchors into our lives nurtures the predictable and ‘controlled’ side of this dynamic dance.
Thoughtful, well-implemented anchors can function as flexible structures that settle us and nourish our creativity and capacity to respond resiliently to life’s flux.
Maybe you already have some anchors in your life or know people who employ them beautifully:
My aunt gets to the gym at 6:30am every weekday morning - right, that’s an anchor for her.
My friend fiercely protects her creative time in committed ways: her habits function as anchors.
You never managed to budget until you and your partner started a regular money date to track your finances over pizza and wine every Thursday evening. Once established, that’s an anchor!
To create an impactful anchor, a few things have to happen:
First: give thought to where you currently have a pain point - somewhere things consistently don’t work smoothly; your priorities keep getting put off or dropped; or systems are inefficient (or non-existent!).
You chronically scramble to create content for your podcast
At work, you’re hooked in busy work at the expense of important work
You’re constantly flying by the seat of your pants, with little rest or play built into your days
Second: brainstorm an anchor that could help
For example, one of my clients started carving out a half hour on Sundays to tie up loose threads from the past week and consider her goals for the week ahead. She described how this thirty-minute experience got her feeling energized, motivated, empowered - in short, over the moon to start her week with a fresh clean slate.
We talked about how this ritual, if turned into a habitual practice, could become an anchor.
Personally, for years, I’ve been longing to get back into some kind of exercise routine. But the days have been a blur of parenting and domestic demands and work and bits of friends and family squeezed in around the edges and I didn’t make those workouts happen.
Last spring, my coach asked me what support I would need to accomplish a goal and I realized that exercise would be invaluable. I blocked in time for short runs at the start of every work day, and this has become a joyful anchor. Those 20-30 minutes are nourishing, non-negotiable, and on autopilot. #anchorsforthewin!
So, what about you?
What anchor could powerfully enhance your life?
A monthly date night with your partner?
A brief walk outside of the office every lunch hour?
An hour booked every Friday that is pure ‘buffer time’ - ready to absorb the unexpected?!
Once you’ve identified it -
Third: schedule your anchor into your calendar (ideally, set to recurring)
Finally, please keep in mind:
Don’t expect to get your anchor going ‘perfectly’ - it’s an ever-iterating process!
Run experiments. Simply try one out for a bit.
You’ll tweak, pivot, and make changes as you go.
The seasons of your life will shift: the anchors you need will keep evolving, too.
When you establish and maintain anchors, you’re doing more than you think! You can use them to:
simplify your life
better know and honor your priorities
create opportunities to ground yourself
reduce decision-making fatigue and fuel focus, energy, and efficiency
build trust in yourself as you honor your commitments and intentions
lessen the tendency to get scattered, reactive and to drop important balls in your life
And hey - ships aren’t meant to be anchored all the time!
Likewise, I don’t believe our lives are intended to be hyper-scheduled.
But I do think there’s something to be said for the flow between the controlled and uncontrolled, the proactive and reactive, the planned and spontaneous.
For most of us, I’d argue we’ll experience:
No anchors = too much flux.
All anchors = too much rigidity.
A few key anchors = sweet spot!
Now, peeps, I have not mastered this whole concept.
I’ve been meaning for ages to get back to using an empowering personal finance budget tool called YNAB (You Need a Budget). Time for me to create an anchor around this goal.
It is so easy to feel defeated before I even start, part of me wants to throw my hands up and declare, “Honestly! There is no time. Where could I possibly fit this in?”
But I know that if it’s truly a priority, I’ll make the time to create the anchor. Period.
I’ll let go of something else. Or come up with a solution to carve out the time. I’ll figure it out.
I also experience the temptation to get all my anchors going at once: right now, I also want to restart my morning routine. I’m pumped to get a bajillion work anchors established to get the back end of my business running like a well-oiled machine. But I know the value and effectiveness of choosing to change just one small thing at a time.
So, please join me:
Start with one anchor... establish it… maintain it… then layer in another.
Allrightee, commitment time:
What anchor could make a big difference for you?
I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below. :)
P.S. Want support to create an anchor in your life? Book a free consultation with me here to see if I can help you cultivate change one brave step at a time. I’d love to hear from you. XO
Nicola Holmes is a Life Coach who helps people turn their potent questions, dream and longings into inspired action. With warmth and wisdom, she’ll guide you to untangle constraints and cultivate courage to create a more aligned and joyful life. She has a BASc in Human Development, an MEd in Adult Learning and spent two decades working in the non-profit sector. Along with coaching for the past 14 years, she’s mama to two young spirited kids and dedicated to Buddhism. Having experienced long Covid and a move over the past two years, she brings deep empathy to others who are exploring how they’ve changed and who they’re becoming in turbulent times. Check out Nicola @nicolaholmescoach or join the email party for inspiration and resources to fuel the changes you want.