Better: Escape Average, Beat Burnout and Own Your Life, #author Andrew Horsfield

Better: Escape Average, Beat Burnout and Own Your Life .. .ia s practical self-development and performance book focused on helping people break free from the cycle of overwork, stress, and “average living.” The book explores how to create a more intentional life by improving mindset, habits, productivity, wellbeing, and personal leadership.

Author Andrew Horsfield is a consultant who helps leaders in business, elite sport, and education tackle the challenges of human performance. Clients turn to Andrew when they need to turn stuckness into strength. He is the host of the Messy Middle podcast and founder of the Better Life Lab. A learning community for forward-thinking leaders.

To connect with Andrew ...
https://andrewhorsfield.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhorsfield/
https://andrewhorsfield.com/podcast/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

It's good morning, Andrew Horsfield. Welcome to Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Thank you, Joanna. Welcome. Welcome. It's great to be with you. Thanks for inviting me on.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Well, it is welcome because you're my first interview this sprightly Monday morning. Andrew, congratulations. Thanks for joining us. I'm excited to talk about your book better. Tell us all about it.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Yeah, well, look, I wrote the book because I think a lot of books uh talk about the what we should do and why we should do it, but they don't necessarily address the how. And for me, this book is obviously better. It's all about not best, but how do we improve our life? But more importantly, how do we close that gap between where we are and where we want to be or who we are and who we want to be, but from a practical standpoint into everyday life as opposed to a theoretical or academic standpoint about what we should do and why we should do it. This is all the practical side of how do you get about making that change.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

And Andrew, I was thinking about um, you know, we have we have plans for our life. We we think about, you know, the journey, but then it all kind of goes, you know. Um, and yeah, I mean, I think I try to think every day to be better, like be a better human or be a better mother, wife, whatever, uh, be a better podcast host. Um, but you know, we have these intentions, but sometimes it's a real struggle.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Absolutely it is, and that's that's the whole point of this book. It's all about the messy middle. So we have this messiness and it's a good part of life. I think we would need to reframe that as when we're striving for something. So A, of course, we're busy because that's just life. Um, but when we reframe struggle as not necessarily something that's wrong, but we're on the a signal that we're on the path to something right, we might be doing something beyond our experience or our capability or what we've thought of before. Um, we talked before on air about starting businesses and things. I mean, that's just trial and error, and we sometimes get lost in the it's hard rather than seeing that I'm actually growing and developing and doing something meaningful. And so you're right, whether that's a parent or in your career or your health or relationship, there's ways we can navigate uh the messy middle and make it productive rather than unproductive as a struggle that we're in, which is a key part of the book, knowing the difference between the two.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah, and Andrew, tell me about why you wrote the book, like what inspired you? Because I'd love you to share a bit about you and your career journey.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Um, yeah, so I started as an educator, I started as a primary school teacher, um, did that both here in Australia and overseas, and then tried a couple of years to play cricket professionally, found out the more I practiced, the better everyone else seemed to be getting, and that I wasn't going to be able to make a career out of that. So when I came back, I got into just adult education and learning from on the back of teaching, and and love that process because it was more engaging the room. It wasn't just teaching young minds, it was using other people's experience, and so that led into corporate learning and development. And and through that, I just like the model was sort of the person at the front of the room teaching people who came to turn up. And my philosophy is that we've got so much skill and wisdom that that we have, Joanna, through our own life experience, that we've got great tools. We just need permission to sort of bring our best to situations and bring out the best of what we have rather than comparing ourselves to everyone else and think that we're not good enough. So that sort of led to going out on my own and creating my own consulting business and and helping people navigate this messy middle space for authenticity and human humanness. Um, and that led to the book, How Do We Do It? And how do I apply the 18 years of business into a couple of pages that I think practically will help people navigate that space.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

And Andrew, was this uh you're like was this your first book? Are you or what was that journey like writing writing?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Oh, good question. No, this is my third book, but it's the first one I'd recommend people read. So the first two sort of needed to be written to have the confidence to write this one.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

I often um was talking to a friend yesterday and talking about an artist who looks back on their earlier work and thinks, oh my god, it's so clumsy or it's horrible. But um I I really enjoyed writing the two previous books. One's called Check Up from the Neck Up, which I cringe when I say that title already. Um, and the other is called Definable Moments. And they were reasonable books, but this one, Joanne, I'm really proud of because I think it's it's intelligent, it's aimed at a reader who doesn't want, you know, five steps to success or be put into a box, you know, one of four quadrants, and you have to be this quadrant than another. It's a genuine look at life gets messy, we want to go out and achieve things, and this book will help people sort of find the their own recipe to what they might need at each particular time based on what they're trying to achieve. So that was the nature of this book, but it's taken a couple of others to get to the really good one.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Oh, and I laugh because I think, gosh, if you know, I go back and watch my old uh Yellow Shelf early days interviews, it's the same, isn't it? Like it's just the book, but it's um it's a journey for us. It's definitely a journey.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

It is, and and I think when we we we know that in inherently, don't we? That we should that of course we're not going to be perfect from the first go and and you learn the tech better in your case of podcasting, or you get oh, I get better interview questions, or I build better rapport and all those things because you're more comfortable. Um, and life's the same, and I think that's one of those things that we have to go and do the bad stuff to get to the good stuff. I remember talking to our wedding photographer, you know, 12 years ago now, but she came back and the photos, you know, there was 150 brilliant photos she was showing us. And I just said, Katie, these are amazing, they're just what we wanted, you know, natural shots, not people stiff and stale. And I said, They're just you've got such a talent. And she goes, Andrew, are you kidding me? You're you're seeing the best 150 of like the 1500 that I took. And we forget that sometimes that you know, you you've got to take more photos in life to get to the good stuff. You've got to have the the bad one and the one where someone's looking away or the wind's got their hair, or all that sort of stuff to get to the 150 you want to put in front of people. And I think if you can start to frame um movement in that way and pursuing what matters to you or motivates you in that way, it makes it a hell of a more enjoyable process.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yeah, so true. Andrew, congrats on the book. I'm gonna put in the show notes here for anyone listening or watching anywhere around the world, links uh to you and to the book. Um, do you want to point us in the direction? Um, and I'll make it easy for anyone to connect with you and the book.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Uh, thank you, Joanna. Yeah, probably my website's the best place. It's the holding ground for my things I do with the book and a podcast and and other things uh and some resources people can download. So that's andrewhorsfield.com as it sounds, no e in the middle of horse, so just andrewhorsfield.com. Um and also LinkedIn, if people want to reach out, um, that's the place where I often post things that I'm doing for free, or webinars, or live streams, or masterclasses and stuff that's available for for people for free. So they're the two best places to reach me, but appreciate the opportunity to do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Oh, fabulous. And Andrew, I I you know what I didn't mention, I know you're a podcast host, so I'm gonna get you back later in the year. You you definitely can enjoy this book. It's gonna be busy times for you. Um, but yeah, your podcast show is I had a sneak peek at it. It's fabulous because it kind of sums me up the messy middle. Um so I'm gonna keep tuning in. Andrew, all the best.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Thank you, Joanna. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about the book and the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Yeah, cheers.