I feel like I’m building a jigsaw puzzle, without referring to the picture on the box lid. I have a general idea of what it’ll look like, but the pieces are coming together in seemingly random connections, and I can’t see where they all go yet.

And sometimes, you think you have the right piece in the right place, and then things around it don’t work, so you have to re-jig it.

My partner (the techie one) spent hours trying to get the Subscribe button to work as it should, and over the course of two or three days, it flatly refused. Either it sent a thank-you email to the new contact, but the web page said the operation had failed, or it simply said there was a problem, but smugly declined to tell him what it was. So he uninstalled, reinstalled, tried workarounds, checked internet forums – and still it wouldn’t work right. It was starting to look like we’d made a wrong choice and would have to find an alternative.

So we left it. We were both unwell and over-tired, and we couldn’t face wrestling with the thing for a week or two. And when he tried again, everything just worked. Which is where the jigsaw analogy falls down – rarely does that lucky outcome happen!

Jigsaws also don’t tend to make me cry (though I’m sure it’s happened at some point in my life). But last week, exhausted from a shortage of sleep and interrupted nights, I was still facing what looked like a mountain of work to get everything to run smoothly. And I was nearly in tears with it. But after just a few hours of focus, the ‘finished’ picture is starting to emerge. There’s still plenty to do, but I can see the light up ahead. Thankfully, my sleep has improved at last, and I can now focus better and get more done. And I’m glad I didn’t push myself to do more than my brain was capable of doing, or I could have messed things up and be facing even more work to fix it.

Next, I needed to write something sensible in the emails that go out to new subscribers, so they don’t just get the test text. I’ve drafted two now, and added links to access my freebies – 3 Ways to Instant Calm (a tip sheet and an audio file of the tip sheet) – so they should be up and running now. That’s another square that can be ticked off the Task List Bingo sheet.

Task List Bingo? My gift to you! A great idea I cribbed from a friend. Mark a sheet of paper with a grid of nine boxes. Write 8 tasks in the outer boxes, and inside, put something you’d like to do for yourself. It works best if the tasks are non-linear, ie can be done in any order.

Do a task, cross it off. When all 8 outer boxes are crossed off, take some time to do the thing in the middle – just for you. No cheating now! That last part is important.

Of course, there’s always something else to do when setting up a business. I’m now trying not to panic about the fact that the jigsaw box contains several puzzles, not just one. Coping to Confidence is my signature course for now, but I have other ideas for courses. Do I get the more advanced one drafted, written and running next? Will it be an extension of the first, or a separate one? I’m intending it to focus more on the personal development, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence opportunities offered by menopause. And I want to do one called Embracing the Crone, which will look at the women/goddesses of British (and maybe other cultures’) myth and legend, and use their stories as illustrations of the human condition and as models for working on our own stuff. Will that be the same course, or a different one? Oh, and I want to put together some 3-hour workshops on some of my specialisms. What will I offer first? When will I offer it? When will I find the time to create it?

And that’s not even all. I’m hoping to start a podcast with my friend who’s an astrologer specialising in midlife. We figure our content could be very interesting and helpful for each other’s audiences, and it’ll help ‘our people’ find us more easily. But fitting that in could be a challenge! It was she who suggested, in a Zoom chat recently, that I could offer one-off workshops in some of my specialised subjects. My mind instantly flashed up ideas such as Keto Weight Loss Coaching, The Spiritual Invitations of Menopause, or Chakra and Tarot Coaching. I love the idea, but it may have to wait until I’ve taken early retirement, hopefully in mid-June.

Yes, I’m retiring from my day job at last! I’ve put in my request, and I’m just waiting to hear more details. My last day, I hope, will be my 60th birthday. Then the adventure of making a living from my business truly begins.

When that happens, I’ll have way more time for the novel I’ve just started writing. Much like Crystal Companions, released last year, it’ll feature students at an evening class – this time focusing on Menopause, of course – and this time it’ll contain the fictionalised stories of real-life women (not just me), with their permission, of course. So if you have a story you’d like me to include, please email back and let me know. I’m champing at the bit to get started, and I have one story to begin with, but there’s still a lot of work to be done on my Coping to Confidence offer before I can find the time for that. I even have a working title – The Menopause Meetup. Let me know what you think in the comments.

As I told Lauren Chiren, who interviewed me last week for her Women of a Certain Stage podcast, I really don’t have time to work! I’ve been saying it for years, and now, finally, it looks like the Universe may be listening! Of course, I have to take action as well, but it feels like it’s all starting to come together. All I need now (apart from to finish writing the slides for the last few sessions of Coping to Confidence!) are the clients.

My new business? I’m building it. And they will come. They will come, not because I go out and sell it to them, but because they resonate with me. Because they’re my tribe. Because, and here’s the thing that makes it all worthwhile, we will light each other up, and that’ll not only help each one of us, but make the world a little brighter for us all.