What a difference a day makes

Yesterday this post was titled ” an ocean, a rowboat, and one paddle”. It was all about how if I’d know how traumatic it would be to publish a book, I might have changed my mind. You may never have got to read Breathing While Drowning: One Woman’s Quest for Wholeness.

It’s been almost a year since I finished the manuscript. The writing was an emotional roller coaster all on it’s own; reliving the 20-year-old journals I wrote to my daughter Jacqui Bree before and after her death at the age of four.

But if I thought that was tough…

Continue reading

Are you leading a remarkable life?

When I was young, I thought of remarkable as meaning extraordinary, exceptional, amazing and wonderful. My life, like so many others, was changed forever by a remarkable event. I saw a grainy black and white image of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon – that’s what I secretly wanted to do. I wanted to leave an imprint that will be remembered forever, like Neil’s footprint on the moon. Continue reading

Dust off those dreams

Imagination is one of the joys of being human.  What a gift to be able to create images and ideas without the thing being present or real.  Combine that with the thought that energy flows where focus goes, so whatever you focus on is what you’ll think about and be more likely to act on.  So now you have two things working to make your dreams come true.  But that’s not enough to make it happen.  Let’s face it, most of us have dreams and that’s all they are, dreams, they never become our reality.  We keep those dreams tucked up safely, gathering dust, and we don’t really believe we can have them.  And let’s not even think about whether we deserve them or not. Continue reading

What does success look like to you?

Every person paints a different picture of success.  It could be homes, cars, boats, clothes, jewellery, for others it would be a high profile, high paying career or body of work.  Some people would choose experiences, holidays or adventures to make your hair stand on end.  Others would choose family, contribution to their community, making their difference to one or many, recognised by the global community.

For me success is summed up in the word freedom. Continue reading

Are you on track and still feeling stuck?

Human beings need to know where we’re going, we like a clear direction and a sense of certainty that we’re going to get somewhere – eventually.  We’re mostly content when we feel we have some control over our present and our future and are heading in the right direction – towards wherever it is we want to go, or whoever it is we want to be.

Now for quite a while I’ve had a pretty good sense of my life’s direction, and who I want to be.  My most joyful work is nurturing the spark of magnificence in people and giving them the confidence to find a dream and go after it.  I love this work and I love running my own business (OK three businesses).  Most days I’m clear, I’m on track, I’m motivated and ploughing through the work right on plan (I’m a coach and a project manager, I love a plan). Continue reading

Our self-doubt is a traitor

My life belongs to me. What I think, feel, do and believe matters. But what happens when what you think and feel and do sends you into a nosedive rather than filling you with joy?

Most of the time I’m an optimist but I’ve been listening to Doubting Doris, Impatient Ivy and Procrastination Pattie way too often – together they’re the DIP. And when I listen to them I find myself doubting, impatient and procrastinating – a lot! Continue reading

The right words at the right time

Words have always held a special power for me.  Words are the magic of communication, sharing a message or emotion, revealing a truth or idea, offering comfort or advice, giving instructions or feedback.

The right words at the right time can change your life.  Sometimes you may have heard the words before but you weren’t really ready to listen to their message until that very moment.  Like the Buddhist proverb…

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Continue reading

What lights you up?

Wow, I went to a breakfast chat the other day by Mel Neil from the Langley Group on positive psychology in the workplace, and what lights you up.

How freaking fabulous was that chat! And the thing that got me is that she showed us the science behind it.

I can’t help it, call me a nerd, but I love it when science validates what you’ve been intuitively doing for years. I love the figures and the graphs and most of all I love it when someone passionate gets really excited and tells you great stories about their stuff. Continue reading