🎙️ Episode 25: Caution - Retrograde Ahead

Mercury Retrograde gets blamed for everything – broken tech, stalled plans, wonky emotions and the odd meltdown in the middle of Tesco. But is it really that dramatic, or have we all just absorbed a load of doom-scroll mythology?

In this episode, we take a grounded, no-nonsense look at retrograde: what it is, what it isn’t, and how you can actually use it to support your life and business instead of hiding under a blanket waiting for it to pass.

We talk about the unexpected gifts that come with this season – slowing down, checking back in, fixing what needs attention and spotting the patterns we’ve been too busy to notice. We explore where retrograde can genuinely trip us up, where the myths have taken over, and how to navigate the wobblier moments without spiralling.

We also offer simple journal prompts to help you use this end-of-retrograde window as a reset: a moment to review, recalibrate and make small changes that add up to big clarity.

No fear. No superstition. Just a practical, human conversation about reflection, progress and working with the season instead of fighting it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:28

Welcome back to Awesomely Off Topic. It's December the second. The fairy lights are going up, and the world is already arguing about mince pies. And mince pies. Do you know I don't particularly like them that much, but I always feel that I need to have them at Christmas, and then I do like them.

SPEAKER_01: 0:43

Sorry, squirrel, I'm going off topic already, but I just I quite like them. You can get those mini ones. I nearly got some vegan ones in Liddell last week.

SPEAKER_00: 0:50

Yeah, because they are quite good, but I just wondered if that was just a so anyway, apart from mince pies and the fairy lights going up, um, Mercury has literally just come out of retrograde, and that's something that's that's something that's interesting for us because of course in one of your outros that people hear on occasional episodes, we actually talk about Mercury being in and out of retro.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12

We thought we'd better have a podcast about it then. Well, not just about it, we did, but we did. Yeah, so so basically we've come out of that. So Mercury is moving forward again, right? Yeah, yeah. So there's no more kind of official retrograde time, it's now we're in the kind of post-shadow. I like that post-shad retrograde cosmic cleanup mode now. Yeah, exactly. So so we're we're in cosmic cleanup. That's a nice bit of alliteration. That's a bit of cosmic cleanup. Cool, that was good.

SPEAKER_00: 1:38

But the the point is that the the drama hasn't gone. Oh, I don't know. Because it doesn't go straight away. Right. It's just a bit quieter now. So it's like when um it's like when the storm passes, but your garden furniture's still in next door's hedge.

SPEAKER_01: 1:52

I've actually had that. We had that a bit with a bit of a um I think a bit of a shed came off, didn't it, in the last high winds or something?

SPEAKER_00: 1:58

I think it might have done because next door neighbours got Bailey came in with some of the tarp that we'd got over the reef in his gob.

SPEAKER_01: 2:04

Yeah, he did. So that does.

SPEAKER_00: 2:05

That's a cockapoo, not like a neighbour or something. We've just got this weird vision. We've got a neighbour called Bailey. Just to outline this, this episode is we promise it's not going to be all astro astrology nerd, because actually, neither Ash nor I are astrology nerds. We're interested in it.

SPEAKER_01: 2:21

I've got several books on it that Tuz has bought me, one of which is like a huge book, and I keep going to it and going, I don't think my brain can deal with it today. Tell me your radiation. So I want to learn, and I am learning a little bit, but just the whole thing. I only bought you the books because you asked for them. I know, but I'm now I'm like, oh, I don't know if I can do it.

SPEAKER_00: 2:40

But carry on. I know. Anyway, go on. So anyway, so we are we are not that nerdy and geeky with with um with astrology and planetary movements.

SPEAKER_01: 2:48

So apologies now in advance to any astrologers listening.

SPEAKER_00: 2:51

Absolutely. And if you want to, if you wanna, I was gonna say call in, but email in or message in with some with some comments, you're you're more than welcome to, and we'll share them on our socials.

SPEAKER_01: 2:59

But just be kind, please.

SPEAKER_00: 3:01

The point is, even though we are not astrology geeks, what we're interested in in this episode is what's actually going on. Why do we always blame Mercury retrograde for any chaos in our lives?

SPEAKER_01: 3:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:15

And is this actually a chance to realign, realign, realign? Well, yeah, get into the right lane. To re realign without just saying, Oh, it's chaos, blame the sky.

SPEAKER_01: 3:25

Oh, it's a good one to hide behind, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00: 3:29

Yeah, it is. I did do a little bit of research before we went on air.

SPEAKER_01: 3:32

Good one then. So I don't know any we've not can you tell we've not rehearsed any of this. We don't do rehearsing. Come on, then enthrall me with your knowledge.

SPEAKER_00: 3:40

So Mercury retrograde officially ran from the 9th to the 29th of November. So it's literally just finished. Yeah, we're now in post-shadow. You're quite quite right with what we said earlier. I do take in some stuff. But the post-shadow phase lasts until around December the 16th. Okay. So we're now in that place of processing, intro, integrating, and doing the tidy up tidying up. So what it affects, I'm reliably informed, thanks to Chat GPT, is communication, tech, travel, paperwork, misunderstandings. What people normally do, blame Mercury when their phone dies or their email goes weird, but it's actually an invitation to slow down a review. And it says that post shadow is perfect for questions like what did that chaos show me? What did I ignore that came back again? What needs fixing before I launch into 2026 at full speed? Yeah. So if and again, if you're listening to this, please do let us know. Get in touch, tell us what what have been your biggest Mercury metro retrograde moments of over the last month. Have you had some tech tantrums? Have you had has there been a bit of an emotional boomerang time? I know we've been experiencing some of those. I don't know what you mean. Well, not this time around, because of course when we're recording this, it hasn't started, but in past Mercury retrograde, so now we will have done it. Okay. Here's an old mate reappeared, maybe.

SPEAKER_01: 5:04

Oh doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo so next today when we're recording.

SPEAKER_00: 5:10

Just as we were about to start recording this, and here's a here's a cosmic nod because of course we were about to start talking about Mercury retrograde, but it hasn't technically hit yet. One of our old work colleagues who I used to work with 15 years ago spotted us in the cafe, popped her head in and came in for a chat because they've now moved their old whole place of operations over to the offices where we now do this. So Lisa Johnson, if you're listening, hello! Hello, it was good to see you again.

SPEAKER_01: 5:35

Just as I was I was gripping my sandwich as she appeared behind me. Nearly dropped me coffee and went, Oh, that lady looks familiar. Oh so there you go, it's one of those moments. It was timely was that.

SPEAKER_00: 5:49

Very timely. So I did ask as well, because surely it's not just Mercury that goes retrograde, is it? All the planets are having a little tango all the time. So right now, go on then, Neptune is still in retrograde until December the 10th. Okay. That's that's the dreamy planet, it's around illusions versus truth. Uh, apparently it's good for asking what fantasy needs adjusting. Oh, don't think it necessarily means that kind of thing. Oh, okay. Sorry, I don't know what you mean my brain didn't go anywhere I think. Mind out of the gutter. Absolutely. That's clear water. Um Saturn has just finished retrograde. That finished around about November the 27th. That's the planet of boundaries, structure, and adulting. I know neither of us like to do adulting.

SPEAKER_01: 6:35

No, we don't do that. It's not good for your health.

SPEAKER_00: 6:36

Yep. Um, and given that we've just been talking about fantasy, that's adulting, not adultering, if that happens to float your boat. It's apparently the perfect time to ask what rules or commitments do I need to tighten or soften after that?

SPEAKER_01: 6:51

Oh.

SPEAKER_00: 6:52

So therefore, with all of that to take in touch.

SPEAKER_01: 6:54

This is probably why I haven't read my astrology. I know. It's like, you know, we're only what a few minutes, six minutes and thirty-one seconds into a podcast, and I my my brain is blown.

SPEAKER_00: 7:03

So when I I reckon with all this Mercury retrograde stuff, and yeah, you know, a few years back, I didn't realise Mercury was in retrograde, but there were there were there were several Mercury retrogrades one after the other, where I look back and went, my god, everything was going to shit. Why is this happening? And somebody said, Oh, well, Mercury's in retrograde, or I'd drop a note through to one of my pals or one of my clients who does do a lot of astrology and go, the shit's really hitting my fan at the minute. What's going on? Oh, yeah, Mercury's in retrograde. But one of the things I've learned, which ties into my kind of why why's this happened for me, flip me negatives, is it's not about cosmic chaos, it's more about a cosmic audit. Oh, okay. Do tell more, more well, it's a chance to kind of clean things up, isn't it? So very what what people know Mercury retrograde for more than anything, as far as I can tell, is that it's things from the past coming back to bite them on the bum. Yeah. Or it's emotional upheaval, things that you thought you've dealt with. Yeah, and it comes back to hello, I'm here again.

SPEAKER_01: 8:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:05

Have you properly dealt with this? Have you? It's a bit like when we're doing medicine work and we talk about the Kachina spirits. So the spirits that come in to test you and check that you've checked that you've you're walking your path, you're walking your talk, and you're actually doing the work.

SPEAKER_01: 8:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:17

It's a bit like that, isn't it? It's like, let's just come in and poke you a little bit.

SPEAKER_01: 8:20

Yeah, she's actually listeners, she's poking me now.

SPEAKER_00: 8:23

Yeah, physically poking. Did you get to say with your finger?

unknown: 8:28

No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 8:29

With my left ear lobe.

SPEAKER_01: 8:31

Move, move on, move on. This is going strangely strange. Look, somebody we're gonna get like Lord Luke and turn up at the door in a minute or something. I'm showing my A channel, aren't I? Everybody'll be saying, Who the hell is look who was, who is, who was, who was. Anyway, carry on, carry on. This is very strange.

SPEAKER_00: 8:47

So it's when things just generally start to go wrong. A bit like this podcaster. The other thing, the other thing that I found out earlier, which is interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 9:00

Was that a mercurial um can you say mercurian? Mercurial. A Mercurian glitch then. A Mercurial glitch. A mercurial glitch. Mercurial glitch. Yeah, go on. I'm serious Nettas, I'm putting my serious face on.

SPEAKER_00: 9:12

Interestingly, the character of Miranda Priestley from The Devil Wears Prada is often described in fanfiction, not that I ever read any of that. No, of course you don't. As a mercurial character. Is she? Yeah. Such a great word. Mercurial's a sexy word, isn't it? Anyway, interestingly, or perhaps not, but I found this quite interesting to the geeky parts of my brain. The appearance of Mercury moving backwards in the sky is an optical effect. It's not literally a reverse orbit. So it's not really going backwards, it just looks like it is.

SPEAKER_01: 9:40

Oh, so could we put that to ourselves in sometimes we might look like we're going backwards, but we're not. I thought that when I looked at my microscope in the in the mirror in the car just now, actually.

SPEAKER_00: 9:55

You just look like we're moving with a glacial place.

SPEAKER_01: 10:00

No, that's me and short legs. But anyway, oh bless you. They've got lovely legs. I know, but they're only like three inches long. No comment.

SPEAKER_00: 10:07

Oh, okay. Anyway, so mustn't be legist. If it is, stuff that comes up largely from the past that bishops in the backside, or just you know, chaos. Maybe you get c you end up being late to an appointment because of a traffic jam or whatever, because travel is one of the things, isn't it? Or maybe you don't get an email, or somebody doesn't get your in your email, or there's contracts that come up that you're not sure about. Anyway, all of these things, we can either just keep blaming it and saying it's chaotic and it's horrible and I'm completely out of control, or we can say, like the Kachina spirits, these things are coming up to poke us. I'm now poking her again, dear listeners.

SPEAKER_01: 10:46

With her finger.

SPEAKER_00: 10:47

With my finger.

SPEAKER_01: 10:49

On my arm. Thank you. It's getting worse. It's carry on. I'm just gonna in the cheek. The one on the face. This is the carry-on episode. Or don't carry on, what's in the boy? Carry on up the mercury. I don't jump out that. Oh Daddy, I think I've broken the apocalypse. Carry on it off top of it.

SPEAKER_00: 11:19

Carry on, carry on. Isn't it actually? As I've now said for about the 15th time, should we not be treating it in the same way that we treat it when we talk about kachina spirits and it's just something coming to give us a poke and say, have you really worked through that? Did you finish that properly? That's your audit. Yeah, that's your audit. Yeah. So what do you think?

SPEAKER_01: 11:40

Yeah, I think it's a chance to reassess and see that you know, if you say that you're walking your talk, but actually in your business, have you actually done that thing that you said you were gonna do? And not only that, have you reassessed it? Is that still right for you in that moment? I know I've been guilty of that when I've not I've said, Oh yeah, I'm gonna do this this month, and I don't quite get round to it. Yeah, but it's a chance to go back and actually look at what the opportunities you've had for that month, that year, that six months, that quarter.

SPEAKER_00: 12:06

And if something comes back that you were uncomfortable before and you're like, I thought I'd dealt with this bloody thing, why has it come back again?

SPEAKER_01: 12:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:12

What's that about then? What's a different way we could reframe that?

SPEAKER_01: 12:15

Well, it's how you how you handle it, how are you handling it differently this time? You know, what have you learned from the last time and what have how have you changed things and the way you're appro you approach it?

SPEAKER_00: 12:25

Has it been quite as triggering? If it has, you haven't done the work, and if it hasn't, yay, well done, you've passed the test.

SPEAKER_01: 12:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. So yeah, I think that's important for all of us in business and you know, for over everything in life, isn't it? Things keep coming back, they come back for a reason. What can we what have we learned from the last time and how can we do things differently this time around?

SPEAKER_00: 12:46

Yeah. So it's that cleanup phase, isn't it? So we this can either this can be the time for realignment, but also because we're just coming out of it in that shadow phase, this can be a proper wrap-up time and looking back at all of that stuff. Did we do things well? Can we do things differently next time? What do we want to learn from it? Why did it need to come back for us? What can we do? Of course, you might be listening to this and thinking Mercury retrograde and astrology is all a pile of olives, and that's equally as valid. You know, if if you if that's your if that's your bag, in which case, how do you deal with things when it feels like the the shit's hitting your personal fan? Do you ever blame it on anything or do you just see it just as life, part of a rich tapestry? There's a there's a wonderful quote, I forget who it was from now, but I've I've I've used it several times. The if a problem doesn't have a solution, then there's no problem. It's just part of life's rich tapestry.

SPEAKER_02: 13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:46

Which I think is a lovely one to stop us dwelling on something, because so often we get caught in that dwell over something that we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01: 13:51

Oh ruminating.

SPEAKER_00: 13:52

Ruminating over something that we cannot change. Yeah. If you can't change it and there's no solution, then stop trying to solve it.

SPEAKER_01: 13:59

Well you've you're kind of beating yourself up, aren't you? For no good reason. Yeah. By doing that, and yeah, of course I've fallen into those patterns of doing that, yeah. To the point where you're like, for goodness sake, change the change the topic, change the the script. Yeah, change it, you know, change everything.

SPEAKER_00: 14:14

And for those of you who do believe, then use it. If you know it's coming, do the obvious stuff. If you if you worry that this particular planetary um reverse or not, optical illusion of reverse is gonna screw things up for you, then maybe it's a time to be extra careful and to be vigilant of all those things that we should be being vigilant about anyway. So things like I'm not gonna give Asher a hard stare at this point, things like backing up your data.

SPEAKER_01: 14:42

I think she looked over my shoulder than everybody. There must be somebody in the room behind us.

SPEAKER_00: 14:46

Backing up your data so that you never have one of those, I've just been I was writing this thing in word and it's just crashed and it's disappeared, and it's eating my document. Don't know what she means. Hitting the save button regularly, even if you've got autosave switched on, just in case. Yes, I am better at that. Thank you. Double checking that way. Double checking all your contracts, looking at the small print. Uh what else? What else could we be really paying attention to if we're in those phases that we should be bringing in as as not?

SPEAKER_01: 15:11

Okay, there are set your accounts, even if you've got an accountant still looking at the months, you know, month by month. Yeah. Where am I kind of you know, bleeding money a bit where I don't need to, for instance, or where am I not investing where I could be?

SPEAKER_02: 15:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:24

You know, all things like that, keeping that and again something else that I don't do often enough. I've got slightly better, but thank goodness because I've got a a good accountant on board, but actually that I can do not just end of year or twice yearly or quarterly, but on a regular basis. Um what else? What else?

SPEAKER_00: 15:40

What about when things do go wrong and the way that we approach that? So accepting delays or mix-ups or fuck-ups just without beating yourself up too much. It's part of the it's part of the cosmic rhythm, dude. You really have been reading this stuff, haven't you?

SPEAKER_01: 15:55

Are you alright? Are you having a moment? Yeah, it's all cosmic rhythm. It's all good. Wow, I can see you on your little magic carpet flying around at that glacial pace where you say you're just like it. What happened? Poor old Gordon, yeah. What happened to Gordon? Um but joking aside, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:12

We go stuck in traffic on the way to a meeting or something, and you go into absolute radio wheels.

SPEAKER_01: 16:19

I don't always now. I am slightly better now, I think, to be fair.

SPEAKER_00: 16:23

Can you let me know next time you're actually being better so that I can recognise it? I have been slightly better. You go into that phase where, particularly if if there's somebody waiting for us at the other end, it's almost like it's part of what you need to do. You need to be really angry and really upset to show them that you definitely weren't late on purpose.

SPEAKER_01: 16:43

No comment.

SPEAKER_00: 16:46

But you do you do get roverage if we're in a delay, don't you?

SPEAKER_01: 16:50

Yeah, but I've found out the hard way about that. Sometimes I can bite you on the bum. Not literally, but have you? Well with the man with the plank of wood coming at me. I've talked about that in an earlier podcast, I think. Nobody wants a man with the plank of wood coming at him. No, I know. I just I think yeah, I where do I go with that? You know that I have issues around yes.

SPEAKER_00: 17:12

But one of the reframes for that, if we get caught in a jam, particularly if it's because of an accident, we'll go, well. I'd rather get caught in a Nutella.

unknown: 17:23

What?

SPEAKER_01: 17:24

Instead of jam. There's another sponsorship opportunity. Carry on. My wife says. Go on. Anyway, yeah, one of the reasons.

SPEAKER_00: 17:36

If we're caught in a jam that's been caused by an accident. I'm talking about something serious. It's been caused by an accident. Yeah. Then one of the reframes I'll often use is well, it's better to be stuck in this jam than being ten minutes earlier.

SPEAKER_01: 17:49

Yes, of course. I get that. For instance. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:51

Or even if there's no good reason for the jam, well, okay, what did we need to see on this route? There's something here for us. What's in this force?

SPEAKER_01: 17:58

Well, yeah, and we've had Joking aside, we've had several moments where there's been quite serious accidents, and if we'd been like we've all been in that situation, I'm sure, where if we'd been five minutes earlier, that might have been us. Yeah. And that's a real reminder of that, isn't it? When you if you're on a route somewhere, if you'd been five minutes earlier than you were, then it could have been very different.

SPEAKER_00: 18:19

So and we had one particular episode when we looked in the rearview mirror and we were behind us, but that's perhaps another weird. I think we mentioned that on another podcast, possibly.

SPEAKER_01: 18:26

Did we? I think that's what we have done.

SPEAKER_00: 18:28

Yeah, we did. Anyway, so regardless of whether it's in Mercury retrograde or not, if something does go wrong, instead of beating yourself up, what about after the fact trying to find a way to again audit it, capture everything you could have learned from it? Yeah. What can I learn from this? Integrate anything that you actually did learn. There's a there's a pony business word, isn't it? Integrate. Integrate.

SPEAKER_01: 18:51

It's a good word. Yeah, it is a good word, but it's a bit yeah, yeah. So yeah, how can you adapt so that you don't get caught out in the same kind of energy next time and that you can turn it into something positive?

SPEAKER_00: 19:03

And just a quick note on intro integration, nothing to do with Mercury retrograde, but if you're one of those person who people who who love events and you like to guru hop around events, please make sure you're at least integrating everything that you learned before you just skip on to the next one and don't learn anything. Anyway, back to the point. Okay. That's one of my pet hates that when people go to events, not my events, but I've been with so many in the game, I didn't learn anything from that. We talked about that briefly earlier.

SPEAKER_02: 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 19:27

But how often, and I've been guilty of it, I know there are events I've been through in the past where there's a ma amazing teachings in it, but have I sat and re-watched the replay or gone through the notes? No. Integrate, integrate the learnings. Anyway, back on time. Why do people blame Mercury Mercury retrograde then, do you think?

SPEAKER_01: 19:44

It's a it's a good it's a good uh excuse, isn't it? It's a scapegoat, basically. It's like, oh no, it's Mercury Rec retrograde, it's nothing to do with me. It's not that I haven't actually integrated, and then from the last time around I've just allowed it to repeat itself and I've not done anything differently. It's that, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00: 20:03

That's the greatest scapegoat ever. Yeah, it is. And it's back to my flip your negatives hashtag again, isn't it? You know, it's you can see it as a punishment or something horrible that you have no choice over, or again, it's a signal, it's a chance to to to refine things to look at what you can do differently. So again, chaos or a chance to realign.

SPEAKER_01: 20:23

That's a much better, it's a positive reframe, isn't it? But how many people are gonna say that? Because the first thing you think about is Mercury. It's got it's got a bad press, hasn't it? Yeah. Mercury retrograde. Yeah. Instead of seeing it as a opportunity for growth, yeah. It's seen as the oh no, we're gonna go through the excuse my French shit again, we're gonna go through all that again. Well, yeah, with that attitude you are. Yeah. And I know I've been guilty of that and can be guilty of that. So it's a it's a great reminder that it doesn't have to be that way, it doesn't have to replay again, exactly as it did before. Yeah. And as you said, it's about going back and thinking about what you've learnt the first time around and how you can approach things differently this time. Yeah. Rather than seeing it as the big scapegoat.

SPEAKER_00: 21:03

So I guess ultimately in this phase now, as we're coming out of it, if you have had all of those things that people say are connected to Mercury retrograde, you've had, I don't know, tech glitches or communication mix-ups or old messages popping up, people from your past reappearing, then what if what if instead of blaming Mercury retrograde, you go, What what can this do for me? Why why is this showing up for me?

SPEAKER_01: 21:25

It's interesting, isn't it? Because you gotta you've got to look at your plans, haven't you? So you've got to review where you are. I think retrograde gives you that opportunity to like look at where you've been, yeah, where you're going and where you are in that moment, how you can improve things for the future. So it's a really again, it's that growth opportunity, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00: 21:45

Oh, what about things that you've half done and then left pause? So so often we we go head first, don't we, into I need to launch something new, I need a new launch. But how many I sounded a bit like Michael McIntyre then. Oh, did you? He did a bit. No, you did actually, I can hear that.

SPEAKER_02: 21:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 22:00

Yeah, okay. Um I saw him live once before he was famous. Did you? Was he good? He was very funny. It was at a veterinary conference and he was talking about um he was asking for the the weirdest names that people had had for animals coming in, and this vet in the audience shouted that he had a dog cut banana tits. Michael, what was wrong with it? And the vet said mastitis, it went right over Michael's head and he didn't get it at all. We were all in hysterics. Anyway, back in my own way.

SPEAKER_01: 22:31

Okay, and anyway, go on.

SPEAKER_00: 22:32

So you were saying seriously that we all have these we all have plans and ideas that we don't fully film. Either we put a post out on social and it doesn't get warm response, so we don't know nobody takes takes it up. Yeah, so therefore I'm not doing it. Yeah. Or we'll we'll have a brilliant idea, stick it in your iPhone notes, or you know, reluctantly your Android notes for those kinds of people listening. I'm teasing. Don't be Androidist. Um, Android tech is better than iPhone tech a lot of the time, it's just the brand name thing, isn't it? Um so what about instead of going headlong into launch phase, you you look at the plans that you haven't fully seen through before. In fact, we've all got oh loads. Like a a room of lost ideas.

SPEAKER_01: 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:19

I often joke about that with our ADHD brains having this kind of museum of museum of half-thought-out brilliant ideas.

SPEAKER_01: 23:26

Well, we frequently do that. If we're on a rare occasion when we're sorting out people, we are still declustering. I think we've been clustering our house for the next 20 years, but we find stuff, don't we? Go through notes and things and find all these fantastic ideas and go, God, do you remember that? We were so full of enthusiasm about that. What happened? Why did it stop? What happened for us to notes, didn't we?

SPEAKER_00: 23:46

About a week ago from January 2025 from this year, and looked at everything. We'd put all these plans in for things that we were gonna launch by which date, and we went through going, oh, did that ahead of schedule, did that, did that, and half done that, haven't done that, forgot all about that, forgot all about that, did that, forgot all about that.

SPEAKER_01: 24:02

And you know we've all got them, haven't we?

SPEAKER_00: 24:04

But how many of us actually brand new, without going into all the full details, arm to our businesses that we were due to launch this year, then we forgot about it. It's gonna happen. But you do it's gonna happen in 2026, I reckon. Yeah. Because it's bloody brilliant, it's a no-brainer. But we just wrote it down and then went tick.

SPEAKER_01: 24:21

I love that idea. So again, so if we didn't have Mercury in retrograde like that, that gives us an opportunity to look back at all those things that we've kind of missed that we've got forgotten in amongst you know, all the other things going on in our businesses and our personal lives, and suddenly we've got, oh yeah, I forgot about that. And maybe to us, maybe that's happened because at that time it wasn't the right time for whatever reason, whether it's planetary alignment or something else, or just stuff going on within our own lives. At that time, we could have launched something, but maybe it wouldn't have had the huge impact that it could potentially have in say six months' time or a year's time. Yeah. I love that. I love that because again it leaves you with that potential and doesn't it, that feeling of hope for the future that you've got all these ideas. Sometimes it's worth looking back at stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 25:04

Yeah. You don't have to wait for the planets to align perfectly to launch something in the same way that you don't have to wait for a new year to set yourself some new goals or objectives or I much prefer intentions. Um you can do it at any time. You don't have to wait for a specific time. But certainly if there's stuff that you know has gone off the boil in the past, revisit it, revisit it. I like that. If it's taken something like Mercury retrograde for you to start looking at things like that, then hey, there's something brilliant it's done for us, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01: 25:32

It's fabulous. Love it. So actually, after all this, I must admit, when we first got onto this podcast and we were talking about Mercury in retrograde, I was a little bit fearful because I do, you know, I've listened to that and you know, going through old stuff and things, I get a bit anxious about it. But actually, it's not a bad thing, is it? As you said, it's that chance to reflect, and you know, it gives you very often when you find those little gems that you've missed to go back on them if things come up and this time around, and then you can say to yourself, Do you know what? I dealt with that a lot better this time. I've just showed it's just shown me how much I've grown, how much I've progressed personally, professionally, and that's a lovely place to be, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00: 26:09

And that doesn't mean that when things are hitting, it's not going to feel really shitty at the time. Of course not. But that'll happen regardless of where the planets are.

SPEAKER_01: 26:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:17

You know, so just again, learn from it. What's in it for what's in it for us? How can we how can we learn from it? It's a it's an invitation, isn't it, to think about what what what start that again, Taz. I glitched that, it's my tentative glitch. Regardless of what's going on with the planets and what the alignment is, even if you're completely oblivious to them, it's always worth every now and then just having a think, flip through your own old notes, old journals, old iPhone iPhone notes, whatever, or Android notes, and just go, okay, if I was going to give myself this week or today, or or even a half hour segment to be in a a time of review, not just for com for about communication, but for structure and planning, what would I need to relook at? It's not worth every now and then just scheduling in like a review day to go back through all the old stuff and go, what have you not launched? What have you missed? What have you forgotten around about? What's gathering dust?

SPEAKER_01: 27:11

And think about that again, because of where we are, there might be that idea that you came to, say, six months ago or two years ago, but again, you might have picked up, well you will have picked up other tidbits of information that you can bring into that with a new understanding of it and approaching it in a different way. It's a bit like when I talk about content prompts, you can go back to those again and again. These you can go back to, and each time you're gonna come up with some other nugget of undiscovered brilliance, yeah, it's gonna lead to something that maybe you couldn't have created two years ago when you first had that initial thought. Yeah. So Mercury retrograde, who would have guessed it?

SPEAKER_00: 27:44

It's actually quite a good thing. And it depends what spin you put on it, doesn't it? Because you can either you can say something like, I don't know, um what is unresolved that needs finishing, which for me always feels a little bit, oh my god, I'm resolved, I'm resolved. I don't like it. But it means the same thing, doesn't it? It's the spin we put on it. Yeah. What have I got sitting in my coffers that I haven't done anything with that could be amazing? It's actually the same as what is sitting there unresolved. But one carries this really ominous, shadowy weight, and the other is full of excitement. One's expansive and one constricts. It's fascinating, isn't it? Just from the language.

SPEAKER_01: 28:22

This has been quite an interesting episode. I wasn't I must confess, I was a little bit about this one. I thought, is this gonna work? But I hope I hope you've enjoyed it or you're enjoying it, listeners. Yeah. Anything else about Mercury retrograde before we should probably start to wrap up, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 28:35

But I suppose the the key points is given that we've just come out of it and we're in this kind of shadowy phase, yeah that we just we found out about only today in researching for this episode. What does the energy that's still circulating ask us ask of us now? Uh do we need to have more patience with ourselves? Do we need to be double checking things? Do we need to be just relaxing into a slower pace, which is normal for this time of year anyway? I've got another episode coming up about that at some point soon.

SPEAKER_01: 29:02

Well, it's interesting because I've had I've got a good example, I think, of that quite recently, because I've um some of some of the way I'm work has changed a little bit because of some of the client contracts I've got going on at the moment. Yeah. And I think one of the things I've realized is I I need for the best the best work I do, I need to give myself those breaks. I've talked about having breaks as in between creative things that I'm doing, whether it's proofreading or writing or creating content. And your version of a good old Pomodoro technique. Yeah, so I need to I need to stop just for a few minutes. And that's coming back to some of the other stuff we've talked about in earlier podcasts about change your body, change state, go and do something different, put the kettle on, have a cup of tea for 10 minutes, take a break, get a breath of fresh air. And the things I ha hadn't been doing in the past, and I've almost got to that burnout stage and not seeing the signs of that because it's been months and months and months of going on and on and on and not stopping. Now, thanks to things like Mercury Retrograde, where that's Come back, you know, in the last couple of years again, I've been able to go actually. You can I can see myself tipping on, I know what the tipping point is now. Yeah, so I can actually go and put in some things, just some simple things to stop myself getting to that point. So, is that do you think that's a good example?

SPEAKER_00: 30:14

Yeah, I think so. And then with my coach head on, of course, whenever we recognise anything like this, my my next question is usually well, what are the new behaviours that we're going to adopt? Or what's the energy we're going to bring in to fill that space if there's something we've we've got rid of?

SPEAKER_01: 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:29

What are the new post-shadow actions or behaviours or habits that we want to create? Is it more reflection? Is it more clarity? Me more redo rather than brand new launch, more taking care of yourself and building in those breaks?

SPEAKER_01: 30:45

For me, the behaviours is stopping. Yeah. That I'm allowed to stop in the working day. I can actually stop and have 10 minutes sitting on the garden swing seat, having a cupper or playing with the dogs for 10 minutes, whatever it may be, just for 10 minutes, because it just that few minutes can make all the difference to my mental state and also my ability to be able to do my job well. So however busy the day, you can always find ten minutes. And I have to remind myself of that. But doing that consistently, things like when I don't journal, I notice the difference. When I'm not doing my gratitudes at the end of the day, I like to do them at the end of the day, some people do them at the beginning, but for me it's the end of the day thing. And when I'm not doing them, I notice. So things like that for me now are so important. And if I don't do them, I start to notice the difference. And I can change that. That's up to me to change it. So yeah, I think that's a really simple thing I can do, but when I don't do it, I notice the difference. So that's does that answer?

SPEAKER_00: 31:41

There you have it then. So maybe Mercury retrograde isn't the giant cosmic cock cock womble we've always thought. It's not very easy to say cosmic.

SPEAKER_01: 31:49

Giant cosmic cock womble. I need that on a t-shirt with a big kind of planetary planetary wall. I don't know, I'm doing lots of gesticulation listeners and womble. Womble. Womble.

SPEAKER_00: 32:03

Remember, you are a giant cosmic cockwomble. Maybe it's not then. So instead of a giant cosmic cock womble, what if it could be a planetary? What's another a positive planetary positive? Planetary positivity. Yeah. So dear listeners, let us know what what's one thing you're going to revisit from from this turn through Mercury retrograde? Do you believe in Mercury retrograde? You think it's a load of old baloney? What's it carried for you this time? And now you're in this shadow phase, then what do you need to do? Or if you want to flip your negatives and you know pick up on what we've just been talking about, what's one project that you'd paused that you can pick back up? Or what are some things that you can breathe new life into that have been sitting dormant in the back of a dusty old notebook for forever and a day? That sounds exciting. If you're on a journaling prompt, if you would like a journaling prompt, it could be um what I learned in November. And go from there. Cool. It's a good episode. I think so. I think this is alright. Oh, and here's another one because it's old people coming up as well. What if another task, something to think about, identify one old contact that you could do getting back in touch with?

SPEAKER_01: 33:18

Ooh, nice one. Yeah. That comes back nicely, doesn't it? To where we started talking about your former colleague, somebody we've both worked with, who just appeared at the door. As if by magic. And there you go. And who knows where that will go. Who knows? Who knows? Anyway, shall we wrap it there? Yeah, I think so. In the meantime, we'll see you next Tuesday.

SPEAKER_00: 33:41

You've been listening to Awesomely off topic with Temple content. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you get your plug button. And if you want to connect, you'll find us online. And we'll see you next time.