Just reading the news about this volcano causing such an impact on multiple levels makes me realize that sometimes you have No control over some plans you made so long ago. Who can anticipate the eruption of a volcano high north of the European continent would impact people as far as Australia? Well it does, people wanting to fly to Europe, all flights suspended. Not since WW2 has there been such a standstill of international flights. This puts many plans into jeopardy, which prompts the need to think about contingency and your plan B. Perhaps when you plan something think about the alternative just in case, yet again this is not really practical as you then need to think about when things go wrong. And if you have done any personal development and the law of attraction this is not a good idea as you are entertaining the thought of disaster and your plans falling through. We want to be in a positive state and feel that it will come to fruition  that is what we need to feel and ...

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I admit I’m a compulsive responder and acknowledger when it comes to emails. I send thank you notes, got it notes, get back to you soon notes, confirmation notes, and so on.  Unfortunately people don’t always send them to me so I’m often concerned that my email might have got lost in cyberspace or is lying trapped and helpless in a spam filter.  Or I reluctantly decide that the person I’ve communicated with is either inefficient, ignorant or just downright rude. “But I don’t have time to reply to everything”, I hear you say.  Or “I pride myself on only answering what I absolutely have to” or “but I didn’t have anything to tell you yet”. Good on you for your time saving diligence, but what you are saving in time, you could well be losing in good business relationships. As a coach I’d like to point out a couple of distinctions that might make you think again about the benefit of email acknowledgement. I am not talking about responding to unsolicited promos or mail....

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For a child most things are like a jigsaw puzzle, they try to figure out how it feels, how it works, how it fits and how it can be used for other things. Just today my soon to be 16 month old took some utensils from the kitchen cabinet and started making music (it would be noise to other people!) she was very entertained and then used them as pretend telephones. As she is used to seeing her parents on the phone she too wanted to get into the act. This made me realize that in life we have one big jigsaw to unravel and what piece we use next is just based on past experiences and habit. If it doesn’t fit we force it somehow wanting it to be magic remedy. Unfortunately this strategy seldom works as with the jigsaw the piece cannot be forced. So why keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result? This is why having a different perspective and tackling it from a different angle can be beneficial. And how do we do that? We look at it with fresh eyes, look at the jigsaw puzzle fro...

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As Easter is just around the corner, I am reminded about all the surplus junk that keeps on growing in the garage and this is the perfect time to clean out the mess and de-clutter. Interesting we are not alone according to a report by the Australian Institute entitled Stuff Happens: Unused Things Cluttering Up our Homes, 88 per cent of Australian homes has at least one room full of trash-slash-treasure. And also interesting is that four out of ten Australians find themselves feeling anxious, guilty or depressed about the amount of disorder in their homes sometimes going to extraordinary lengths to deal with it. Like moving house, adding rooms, even purchasing more stuff like storage containers to accommodate the things that were brought and never used. People who horde stuff everywhere in their home and in some chronic cases they have surrounded themselves with stuff that they only see the passage to the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Amazing to even phantom such a state! It is not ju...

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When you go through any challenge, you are tested, and to learn and grow we need to be challenged, it is that simple. Just last week I thought I was on a clear path, the indicators told me so, so when that wasn't so my head and heart were in conflict. It was like one of those surreal moments you are disassociated from the experience and see yourself in it. Well that was me, shocked and in disbelief. That was last week and today I am in a better place. Time does heal that is for sure. As they say one door closes and another one opens, I believe things happen for a reason, and so I have justified it and filed the moment somewhere in my learnings. I decide how I feel about things and my experiences; sure there is sadness and disappointment. However I choose to be grateful and feel loved, adored and wanted. That is a better place to resonate from. And that is what I choose. Feeling overwhelmed with emotions and stuck in the moment does not help me move on; in fact it does the complete o...

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For many of us asking for help is a difficult thing to do. We would rather stay stuck in our challenges or settle for outcomes that we are not happy with than go to someone who could offer us some assistance. So why is asking for help difficult for people?  The following are some reasons that I believe contribute to people’s inability to ask for help: Perception that asking for help is a sign of weakness; Fear of looking foolish or being embarrassed in front of others; Pride; Reflects an inability to manage areas of our life; and Having to pay someone for their assistance. Our thoughts and beliefs around asking for help have been influenced by the messages that we have been exposed to from our environments (e.g. home, social, work, school etc.). For example, you may have been exposed to environments that suggested that you should solve your own problems or that you cannot trust others to help you. If you had been exposed to these types of messages yo...

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Like a child on a car trip, I find myself thinking ‘Are we there yet?’  Ok I know patience is not one of my strong points, anybody that knows me will contest to that. Yet it is 2010 and somehow it feels like we are living in sci-fi age, and if that is the case then why do we still find ourselves waiting? We should have arrived by now.. Arrived to the age of awareness and understanding Arrived full circle to our realization that less is in fact more Noticed that there are some people born lucky and then there are the rest of them Being completely present in the moment and not daydreaming of the past or future Noticing that we can live simply and be authentically happy Questioning why we eat certain foods when we are feeling emotional in any way Making a connection with no hidden agenda Yes I can relate to most of those things, living simply and living consciously. It takes work to keep it simple and to really be present. For example being a p...

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Yesterday a client told me about his dilemma, he is a talented IT professional and gets contract after contract without really looking, his work speaks for itself. He has been in this profession all is adult life and really wants a career change, thus the coaching. It is interesting that when one contract is about to end the next job just appears for him, yet this is the time when he wants to pull back and re-train in his new path, one which is more alignment with his values and passion. It feels like the universe is testing him each time, here is a job you can do, take it, and he is standing on the fork on the road wondering if job security is more important than learning new skills. You need to be practical before taking the leap of faith into a new endeavor, as there are many considerations, being the main breadwinner in the family  you have responsibilities, and in my model of the world that takes precedence over anything else. Yet by the same token if you can put time a...

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There are more and more people starting their own business, as we reach a fork on the road with our careers and lifestyle choices many decide that working for someone else does not really provide us with enough balance and flexibility that we need in our lives.  So we take the plunge and fly solo, and this means we do EVERYTHING, from the actual work to administration, marketing, promotions and even become our own PA. Surely there are not enough hours in the day to do all those job roles and so many of us work after hours including weekends and even during our holidays after all we do not get the employee benefits anymore and we need to be available for our clients. So where did the balance go? We want our cake and eat it too, which means we are chasing our tails and often doing tasks that bring no joy as this is not want we are passionate about, we want to talk to people, create, do our thing.. Yet we find ourselves sending out flyers, typing up proposals,  making cold call...

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A client of mine was talking about all the things she has yet to do and she became a little bit disillusioned about it all, as she felt she had left her run too late. She is in her late 30s, still single and no children and she really wants a partner and family to complete her picture. She like so many women of my generation feel that we can have it ALL, career, travel, new experiences and then find Mr Wonderful and settle down with one or two children.  Time is a finite resource we all know that and if our priorities are to work and travel then you need to have your eyes and heart open to meet Mr Wonderful during  your journey.  If you keep playing the field and not commit then you risk running out of time and you may become complacent and settle for Mr Right now.  I was watching an interview with Dame Elizabeth Murdoch she will be 100 years old next month, and what really stuck me was that she was so vivid and articulate in expressing her opinions, she said that...

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