Itchy feet: A year for exploration

I have itchy feet. That’s not a medical condition, it’s an idiom for describing how one might feel if they’ve been in the same place for too long. It conveys a strong almost restless desire to leave a place, to do something different, to explore. I’ve always been a very reflective person. As I was searching for an image to remind myself of 2025, it became clear that I’m at my happiest when I’m exploring. (Photo shows me in -35 degrees in Sweden and I couldn't be happier).

I ran through an exercise called the wheel of life where you identify roughly 8-10 categories of different areas of your life. I love this article that describes the exercise as a sort of ‘personal gap analysis’. You can then look at which categories perhaps need more focus, where you want to continue to develop or areas you’re going to leave well alone! A low score doesn’t mean that you should do something about it. You need to figure out what’s most important to you.

So I asked myself several questions and figured out what’s most important to me.

What's important to me
- Family
- Independence (learning more about who Clare is)
- Helping others
- Being present
- Self care
- Community
- Career

When I keep these things in mind, some of my plans for this year will be along these lines. Not every category is covered because I’m already in a good place with some things and I want to continue with what I’m doing, it doesn’t need additional focus right now.

Independence

Travel

- To learn more about who Clare is
- Friendship
- Explore enough that I figure out where I next want to live

Community & Career

Community

- Be part of and contribute to the conversation on what it means to be a quality coach
- Inspire more women and young people to consider a career in tech
- Continue to represent Co-op as a thought leader in the quality coaching space in the wider testing and quality community
- Support smaller events in the testing community such as MOT Chapters, Leeds Testing Atelier or other smaller meetups

Speaking

- Continue to grow and improve my public speaking skills.
- Submit to 3 conferences in 2026.
- Continue to spread the message of joyful software.
- Succeed in delivering my first ever keynote speech.

Team

- Assist teams adjacent to mine as they transition from project ways of working to product ways of working.
- Help the team become more comfortable with building and testing accessible features.

Self care

- Join a ballet class
- Seek personal training to get back into weightlifting
- Incorporate hiking into a holiday this year
- Read part of a book every day
- Re-learn to play the guitar

If I had to pick one it would be to explore. By exploring I hope to scratch my itchy feet and learn more about myself along the way.