When considering a big change in my life, I always work on strengthening my foundations. This includes making time for rest, asking for support, eating healthy meals, keeping my home clean and tidy, and planning my work.

I think it’s really important to know what you need in order to support you during a period of change and personal growth, and to commit to them as much as possible. Otherwise the nature of change can send you off track and make you feel untethered.

Things like committing to a fitness training plan and cooking healthy meals help to keep me grounded. It’s tending to simple every day things that can really help to keep the balance.

What foundations must be strengthened for your next step?

I can offer coaching support with questions like this during a dedicated 1-1 session, either while walking in the Peak District or during a video call. Please email me: sarah@sarahventurer.com to ask about booking a session together.

Coaching sessions

“I listened to this episode on my drive to and from my office job today. I haven’t even got out of the car yet, but wanted to message to say how much I loved it. I need to listen again with a notebook and pen - so many lightbulbs were going off for me.” Amy

This episode of About The Adventure podcast featuring Allie Bailey has been on of the most popular! Allie shares her journey from a high-pressure career in the music industry to hitting rock bottom through alcoholism, and eventually rebuilding a life centered on her core values. This episode is a must-listen for anyone feeling "stuck" in a career or life path that doesn't feel like their own. Please check the show notes before you listen as there is lots of swearing and some sensitive topics.

Give it a listen

Making Space: Finding Your Anchor in Times of Change

Walking Workshop in Edale

Distance: approximately 7 miles
Terrain: Woodland paths, short hills. Mix of good paths and slippy mud, some steep steps.
Meeting time: 8:30am
Meeting place: Edale village car park (public toilets available)
Approximate finish time: 2pm

Making Space: Finding Your Anchor in Times of Change is a small, guided walking workshop for people navigating uncertainty or transition in their work or life. Through a relaxed, attentive walk and gentle writing and conversational prompts, we’ll explore consistency – the habits, values, or practices that can steady you when things feel in flux.

The group is intentionally small (up to 10 people), allowing space for thoughtful reflection and shared insight. The pace is attentive and focused, with warmth and ease.

We’ll finish in the pub, continuing the conversation more informally.

Book your place

Five reasons why I love coaching people on Kinder Scout in the Peak District:

1. People often think and respond more openly while walking and sitting in nature

2. Inner confidence builds with physical movement

3. We feel inspired by the conditions and wildlife around us

4. It provides wide open space away from city life

5. Awe can change perspective

Spring time is well on the way! Would you like to book a coaching session with me? We will spend 3-4 hours exploring change while walking in this beautiful landscape.

Email: sarah@sarahventurer.com to ask any questions and to book your 1-1 session.

Guided walks in Edale

Kinder Scout – Beginners Guided Walk: 21st March
Book here

Beginner Walk for Over 50s – Edale Valley: 24th March
Book here

Kinder Scout – Intermediate Guided Walk: 28th March
Book here

Iconic Kinder Scout – Intermediate Level Guided Walk: 2nd May
Book here

Kinder Scout – Women's Beginner Guided Walk: 16th May
Book here

Mam Tor & Hollins Cross – Edale Circular Walk for Women
Book here

I’m working on the next episode of About The Adventure podcast which will feature an interview with the woman behind Guided Outdoor Adventures - Julia Hartley. If you have any questions about my work please email: sarah@sarahventurer.com or come along for one of my walks. I hope you are enjoying the first signs of Spring!

This question from Martin Swithenbank, who I recently interviewed, landed with power and a deep sigh. It felt like a swift uncoiling of a firmly-held spring. In that moment I didn’t know exactly what I’d been holding on to, but the release told me I’d been braced for a long time.

The question unravelled me and I turned to writing. Words spilled on to pages as I wrote with permission to “say it as it is”. They weren’t for anyone to else to see, only me. It became a powerful experience of release and the lightness has stayed with me. I’ve noticed changes in the ways I communicate, the way I run, and the way I feel. Nothing more needs to happen with that piece of writing, but I will turn to the method again and again.

How long have you been holding your breath?

Maybe this question can help you too. I know that when I was really struggling in my job and trying to get through the day, I was often bracing myself for the next disrespectful or inapproriate comment from the management team. It became a habit of mine to avoid interaction, and especially confrontation. I wanted to hide, holding my breath and waiting for it all to be over, every working day.

Sigh with me here, and perhaps just be curious about what this question brings up for you. If you’d like to talk it through then please email: sarah@sarahventurer.com

This podcast episode with Claire Hunter starts with her journey on the Pennine Way, weaves into her career change story, tells you about the coaching work that she does now, and ends with a question to help you follow your dreams.

We recorded it in Grindleford woods in the Peak District, a few months after bumping into each other along the Pennine Way. Claire’s story may be of particular interest to mid-life women who are navigating or considering a change in direction.

Listen here

“It was the best experience I could have asked for. In the beginning I was a bit nervous about going by myself with a group of strangers, but Sarah - our guide - helped us to get to know each other by answering prompts every now and then. Her experience as a guide and as a coach really gave us the space to expand our little Saturday adventure. It was a nice 10km walk. Highly recommended!”

Lovely review from my Making Space workshop in January, where my intention was to start creating a small community of people who are thinking about making changes in their lives. Some of the group are returning for the next one in April, and there are a few spaces left!

Take a look at Making Space: Finding Your Anchor in Times of Change - a small, guided walking workshop for people navigating uncertainty or transition in their work or life.

Find out more

Featured Outdoor Coaching Session

I’m sending you a blue sky from January for this edition, as we haven’t had many of those lately. I’ve never known so many consecutive days of fog and drizzle. Luckily I have started working with a running coach who has set up a training plan for me, otherwise it would have been a real push for me to get outside over the past few weeks. The commitment to the training plan has really helped me, and I’ve been making the best out of the conditions - mostly mud and deep puddles!

I love this view, just off the start of the Pennine Way in Edale. It can be part of a valley walk, or take us onto the Kinder plateau via the steep Crowden Brook path. When you book an outdoor session with me, I always offer you plenty of flexibility for the day that we walk together. If you want to reschedule it then you can do that, whether it’s for better weather or around family life. We can also discuss the route and plan it around what you want to experience, or what you need on the day.

If you’d like to find out more about my work, please send me an email or request a short online chat: sarah@sarahventurer.com

Coaching sessions

Coming up…

• Endurance Coach and Author Allie Bailey on About The Adventure podcast

• Free guided walks in Edale for people aged 50+ on 24th February and 6th March

• Next Beginners Walk on Kinder Scout: 21st March

• Next coaching workshop - walk and pub: 18th April

• Next chapter of Mapping Your Career Change: A Guided Journey will be available on my Substack subscription soon.

Thank you for reading my newsletter. I’d love to hear from you if you’re enjoying my podcast, thinking about booking a career coaching session, or if you have any questions.

Imagine life wrapped up beautifully in paper with your favourite colour, perhaps with a ribbon or string around it, and a note saying “look after this”. It is handed to you with great care and trust.

You release the bow, gently unfold the paper, and there it is - the gift of life. You get to choose how you view it, what you do with it, and who gets to share it alongside you.

If life was handed over to you as a gift, how might you do things differently?

Would you slow down enough to notice the coal tit that sings in the morning?
Might you open those watercolour paints and put paintbrush to paper?
Could you finally commit to that thing you’ve been thinking about for years?

I’d really love to read your response to this one if you’d like to write and share by emailing: sarah@sarahventurer.com

We’ll be exploring questions like this at my walking workshop on 24th January in Edale, Peak District. There are 4 spaces left with more info and tickets here.

I truly believe in the power of storytelling to inspire and support change. I think this interview on About The Adventure podcast is a great example of that. Martin Swithenbank shares some of the challenges throughout his career and how he has developed his self-confidence so that he can lead outdoor activities to engage and inspire 10 and 11 year olds.

Martin apprenticed at an Outdoor Centre in his 40's and immediately felt at home on his new career path as an Outdoor Instructor.

Conversation topics in this episode include challenges in mainstream education, overcoming imposter syndrome, believing in your abilities, embracing failure as growth and the power of human connection.

Give this an hour of your time and make sure you wait for Martin’s question to you at the end. Send in your response to us if you like, or let us know what you think of this episode.

Listen here

Featured outdoor coaching session

Like us, it felt as if the mist was in conversation in the valley during our coaching session on Kinder Scout last week. It sank and rose like a breathing chest, then spread out and met up again, and swirled like steam from a hot cauldron. It was her first walk on Kinder Scout and she said “it's like a volcano!”.

Some people talk to me about feeling apprehensive to start work again after burnout. They want to protect themselves from the possibility of it happening again, but also find that hiding away from the world leaves them feeling isolated and scared to make any new moves.

My questions aim to encourage people to seek positive experiences, to consider and practice holding boundaries so they don’t feel walked over in the workplace, and to develop their own framework for what environment they want and need to be in.

If you’re interested in working with me, there are various options for you:

• email me about my 1-1 coaching sessions (outdoors or online)

• join my group coaching workshop on 24th January or tell me if you’re interested in the next one scheduled for 18th April 2026

• consider my coaching scheme

Please email sarah@sarahventurer for any enquiries.

Coming up soon from About The Adventure

• I’m writing the next part of my Mapping Your Career Change series which is on the importance of consistency during times of change. My aim is to provide you with a resource that can support you while exploring your own career change, by giving you real-life examples of what has helped me and questions for you to explore in your own time. You can subscribe to the series and read the first part on Creating Space in your Life here.

• I’m editing the next podcast episode which features an interview with Claire Hunter, a Leadership Coach, who was made redundant after almost 20 years working for a major corporate company. Since her redundnacy she has qualified as a Mountain Leader, walked the Pennine Way, and set up her business Elysian Leadership.

Thank you for reading this edition of my newsletter. If you’d like to chat through my coaching work options then please drop me a line to book a short call: sarah@sarahventurer.com

The thing that I valued most when I started to sense that I needed a change in direction with my career was meeting new people. By attending workshops and events and by joining group walks I had new conversations and met people with all sorts of different jobs and lifestyles. Stepping outside of my friendship and work circles refreshed my thinking and opened my mind to new perspectives.

This is why I’m leading an outside workshop this month. I want to help others feel a sense of community while thinking about change, and to facilitate conversations that feel supportive.

Making Space: Rethinking Work and What’s Next is a guided valley walk and workshop for people who are sensing that something in their working life may need to change, but aren’t yet sure what.

We’ll spend time walking and sitting together, using thoughtful writing and conversational prompts to slow things down, notice what matters, and create space for clearer thinking.

The pace is attentive and focused, with warmth and ease. We’ll finish in the pub, continuing the conversation more informally. You don’t need a plan or an answer — just a willingness to reflect, listen, and explore what might be next for you.

If you’re interested in attending and would like to ask any questions or to have a short video call then please email sarah@sarahventurer.com

If you can’t make it this time, but you’re interested in future events like this, please drop me a line to say you’d like to join the next one and I’ll keep you posted.

I hope to see you on Saturday 24th January in beautiful Edale, Peak District. I will provide a list of what to bring and a detailed weather forecast, along with parking information.

Get your ticket