From the Harbour to the Sea
A workshop for men in mid-life looking for deeper purpose.
With Hamish Mackay-Lewis
Some years ago I stood in a windowless room trying to sell counter fraud software to ten people around a table. I was wearing a suit that didn’t feel like me, selling counter fraud and feeling like a fraud. Halfway through the pitch, the product failed.
I walked out onto the pavement, furious, mostly at myself: “Is this what my life has come to?”
I’d arrived in that room through a series of junctions where I’d said no to myself and yes to everyone else. Most of us have a few junctions like that. The workshop is a chance to see where they’ve brought us, what’s kept us there and what’s calling us forward.
What the hour includes:
A map to help you navigate the choppy waters that often come to men in mid-life.
A list of things that keep men from sailing into deeper waters, and a chance to see where you stand.
A short teaching on the three kinds of purpose and why you already have one, even if you think you don’t.
A guided visualisation to meet a version of yourself that will guide you towards deeper purpose.
Time for reflection and questions.
Rather than a lecture on purpose theory, I'm offering an interactive experience, shared with other men navigating similar waters.
This is for men who
Have spent years building a life around security, expectation or approval and have lost themselves in it.
Carry an ache for a bigger and more joyful life, in which they feel more themselves.
No longer wish to be defined by their job, but struggle to recognise who they are beyond it.
Are at a threshold: a career ending, a marriage straining, a milestone birthday, a retirement approaching, becoming a father, a redundancy, or a loss they didn't see coming.
What you’ll leave with
A clearer sense of what and who is calling you, underneath the next role, project or plan.
The felt experience of not being alone in this, with other men in the room, carrying the same ache.
One sentence, written in your own hand, that you'll want to remember on a Monday morning.
Dates
Wednesday 04th Nov - 7.30-8.30pm UK time
Wednesday 18th Nov - 6-7pm UK time
Wednesday 02nd Dec - 7.30-8.30pm UK time
Virtual, on Zoom. All workshops are free. There won’t be a recording: this needs to be experienced live.
“His harbour-and-sea metaphor does something difficult — it’s vivid enough to be memorable and structured enough to be genuinely useful, giving you handles you can carry into situations the session never touched. He holds depth and warmth with real skill. I came expecting a useful reflective hour and left moved. ”
“Hamish has crafted a really inspiring workshop.
We learnt about his own amazing backstory and how this has steered him to help other men discover their deeper purpose.
This was an intimate circle with space for reflection, vulnerability and the outline of a journey where you set sail to discover your true essence.”
“I found Hamish’s Harbour and the Sea workshop deeply moving, it stirred me in all kinds of ways. I am so grateful for the time and thoughts that were shared, and which will continue to inspire me.”
If something here resonates
Towards the end of the hour, I’ll share a little about the six month journey that has grown out of this work: a small group of men, time alone on the land, and the space to recognise what your life is for, and begin living it.
About Hamish
For over fifteen years I've worked with people at exactly these kinds of crossroads.
Drawing on practices people have relied on for thousands of years, alongside what psychology now understands about why we get stuck, my work is always in partnership with the natural world.
Journey groups are small, no more than six men. The work involves honest conversation, time spent alone on the land, and guided reflections and visualisations. One-to-one guidance is also available for those who'd rather work privately.
We look directly at the parts of you that want security and the parts that want adventure. All of them belong.
I believe the courage it takes to live more honestly grows best in the company of other men who are willing to do the same.
