The best networking group out

Just planning for tomorrow when I'll be attending the first meeting of my Chigwell Athena group from 2011. So looking forward to meeting up with all the members again and hearing their news. I'm also giving the business support topic and wondering what their response will be. If I know my group it will be a great one.

Want to climb Kilimanjaro?

I am delighted to recommend this to you. Simon Madrell, the co-founder of Excellent is a past client of mine and in fact the setting up of Excellent came out of the coaching work that we did.

Simon is one of the most trustworthy people I've ever met, full of integrity and I have followed his charity all through it's existence and delighted in the achievements they have made including increasing their fund raining income year on year and winning a number of awards for their work.

Join the Excellent Development Kilimanjaro Challenge. This is your opportunity to climb Africa's highest peak and raise money for Excellent Development. You will then have the opportunity to go to Kenya and spend a week with a community building a sand dam.
The 2010 expedition leaves on 14th September and they will be signing people up over the next few weeks. However, if you can't make it this year, do not despair as next year's trip leaves on 9th September 2011.


To find out more visit - http://www.excellentdevelopment.com/kili2010.php

Use walking to fix it.

Those of you who have followed me for a while know of my love of walking and how I use it in my work. This is a technique I urge you to try - visualise as you walk, it's a great mood fixer. So if you have some concerns and anxieties and can't seem to move on, get out of the office and go for a walk. See your anxieties been ground into the earth under your feet as you move.

Works for me every time.

You can exercise in a busy schedule

Did you know that walking briskly for only 10 minutes several times a day is just as beneficial for you as doing 30 minutes once a day. For many of us these, small bouts of exercise may be easier to fit into our busy schedules.

What do you think?

Fitness incorporated

An Irish study suggests that walking up stairs & escalators for average of 6 mins per day, can make you 10% - 15% fitter.

Try it out.

How's your year developing?

Can't believe that it's the second week in February already!!

The first few days of January always seem to go slow and then they become turbo charged and whizz through. I'm so trying to make the most of every day this year, really trying to keep on top of stuff and not let time just pass. For us and our business, January was a great month and as I didn't plan to go far over the first few weeks the snow didn't really affect me. I'm planning on February being the same.


It used to be the month I disliked. Unlike many others who dislike January, I find January inspiring and that great new start with the blank canvas and the chance to put things right. I am always energised and looking forward with great intentions. February however tended to be for me, cold and dreary. What was there to look forward to? Spring wasn't on it's way and the excitement of the new year had passed. Stupidly I often found myself picking that month to detox in when I should be nourishing myself and taking a lead from nature and hibernating. One year when I detoxed, I got so depressed and was sensible enough to learn a lesson so no more of that until later on.

Last year I decided to take more action and found a range of different ways to keep upbeat and now it's as good as any other month. In fact today feels rather springlike. The sun is shining out of a beautiful blue sky, in fact it's streaming in the window and I will have to do sometihing to keep it off the computer screen. I can see the days being longer and there are buds appearing on trees and the daffodils and crocus are poking up out of the earth. It's all aking me a little poetic....

Would love to hear how 2010 is working out for you? Tell me how you are coping and let's share some of those strategies and if it's not working too well, has my writing given you any ideas of what you could do differently? I do hope so.

The Quintastics - are you one?

One of my dear friends, member of my mastermind group, fabulous 50+ woman and owner of Midlife Matters - http://www.midlifematters.co.uk, Karen Knott has just alerted me to this fabulous article - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/7084717/Quintastic-50-is-the-new-30.html

Let me know what you think.......

Are you a Quintastic?

Clear your head in 30 minutes

Sneak more exercise into your day and go for a 30 min walk at lunchtime. It clears the head, recharges your batteries batteries and gives you a break from the computer and the office.

A new year and at last I'm where I should be.

Oh dear, well the blog went a little out the window at the end of last year which I'm not very proud of but I figure it's happened so no point in beating myself up about it. It's a case of getting over it, moving on and planning to do better in 2010 and that's exactly what I intend to do.

It's been an interesting start to the year with all the snow which I initially enjoyed. I hadn't planned to go far so hiding in the warm, cosy office at the bottom of the garden was great. It also gave me a chance to get on with the planning that I needed to do to get 2010 off to a good start. So that is well under way now, hence the reason for starting to blog again.

As this new decade starts, I'm really in a great place. For the past few years I've known that I wasn't quite in the right place. I was still coaching, running the walking business and exploring how I could move with that but the fit wasn't quite there. I knew I was out of alignment but I wasn't clear what to do to get back in there. Quite often I was really frustrated and unfulfilled and at times I thought I might have to stay like that - not a great vision.

However, I stuck with it, I read and tried to put it all into practice and went with my intuition which said it would all be OK and voila!

At the end of 2009, I was a much happier person, I felt calm and at peace and very blessed and I still feel like that. I know that now I'm in the place I want to be, the place that uses my skills totally and honours all those values and it feels great, it feels better than great but I'm not sure I can find the right words, there are so many.

So what am I doing?

I'm combining working with my husband as his Business Manager, he is a professional speaker - http://www.alanstevens.net/ and also runs http://mediacoach.com/ with my walking business which I have now made much more local in terms of the services it offers - http://www.walkerscoach.com/ and it's working well.

My walking is one of my passions but I cannot spread myself thinner and in this way I can really work with the ladies who want to get the best out of walking in the area that I live and I can also provide my 'walk and talk' sessions to the coaching clients who have wonderful small businesses in my area. In terms of trekking, I'm still off doing that so I can train local people but of course the site and the newsletter which will start again soon can be accessed by many more.

Working with Alan is something I would never have envisaged but it works well and I use my coaching, my relationship building, my organisational skills on a daily basis and I love it.

Is there a message? Well a couple - don't give up hope. If you feel that things are not right, don't put up with it, keep exploring, keep believing that you can find the right place to be and you will. The persistence is necessary, even when you feel like giving up and finally read some good books. For me, the one that really helped was a book I have recommended before - 'Simple Abundance' by Sarah Ban Breathnach. It's interesting that last year I managed, at last, to get through the entire book. Perhaps I should have achieved that earlier.

....and I'm still walking.

I can honestly say that I cannot quite believe how happy and content I feel. I feel blessed and very abundant.

If I can help you get to that place, please get in touch for a chat.

Do you find it hard to say "NO"?

We like to feel liked, needed, special, helpful etc and that's one of the reasons, I'm sure that so many of us women (and some men too) tend to always say "yes" and then regret it afterwards.

It's not that we don't want to help, it's just that when we say "yes" to someone else, we say no to ourselves. When we say "yes" to helping someone else get things done thereby making a dent in their "to do" list, it doesn't help us make a dent in hours.

This week, I'm getting things done and I've got a laser focus. I haven't got time to help others as getting my stuff done will finally take them off lists they've been on for years and just think how great that will make me feel.

So I'm going to be practicing these strategies and hopefully they might work for you too.

So how about:

"I can't help this time - who else can you ask?" or a slight deviation on this one"I can't help this time but XXX is really good at this" Be careful though, you may just plonk someone one else in it.
"I'm not sure, Let me see and I'll call you back later!" and a similar one "Now's not a good time, can I call you back later?"
"I'm sorry but I really can't help and I do mean it"
"I'm going to have to say 'no', it's just not convenient for me"

Some buy you time so you can think it all through instead of reacting. Others just come out and say "no". And remember, you don't have to justify, just say what you have to say and 'shut up'

Search for more than lumps, ladies.

It's Breast Cancer Awareness month and as someone who has known only too many wonderful women who have had this disease, it's one I'm passionate about.

Today , through the Be Fabulous Newsletter I discovered 'Bollocks to Breast Cancer' on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135963158920 set up by Sarah Stewart who is currently undergoing treatment for Breast Cancer. I was so impressed and want to get involved and the first step is to pass on this info from Sara herself -

"Everyone thinks that finding a lump in your breast is the first sign of cancer. When I found a red mark that looked like a love bite but that remained on my breast for several weeks, I found out about inflammatory breast cancer. It starts with a red mark, is aggressive and does not often involve a lump.My GP said it was nothing to worry about. But I didn't want to take a risk.So I booked myself into a fast-track breast clinic last Friday and discovered that I had the early stages of a tumour. Bizarrely, the red mark doesn't seem to have been related to the cancer so something or someone out there was looking out for me.There is no history of breast cancer in my family either.I think of myself as being lucky to have found this so early. But please ladies, don't just look for lumps but also for changes in your breast skin texture, inverted nipples and anything that doesn't look quite right. Don't ignore anything."

Take heed of Sara's advice, we can never know too much about all of this.

It was through doing the Aviva Breakthrough to Breast Cancer Walk in 2006 that the East End Girls were born and we are still out there walking and raising money when possible.

Walk to work - check it out.

Simon Madrell at Excellent development has just drawn my attention to Walk to Work for the
Microloan Foundation.

On Friday 16th October, many people across the world will be walking to work and the money they raise will help women in Africa set up their own businesses. We need entrepreneurs everywhere so do your bit, if you can to get fundraising and walking, every little helps.

Check out this great website and see how you can get involved - http://tinyurl.com/yldtmwz. .

Is someone trying to get a message to you?

Where do I start? Perhaps one step at a time or as the strong messages that have been coming my way this morning say - 'do one thing at a time and complete it, then move on'. Sounds like good advice so why am I so bad at doing it?

No longer......

After having that same message come my way 3-4 times this morning I'm taking notice also because it might help with the over powering feeling I have of never getting all I want to do done.

Yes, I know, most of us probably feel like that at some time but I a) always plan to do far too much in one day, like a huge to do list b)I also try to multitask as new things come into my head. Result - total failure, very little completed and a great deal of frustration on my part.

This morning, I've stuck to one thing at a time and so far so good. So instead of trying to talk about 101 things in this blog posting just one. That is the repetition of messages like above where I read 'do one thing' in a book, then again in an article, then someone discussed the phenomena on a teleclass and as it's where I fall down I guess I should take this one board.

Are you getting any strong messages? Are you paying attention? Do you know what it all means for you?

Just take a little time and try and understand it all. Have a great day and I may blog again later, I definitely have loads to say.

They are excellent - Excellent Development

Many years ago when I hadn't been coaching for long, I took on a new client Simon Madrell who was in the midst of making a decision about career direction.

For Simon his next career move had to honour his values including the environment, being ethical and authentic and helping others.

We explored many avenues over a period of months and in the end up I remember saying "perhaps you need to set up your own charity" and that's just what he did.

Simon and Joshua who is based in Kenya and is the person who inspired Simon when he was a boyscout, have achieved amazing things and I'm so proud to be connected with them.

They won Charity Awards 2008 and today I heard that they've just won Third Sector Magazine 'Small Charity, Big Achiever' Winner 2009 which is one of their top 3 awards - the others going to an individual and a big charity.

They are a charity you need to check out - http://www.excellentdevelopment.com/

More Simple Abundance advice.

I've also had to catch up on my Simple Abundance reading and I came across this yesterday, all be it from the section for Sept 19th. It's not time limited, this advice relates to anytime.

Sarah Ban Breathnach writes

"Ambition is achievement's soul mate. Action is the matchmaker that brings these affinities together so that sparks can begin to fly and we can set the world on fire"

Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

What, no blog posts?

What have I been doing since September 11th?

A quick trip through my diary reminds me of :

• A very sociable weekend catching up with friends
• a hectic but wonderful couple of days coaching NHS staff in the Chelmsford area as part of a Leadership Course they are doing. They were all fantastic people and I get to see them twice again as part of this initiative.
• some one to one clients on career and life management issues and also stress management
• the discovery of a suspected Achilles problem and research to find out what I could do about that
• a cancelled EEG walk as a result of my discovery above
• networking
• webinar planning with MediaCoach
• paperwork

Yes, it has been busy and I believe that because of that the creativity was not there for me to write.
Sun is shining this morning and it's stunning. I'm holding off my return to walking until tomorrow for my Friday group and then we'll give it an air before the walking trip to France next week. More about that later.

A Psalm for Life

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:

Let us, then, be up and doing
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to Labor and to wait.

I came across this as the quote for Sept 11th in my Simple Abundance book which, over the years has become rather a bible for me. What a great mantra to live life by.

I have a full day in the office today and I've been up and doing already - feels great.

Keeping on the move.

I've done my East End Girl walks through the summer and did some wonderful exploring of new walks too as well as some client 'walk and talk' sessions but I have to admit that my early morning walking has been rather hit and miss.

I do miss that energetic start to the day so come Sept 1st I started them up again and already 3 days in I feel so much better, so much more energised and therefore more able to tackle the work load that has now come back into my life. I've been making a real effort to power walk and arrive home really hot and sweaty and knowing that I've had a bit of a workout, it makes me feel really great.

If you are aware that you need to get moving more then don't worry too much about the 'hot and sweaty' at the start, just aim to get out there more. There's a wide choice of exercise available but if you're not a swimmer, not into the gym, not a team player and find it hard to attend a class then perhaps walking is for you.

According to research from the Centre of Inflammation and Metabolism in Copenhagen it's the small bouts of activity throughout the day that protect our body from disease. They found that even slight reductions in activity levels quickly added up the chances of age related disease such as heart disease and diabetes.

So what can you do? It's really quite simple:-

• take the stairs instead of the lift.
• walk instead of drive for short journeys
• get off transport a stop earlier and walk
• don't email colleagues in the same building, go and visit them
• take up dancing with friends and make an evening of it
• meet friends for a walk and then have a coffee
• dance around the house
• use your kids trampoline
• get on the kids wii
• put more effort into the housework
• join a walking group
• get a pedometer, it's a great motivational tool

I'm sure there are loads more ideas but these will get you started and don't forget small amounts, you don't have to commit to hours of activity at any one time. Have fun.

No such thing as a banal tweet

I was recently asked to write about 'How Twitter can boost your networking and bring you new clients' for a newsletter I write for regularly. I've been on Twitter for more than a year now and am loving it - it's by far my favourite social networking tool and I have been giving talks to my local Athena groups about it and how to use it to your benefit.

Of course the comments that people make are interesting especially those who to date have not tried it but have picked up, usually through the media, info regarding the fact that it's all about what you had for lunch! I love the turn around that often comes when I explain what you can write in 140 characters and how it can promote and leverage your business as well as increase your networking.

One of the things I mentioned in the article was that 'I might even comment, as I did yesterday, on the blackberries on one of my favourite walks. That tweet got about 10 responses, with people sending recipes, saying I’d inspired them to go out and commenting on the importance of getting out in the fresh air.'

That tweet is still getting comments and the discussion has gone on over the weekend. Now that's exactly the kind of tweet some might label as 'banal' but it's my experience that tweets like this are the ones that really heighten your profile because they are the tweets that people relate to, the ones that show people you may be like-minded, the ones through which people get a feel for you and as they build the relationship, they want to do business with you at all.

Yes, people go to my blog and website when I tweet, yes, they ask for help and assistance but this tweet is the one that's got the most responses ever.

As Joel Comm, the man who wrote Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time would say tweets like this are ‘a little bit of human interaction’

Liquorice for ever!!

Love it when I come across info that backs up what I believe or lets me know that something I do is good for my health. Discovered this today and wanted to share it with you.

If you have a sweet tooth and you're trying to cut down on your intake, how do you cope when you get that sweet urge? Well I know we can try and work through it and if we succeed we feel very virtuous but what if the urge just gets stronger and stronger?

One thing I do is to chew/eat liquorice but of course as it is sweet, I often wonder if it's really a healthier way of getting that fix. Well, apparently it is.

In China liquorice is known as 'the Great Detoxifier' and actually it seems as if this is a bit of a superfood with all that it can do. Among the benefits it bestows is the ability to:

• ease asthmatic coughs
• relieve exhaustion and stress
• balance hormones
• offer pain relief
• reduce inflammation
• cure hangovers
• help lose weight

Well all this has helped me feel better about it so I'm out to build up my stock. The only thing lacking in information about the amount you can eat so when I find that out, I'll pass it on. Happy chewing.