I love country music. As a kid growing up in East Yorkshire such a passion was a rarity and despite the concerns for my social development my dad kept feeding me country music till that fateful day that I started buying my own. He sat back in his armchair with a sigh of contentment; his […]
What's The Worst Thing That Could Happen (If You Try To Be Yourself?)
I’ve just returned from having lunch with a friend who is training to be a life coach. We’ve known each other over 10 years and we always laugh whether we’re lunching, coffee-ing or out drinking. I love our chats of late which are usually about self improvement and making fools of ourselves. Interestingly we were […]
Easter – Regroup and Refocus Your Thoughts
As the chill of the last three months begins to thaw, it is a great time to take the tentative steps out of the cave where you have been hibernating, blink into the sunshine (if you’re lucky enough to have sunshine) and think “Okay…now what?” You may not have been sleeping in a cave for […]
Are You Heading Towards Your End Goal?
If we had to take a trip to New York, we could probably do it. Money aside, the physical action of getting ourselves from one place to another is relatively straight forward to most people. We would need to get ourselves to the airport, get on a flight to New York and there we would […]
"Don't Try, Can't Fail"…But Nor Will You Succeed
I once knew someone whose motto was to never put himself forward for anything. He would half complete courses but never take the exam, his belief being that if they never took a test he could never “fail” at anything. He admitted his motto was “Don’t Try, Can’t Fail.” It’s an interesting philosophy and whilst […]
Writing a New Column for Women Unlimited
A few posts back I told you that I had offered to submit articles to the fantastic new online resource for women in business: Women Unlimited. I was subtly persistent in offering to write for them as I believe this is a fantastic resource and going to be a great site for women thinking of […]
People Pleasing Paralysis
At school, work and even when self-employed, you may be familiar with the “People Pleasing Paralysis”. What has been ingrained in you since you were young, could well be stunting the growth of your personality – and your success. We were taught to make the teacher happy, make your boss happy – even if it […]
Funny How Time Slips Away – Making The Seconds Count
It’s Sunday, a regular Sunday, nothing out of the ordinary. I know people out there are sleeping off the night before and relaxing, so that should be okay for me right? Yet there’s something that’s making me restless, and it’s the thought that I should always be working harder and longer than I am. When […]
Are you and your characters passive?
Since the beginning of the year, I have been submitting one short story a week for competitions / magazine entries. Having to review so much material for submission, I began to see in some of my older work, a common trait with main characters in stories that I was unhappy with: they had a tendency […]
Kicking Out Self Doubt for Freelancers
One of the hardest aspects of working for yourself is that you are self-reliant on picking yourself up, offering encouragement and motivation even when the chips are down. The phone hasn’t rang for a couple of days, your inbox looks a little empty and your Twitter updates are falling on blind eyes. I was on […]
