If you asked me what I’m most proud of achieving in my life, it wouldn’t be starting a business which is 20 years old this year, or any of my other work-based achievements.

It would be training a young horse from scratch. It was so far outside my comfort zone that it felt braver than anything I’d ever tried before. And my stomach still skips when I think of the journey Merlin and I went on.

In 2023, 11 years later, I’ve started that journey again with a 21-month-old filly who joined our family a few weeks ago.

I started having piano lessons when I was about six. I’d been clambering up onto the piano stool and banging out a few ‘tunes’ since a toddler and so my father, in his wisdom, decided I should have some lessons. Less wisely, he chose the same teacher who’d taught him as a child, Mr Lovell, perhaps overlooking the fact that many years had passed in the interim. Each lesson, the poor old man would fall asleep beside me, and I’d resort to banging the notes extra loudly to try and wake him up. In fairness, he did manage to get me through my Grade 2 exam before I grew bored of my ability to comatose him.

Someone told me the other day that they never tell anyone that they’re a star. Which drew my attention to the fact that I do. All the time. I even tried it with my French teacher but apparently it’s not a phrase the French use. She suggested I use instead, “Tu es un as” (You are an ace). I think I’ll have to be very careful not to mix my languages.

Anyway, this got me thinking about praise in general, how often we recognise stars in our teams and organisations and, perhaps, more importantly, which stars we notice.

Desk-bombing; it’s a thing apparently. The latest in a long line of office catchphrases. It describes the act of approaching someone at their desk to talk to them, without warning.

Apparently, in some circles, this is considered scandalous. So, let me confess upfront, I am a desk-bomber. I delight in it; always have.

I was reflecting at the weekend on a moment with Mum. We were in the kitchen. We knew she only had weeks to live, but I remember her looking out of the window and telling me that things seemed more beautiful than ever before. That she was seeing things she’d always appreciated, but perhaps taken for granted, in a new light.

It seemed to me that at the very moment time was running out, Mum stopped worrying so much about the future and really began to appreciate the now.

A report from Adobe has suggested that creativity is the skill most sought by recruiters in 2022.

The problem is a lot of people don’t think they’re creative. In fact, there’s a widespread belief that creativity is something you’re either born with, or not, and that there’s nothing you can do about it.

Every week, one of my virtual team poses a Question of the week via email. It can be anything.

The questions are a great way to generate banter and, even within a team that has (for the most part) been together for more than 10 years, we’re still regularly learning new things about each another.

Last week’s question, from Zoe, was a particularly good one, I thought. She asked us what we’d each left school to do.

COVID; it finally got me. My symptoms were mostly those of a cold, but it was exhausting nonetheless, and I decided to do what I’d insisted other team members do in the same circumstances. I took time off to relax and fight it.

But I really don’t want your sympathy, and I’ll explain why.

Ok, most of us probably don’t listen to LPs anymore, but I realised the other day that I probably have over 1,500 songs on my Spotify playlist that I can sing along to. I’m sure my neighbours, and anyone I pass in the car, wishes that wasn’t so, but there it is.

Have you ever considered how many songs you know, at least in part? I bet it’s a lot. Why is that?

The answer lies in pattern.