Audio of the Week: Before we begin, if you love a good book but struggle to find the time to sit and read, Audible has been an absolute game changer for me.
Commuting, walking, cooking – I consume most of my books on the go these days. Start your own Audible journey right here – Try Audible UK – Free Trial Available.
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Welcome to The Atheneum Spark ✨
Before we get into this week’s quote, I want to take a moment to introduce something new.
You may already know my Gnosis Series – short, sharp reads on project management, leadership, and the world of UK insurance and consulting. If you haven’t discovered it yet, do go and explore. It’s one of my favourite things I have built on this blog.
The Atheneum Spark is its sister series – Where Gnosis goes deep into ideas, frameworks, and professional thinking – The Atheneum Spark does something simpler, and in many ways more personal.
But I won’t just drop a quote and leave you with it. That’s too easy and frankly, it’s everywhere on the internet. What I’ll do instead is tell you why it matters to me, connect it to the world we live and work in – project management, consulting, leadership, UK business and point you toward the book, person, or idea behind it so you can go deeper if it resonates.
Think of it as a regular spark. Something to ignite your thinking, your week, or your next big move. I hope you’ll come back for every episode. 🔥
Episode 1: The Move That Changes Everything
I first came across this quote on a quiet Sunday morning, scribbled inside the front page of a book I’d been putting off reading for months. I stared at it for a long time.
Not because it was particularly complex. Not because it used sophisticated language or referenced an academic framework. But because it was uncomfortably, precisely true and it called me out in a way I wasn’t expecting on a Sunday.
The move you’re most scared to make is the one that will change everything for you….
Why This Quote Matters…..
We talk a lot in project management and consulting about risk. Risk registers. Risk appetites. Risk mitigation. We build entire frameworks around identifying what could go wrong and protecting ourselves from it.
And yet some of the most important moves in our professional lives never make it onto a risk register. They live somewhere quieter. In the back of our minds. In the conversations we keep having with ourselves at the end of a long day.
– Should I go for that promotion?
– Should I start that blog?
– Should I pursue that certification?
– Should I make the pivot I’ve been thinking about for two years?
The irony is that the moves we are most scared to make are rarely the ones with the highest probability of catastrophic failure. They’re scary for a different reason because they matter. Because we care about the outcome. Because if we try and it doesn’t work, we can no longer tell ourselves the comfortable story that we would have succeeded if only we’d tried.
Fear, in those moments, is not a warning signal. It’s a compass.
What I’ve Learned from Making the Scary Move…
I’ll be honest with you. Starting The Management Atheneum was one of those scary moves for me.
Writing publicly about project management, insurance, leadership, and consulting in an industry where credibility is everything and opinions are scrutinised felt exposing. Who was I to write about these things? What if nobody read it? What if the wrong people did?
But I made the move. And it has been one of the most professionally rewarding decisions I’ve made outside of my day job.
Not because it went perfectly. It didn’t. The early posts were rougher than I’d like to admit. But because the act of committing of showing up consistently, of putting ideas into the world built something I didn’t expect. A community. A voice. A body of work I’m genuinely proud of.
The blog you’re reading right now is the result of that one scary move.
The Book Behind the Spark…..
This quote embodies the philosophy at the heart of one of my all-time favourite reads – The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
Pressfield writes about what he calls “Resistance” – the invisible force that stops creative, ambitious, and driven people from doing their best work. It shows up as procrastination, self doubt, distraction, and fear. And it is strongest, he argues, precisely when the work matters most.
If you have ever felt the pull to do something significant – start a business, write a book, pursue a qualification, change careers, build something from nothing and found yourself inexplicably unable to begin, this book will explain why. And more importantly, it will light a fire under you.
It is not a long read. It is a short, fierce, utterly uncompromising book. And I have given it to more colleagues and mentees than any other book on my shelf.
Get The War of Art on Amazon UK
Listen on Audible UK
Your Spark for This Week…..
Whatever that move is that you’ve been putting off – the certification, the conversation, the application, the first blog post, the side project, the career pivot – I want you to sit with this question today:
What is the cost of NOT making that move?
Not the cost of trying and failing. The cost of never trying at all.
In my experience, that cost is always higher. It just charges you differently – in regret, in stagnation, and in the quiet frustration of knowing you left something important on the table.
Make the move…..!
Coming Up in The Atheneum Spark…..
Every episode will bring you a new quote, a new reflection, and a new book or idea to explore. If this resonated with you – subscribe to The Management Atheneum so you never miss an episode.
And if you have a quote that has shaped your professional life, drop it in the comments below. I’d love to feature the best ones in a future episode.
Until next time. ✨
Interesting .. Well written