I was coaching a client yesterday who had come to the realisation that the only certainty in life is uncertainty. It’s one of those tricky paradoxes that we all live with on a daily basis; some days more keenly than others. None of us know what’s going to happen later today, tomorrow or next week. We have our plans and our hopes but sometimes life has other ideas.
Continue readingYou know when you keep hearing the same phrase repeated over a period of time? Well, over the past 24 hours I’ve read and heard the phrase, “it’s always darkest before the dawn” three times. I think life is trying to tell me something!
Continue readingHello, Here’s what I’m mulling today… “He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right” – Confucius
Continue readingConfidence is one of the greatest gifts we can give to our children, especially in this era of constant peer comparison on social media. But, how on earth do you instill self-belief into your child? Aside from the basics of love, nurture, support and clear boundaries it’s my conviction that the more I allow my daughters to do things independently of me the more confidence they gain. This can be in the small things…
Continue readingIt’s so easy to look around and see what’s wrong with the world, your life, your day, the weather, that person, etc. Negativity abounds in our culture – the news is teeming with stories of ‘bad things’ happening in a ‘bad world’, we connect with strangers by complaining about the rain and we’re encouraged on TV to revel in our misery by making financial claims for things that have gone wrong. Why do we glory…
Continue readingWhen I was expecting my first child eleven years ago I devoured parenting books with the same passion I had once reserved for the annuals of my favourite pop bands. Why? Because I was SO concerned about “getting it right” and not screwing up my daughter. When she was born I clearly remember doing everything the midwife told me to the letter, again because I was intensely afraid of getting it wrong. When the…
Continue readingSet with enthusiasm and all good intentions, resolutions are meant to improve our lives. The problem, as we all know, is that they are usually ‘broken’ by the end of January, leaving us feeling dejected, despondent and cross with ourselves. I was caught in this trap for many, many years until one Christmas I thought I’d set goals for the coming year instead of make resolutions, the focus being on things I could achieve over…
Continue readingOn Sunday, my seven-year-old daughter, Eva, decided to, “test whether what mummy says about things being dangerous is true or not,” by putting her hand on top of the wood burner. It had been on for an hour and she badly burnt her hand. In hindsight, I could write about how interesting it is to me that my first reaction was anger, “What did you do that for?” followed quickly by fear and compassion for…
Continue readingMany of the people I see in my coaching practice suffer with a fear of failure. In fact, I reckon if we all peeled back the layers of our psyche we’d likely find this fear of failure in some form or another. Fear of failure is a fear of being exposed or a fear of not being good enough. It’s also a fear of the unknown based on the belief that you ‘wouldn’t cope’ if…
Continue readingI’ve written about gratitude before but it’s worth returning to, as it’s so very, very powerful. If you are feeling low or frustrated or heartbroken then focussing on the small positive things in your life will give you a boost, take you momentarily away from your negative thoughts and give you a new perspective on your situation.
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