Having the courage to retire early

/
Having the courage to retire early

I had a plan for my coaching session with Ian. I’d prepared. Ian brought something different. Ian bravely and purposefully brought his discomfort and struggle. 

He knows this is a space where it can be brought into the open, explored, examined. 

I have created a safe space. 

Ian is a courageous man. A purposeful man. An engineer. Here’s a problem. How are we going to solve it? 

Ian is in transition. After four and a half decades of work, three of those building and running his successful engineering business, it’s time for a new chapter. 

Read More

Not your average clients

/
Not your average clients

Characteristics common to most clients I work with are; passionate, hardworking, ambitious, caring, accomplished, expert, experienced, successful. What’s also true often is because they’re always striving for better for the business, organisations, and people they lead, they don’t spend much time acknowledging their achievements or considering their own personal desires, requirements, and wellbeing. 

Read More

The only constant is change

/
The only constant is change

“I feel deep down that my life is going through a fluid period at the moment... lots of change coming... so need to embrace it and roll with it” 

These wise words from a coaching client put him in a position of power. Sometimes we have more change to cope with than others. While navigating change can be destabilizing and tiring, the choice to lean into it makes the journey easier and often quicker, too.  

Read More

The bells and whistles

/
The bells and whistles

My business owning, family man, coaching client is undeniably successful by current measures. Yesterday, he told me how his friendship is back on track and he is meeting up with his mate for a private appointment at a place in Beverley Hills where they sell Rolex. My client and his friend are both collectors. That’s how he rolls. And he told me with some glee, through more related to his navigating the repaired friendship than to watches. 

Read More

Paradigm shift

/
Paradigm shift

“OLD WAY – do the stuff to get the thing that promises happiness.
NEW WAY – do the stuff that brings happiness”

My newly completed raised beds, now filled with 10-year rotted manure soil, are thrilling me. Walking barefoot around them over grass muddy from recent construction and wet from a night of heavy rain, I am taking them in and what they mean. What they represent. 

They are sort of an exclamation mark, an underlining. Another piece of tangible irrefutable evidence that the journey to peace, joy, and satisfaction is internal first. 

Read More

Wow, what a woman!

/
Wow, what a woman!

Mainly I avoid news and politics to protect the time, energy and spirit that enables me to contribute and enjoy life in the way I choose to. Important current affairs find their way to me of course.  

Today, inspired by a moment of delicious perfection and deep meaning in my life, I sat down to write. Since I started putting self-care at the top of my to-do list 10 years ago, such moments happen with increasing intensity and frequency. At these times writing helps me revel in it and maintain it.  

Read More

Community, community, community

/
Community, community, community

Recently, on my dawn bike ride through the grounds of Newstead Abbey to the Mansfield and Ashfield 2020 Business Breakfast I felt ridiculously happy. It welled up in me as I pedaled. By the time I arrived at the venue, Portland College, I was high as a kite. 

Reflecting on it later, I see there were various factors that could’ve contributed to this uncommon happiness…

Read More

"I'm not doing enough"

/
"I'm not doing enough"

This simple phrase at once cunning and compelling is a perversion of our ancient lizard brains’ risk management system.

Is it familiar to you? Or any of its variations?

“Must learn more, try harder, be quicker, smarter, better, more on the case”

It seems so plausible, so true, especially when we have practised it for decades. It goes unnoticed.

Read More

It really is life or death

/
It really is life or death

During the 15 years when I ran my first business – Juicy Glass Ltd – I also spent many happy weekends hill walking and talking with a friend who was a GP.

Climbing mountains we chewed the fat about life, work, relationships, and parenting. The whole juicy shebang.

When things were stressful in my architectural glass business, I found perspective talking to her, and coined the phrase “It’s only glass” as shorthand for, unlike her work, it isn’t life or death.

Read More

Joy before duty

/
Joy before duty

Something I have got better at in recent years and I’m proud of myself for, is doing what makes me happy in the moment rather than only once I’ve attended to my to-do’s.

For those of us who have been conditioned to believe our value and purpose lies in productivity, outcomes and achievements this is a BIG DEAL!

This lesson is the most pivotal and has been the hardest to learn in my journey to what I call “living the life of my dreams on a daily basis”.

Read More

There is a different way

/
There is a different way

Do you mostly pay more attention to what is wrong than what is right?

Do you often demand bigger better faster more from yourself?

We are educated to problem solve and wired to protect. Both attitudes weigh more heavily on threat than opportunity, and both are so embedded that we are unconsciously and habitually attached to these ways of moving through life.

Read More

Your dream may be more possible than you think

/
Your dream may be more possible than you think

When I began my online Transformational Coaching business in 2017, I didn’t know if my vision was possible, but I was excited to find out.

I began as Stephen Covey said, “with the end in mind”. My challenge - to create a profitable (in my terms which includes Social Return on Investment) coaching business AND enjoy every day AND do it in a sustainable way.

Read More

Spiritual Activism...

/
Spiritual Activism...

Even though it is possible to find many positives, there’s no denying the world is a challenging place to be right now.

It's apparent that how we've been living for decades isn't working. Something fundamental is wrong. Current global crises – Covid-19, economics, politics, health, environment, inequality are forcing us all to face up to it.

Read More

The inconvenient truth

/
The inconvenient truth

Recently I’ve noticed a connection between the amount of screen time in a day and the amount/quality of sleep. Screen time, especially social media has been cropping up in coaching sessions recently. Coaching clients are describing how it makes them feel angry, less than, lack concentration and generally eats up hours of what could be more fruitful life.

Read More

How to have more energy, ease and flow in your life

/
How to have more energy, ease and flow in your life

Two years after I had my first ever set of personal branding photographs taken by the talented Ursula Kelly, I had a new set taken by the equally talented Tanya Lloyd. These were two entirely different experiences that in contrast taught me a lot about the ease, freedom and joy available when we are fully ourselves.

Read More

Behind the scenes of success...

/
Behind the scenes of success...

I feel sick with fear, literally. I have a heavy weight in the pit of my stomach. When I listen the voice in my head says “this must be good, you’ve got to get it right, you’ve got to say everything, you’ve got to be clear and eloquent, on point, it’s got to be a successful piece of writing or else…(when I really listen) you’ll be annihilated.”

Read More

Create a better life now - 7 simple steps for tide-turners

/
Create a better life now - 7 simple steps for tide-turners

For the last decade working as an executive coach and business mentor across many sectors I’ve seen more and more amazing women and men struggling to keep up with demands of life and work. Now the tide is turning. Amazing women and men like you and me are saying “No. No more, not now, not any longer. I require a different experience. Life is too precious to squander by bending myself out of shape keeping up with inhuman demands and delivering empty results. I refuse to keep denying my own experience”

Read More