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Holly Willoughby
When we spoke last year, you said that being away for “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” in 2018 was what kickstarted this journey of looking inwards…
ultimately leading to the creation of WYLDE MOON. Where would you say you are now on your journey?…
“I’m definitely still learning every day but I want to learn more…in fact, I crave it!
Since embarking on this WYLDE MOON journey I feel like the blinkers are off and I’m much more open to trying different things. Whether I’m reading about alternative therapies or giving them a go, I understand that it’s about opening up and finding out what feels good – and actually, on the flip side, saying no to things that don’t feel good! Every time I do that, things start to shift, and actually the biggest thing I’ve realised on this journey is that I’m not actually going anywhere!”
“I don’t feel like it’s about personal growth at all, more like returning to myself. Does that make any sense at all? I’m sure if I heard someone say they’re returning to themselves, I might think it ridiculous, but it’s the only way I can explain it. With the great benefit of age and hindsight, I’ve discerned that you spend your younger years creating an ‘appropriate’ persona for yourself – mainly for the benefit of others. It’s only in your later years, when you suddenly realise you don’t know who you are anymore, that you begin this journey of stripping everything back. And that’s where I find myself now…stripped back and getting to know myself. Well, that’s how it feels anyway.”
What are your ‘non-negotiables’ in life?
“I think kindness and patience are the most important attributes in life. Whilst I feel it’s in everyone to be kind, personally, patience is something that I have definitely had to learn. I think when you live a fast-paced life, the urgency of your needs and expectations mean you’re permanently looking for short cuts to make things happen quickly. The big truth (as I’ve come to learn it) is that anything in life that’s worth having, is worth building up to and waiting for. It’s the delayed gratification that makes all of it worth the wait! Kindness and patience are totally non-negotiable for me – and should be for everybody.
“I’ve been thinking a lot recently about kindness. The Be Kind mantra is wonderful and it’s incredible to see it be spoken about and used so much more openly now. I was thinking of ways that we could move this on even further and maybe make a pledge to be kind ourselves – “I’m going to be kind” – because it brings it back to us and what we can control and change to be and do better.”
What helps you multi task so efficiently?
“Hmmm…the mythical brilliance of being able to multi-task! This is something else I’ve opened my eyes to in the last few years. I was one of those women who wore my ability to multi-task and spin countless plates as a badge of honour. I’d think ‘look…just look at all these things I can juggle!’…but in order to keep that up, something else has to give way and going back to what I was saying earlier – the thing that disappears is yourself.
“Whilst I think that we are all very capable of multitasking, I think the question you have got to ask yourself is, should you be? Would it be better to just focus on a few things at any given time? I’m not unrealistic enough to know that you can’t just be focused on one thing in life – nobody’s got that luxury – but the older I get, I think paying a bit more care and attention to a few really key things in life is probably a better way to live.”
Holly Willoughby
What would you say is your biggest achievement in your life so far, and moving forward is there a goal that you’d like to reach?
“Achievement-wise there are the obvious things like family and children, and there is no doubt that my marriage, my children and my home are my biggest achievements of all. But as far as life goals go, I find that as I get older I get more fearful of things, so I need to keep a check on that. For example, I’ve never been scared of heights, but on Dancing on Ice the other day, I had to stand on a podium whilst the skaters pushed me across the ice and my legs literally turned to jelly. What was that about?!
“Another recent example was when Dan and the kids went paragliding, and whilst I’ve done it before, this time I declined. I thought I was declining because I’ve already done it once, but when I actually thought about it, I realised I felt too scared to do it again. So, in terms of life goals, I need to stop shutting things down that I attribute to being something my younger self would have done. I need to stop telling myself that those sorts of things are not for me anymore and just open up a little bit more to accepting that I might feel afraid, but I’m going to do it anyway!”
Holly Willoughby
Being a mother to 3 kids, what would you say is your biggest wish for your children?
“My biggest wish for my children is that they grow independently of each other – even of us – and that they are able to convert everything we’ve taught them into their own currency so that they can live life their own way. I just want them to be happy, confident little beings; comfortable in their own bodies; who possess all those things that I hold dear, like kindness and patience.”
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