ABOUT JOHN
I don't think you need me to have your answers.
I've spent much of my working life sitting with people while they examine how they got where they are, what keeps getting in the way, and what they might choose to do differently.
One thing that experience has taught me is that meaningful change rarely begins with somebody else telling us what to do.
It begins when we have enough space to see ourselves a little more clearly.
I'm John Collinge, creator of The Anchor Habit.
My work brings together years of behaviour-change practice, reflective questioning and practical tools with a simple belief:
You remain the person steering
WHERE THIS CAME FROM
My work started long before The Anchor Habit.
I spent 15 years working within HMPPS, including around 11 years as a Prison Officer and five years as a structured behaviour change intervention facilitator, both individually and in groups.
Much of that work has involved sitting across from people and exploring behaviour. Not just what happened, but what they were thinking, feeling, what they believed their options were, and what patterns kept appearing.
Over thousands of conversations I learned something important: People are more complicated than the behaviour we happen to see.
Context matters. History matters. Our bodies matter. And understanding those things doesn't remove responsibility — it gives us more choices about what we do next.
WHY THE ANCHOR HABIT EXISTS
Then I began noticing something else.
The same patterns I saw in structured behaviour change programmes weren't confined to people in formal interventions. We all develop ways of navigating life.
Work harder. Keep everyone happy. Stay useful. Don't ask for help. Keep moving. Hold everything together. And many of those strategies work — until something changes.
A career shifts. Children leave home. A relationship changes. Responsibilities accumulate. Retirement approaches. The identity we've inhabited for years starts feeling less certain.
And sometimes the strategies that helped us reach one chapter of our lives don't quite fit the next.
That's the territory
The Anchor Habit was created for.
Not crisis.
Not reinvention for the sake of reinvention.
That quieter realisation:
“I can keep doing this. I'm just not sure I want to keep doing it like this.”
A FEW THINGS I BELIEVE
What I believe about change.
You are more capable than you sometimes feel.
Difficulty doesn't automatically mean you're failing. Discomfort isn't always a signal to retreat.
Understanding isn't the same as excusing.
We can be compassionate about where a pattern came from while still taking responsibility for what we do with it now.
Nobody else should choose your destination.
Good support should increase your ability to navigate — not make you dependent on the person providing it.
Small changes count.
Sustainable change rarely requires becoming somebody completely different. Sometimes it begins with recognising one choice you didn't realise you had.
Compassion without infantilisation. • Responsibility without shame. • Support without surrendering agency.
THE NAME
Why The Anchor Habit?
An anchor doesn't stop the sea from moving. It doesn't control the weather. And it doesn't guarantee calm water. It gives you somewhere steady from which to respond.
That's what I've always wanted The Anchor Habit to represent. Not a life without uncertainty. Not permanent calm. Not another promise that if you follow the right morning routine nothing difficult will happen. Something more useful: the ability to remain connected to yourself while life moves around you.
The aim isn't to stay anchored forever either.
Sometimes the anchor gives us enough steadiness to work out where we're going.
Then we lift it and move.
WHERE TO BEGIN
You don't need to know exactly what you're looking for.
Maybe something in your life has changed. Maybe nothing obvious has changed at all. Maybe you're simply beginning to wonder whether the way you've been living still fits the person you've become. You don't need to diagnose it before you're allowed to explore it.
I just want somewhere to think.
Start with the free 30-Day Anchor Habit Journal.
I'm ready to explore this properly.
Work through the six-module Anchor Habit Programme at your own pace.
I've completed the programme and want someone alongside me.
Find out about working privately with me.
Whichever shore you're standing on, you remain the person steering.
Stay steady.
John
