Back in March this year (2022) – after three years of persistence – I published my first non-academic book entitled Get Moving. Keep Moving.

It’s a book about people returning to physical activity and exercise in ‘mid-life’, which I’ve defined as being in one’s 30s, 40s and 50s.

Like many debut books, this one felt very personal. There were several reasons for that:

First, the book was inspired by my own return to running at the age of 48, and a fascination that quickly surfaced in me about the physical and psychological reactions I was having to that. It felt like there was a book in the experience, so I sat done to write one.

Second, a lot happened during the writing of the book. Sadly, my mum died a couple of months after I began writing, followed by my dad 19 months later. As both my parents maintained active lifestyles well into their 80s, they were never far from my mind when I was writing.

Third, after two pauses in writing that followed their deaths, COVID-19 descended on the world. So, I found myself paused a third time, this time dealing with novel challenges at work and at home (e.g., remote school learning).

But, life in lockdown was a blessing for the book because I was stuck. I’d plenty of words and lots of chapters, but the structure wasn’t right…and I wasn’t sure how to fix it.

Fourth, the book had grown around six health change narratives. Stories about how some everyday people – including me – had got themselves back into exercise. And these stories had been a joy to collect. Real stories I felt would be relatable to readers. Frustratingly, these stories were also the cause of my stuckness as I was trying to make them be the book, rather than use them to support the book.

Fifth and finally, all the above was happening whilst I was living the life of a part-time undergraduate student! So great did my return-to-exercise fascination become that I decided to go back to school and seek out a fusion of psychology and exercise science. Whilst I had the psychology (20 years’ worth), I didn’t have the exercise science. So, I decided to go and get it.

And this learning journey started in a very surreal way. Twelve years after declaring I would never study again, I found myself sitting in a human anatomy lecture. We started with an introduction to the heart, its four chambers and their valves. This was simultaneously informative and soothing. Why? Because, mere two days earlier, mum had died after a complication following the implantation of her aortic valve. Learning more about what had happened to her became a source of some comfort.

So, the story of the book is almost as significant to me as the book itself. It shaped itself in its own time and the model at the centre of it – the Health Activation Model – simply couldn’t be rushed. It emerged when it was ready…on the back of great fascination, great sadness, great uncertainty, great joy and great learning. Learning that ultimately helped me find the structure I needed to complete the work.

And when it was done, I was happy and felt I’d earnt my feelings of satisfaction. So, it was time to celebrate – time for a couple of book launches, which turned out to be a lot of fun!

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