Whenever I am away on a conference or workshop weekend I run a short meditation/relaxation session before dinner on the first night for anyone who wants to join in.  I always start these sessions by asking everyone in the group how they relax when they get the chance.  There are usually a wide variety of answers ranging from the simple things in life, like having a gin and tonic whilst in a hot bath (a professor once said that one!) to more energetic ways to relax such as taking up a hobby.

Living near the coast one of my greatest ways to relax is to sit somewhere I can see the sea, smell the salt on the air, feel the sand under my feet.  It’s so peaceful just sitting quietly, listening to the waves washing onto the beach.

Another way I relax is here on the internet.  I sometimes play a game (Farmville is my favourite!  Sad, I know but Tracey Peapell plays too so it’s not just me!), I visit interesting blogs and enjoy reading the variety of entries (check out the blog rolls alongside here for other interesting blogs to visit), and I maintain this blog, and one or two others.

I am currently undertaking a ’100 blog comments challenge’ during August that was the brainchild of Steve King and Jacinta Dean.  You can check out the list of other contributors on the dedicated page listed in the sidebar.  The purpose of the challenge is for any participant to publish one post in the month of August and try to achieve 100 comments on that one post.  Everyone visiting is also encouraged to socially bookmark the post after leaving their comment.  This is my challenge post.

So to help me reach my target leave me a comment and tell me, how do you relax?

Enjoy the journey.

The original title of this post was ‘who has inspired you?’ but as I was writing it I realised that the question should, in fact be, ‘who have you inspired?’  Now I know the inclination is to say ‘no-one, who could I possibly have inspired?’ but the reality is that we have all had a great impact on someone else in our lives, sometimes we may not even have known at the time.

Last week I spent the weekend with some friends I have known for a very long time.  Indeed one of them I met when we were young adults, living and working in Paris thirty years ago.  Over dinner one friend said he had a big announcement to make and went on to tell us he had worked his last day in an administration job and was starting a new career as an indoor landscape gardener the very next week.  He was elated and said this is the type of work he has always desired but never felt able to pursue.  He went on to say that it was, in fact, something I had said to him some years earlier that had prompted his change in thinking about his life.  Apparently I had told him in a conversation when we first met that I thought everyone should go after their dreams when they have the chance, that opportunities should always be pursued and we must take those risks as they could result in the best move we ever made in our lives.

Of course this really is my belief, as you may have read in my earlier post, ‘If you don’t have a go you’ll never know’.

Interestingly at around the same time I received a comment on my last post from Mark Sherman and realised how very important it is for us to always put out as much as we can in the best way possible, as it will reap rewards that we cannot possibly imagine at the time.

Enjoy the journey.

Last week I got some new spectacles.  My first pair were bought in 1993 and each time the prescription has changed I have reused the existing frames.  I decided these frames were a little ‘old hat’ now and it was time to change them to a more modern look.

The ‘fitter’ was great.  She showed me the full range of frames, and she gave me lots of pairs to try on.  Nothing was too much trouble.  She spent the time needed for me to make the right decision.

Last week my newly purchased spectacles arrived.   As soon as I put them on I felt like a different person.  It reminded me of the day I collected my new car two years ago.  I had never bought a brand new car before and the same feelings were present on that day.  I felt, and still feel, good in so many different ways.  I feel more confident.  I have realised I am walking differently, more upright.  It’s an amazing feeling.

Last week I also joined my first ever giveaway.  I prepared a unique product for it (click on the banner alongside this post to go and see what is on offer).  Since the launch on Sunday I have had simply masses of downloads of my gift, and a host of sign ups to the list I created for it.  I am over the moon with the result and it has contributed greatly to me feeling good.

So when did you last feel good?  What happened to cause it and can you duplicate that?  Look for things in your life that help you to feel great about yourself.  You deserve them.

Enjoy the journey.

Last weekend I went to a concert in a local church, a small village called Salle in North Norfolk.  Once a year this group of singers raise money for a local charity.  There were around 80 people singing and the church was full to bursting with family and friends who had all paid £7 each to hear the group sing.

So, what’s so special about this, you might ask?  Well, most of the people in this choir believed, when they joined the group, that they could not sing.  They just wanted the opportunity to have a go in a relaxed, informal atmosphere with no pressure to perform.

Sing For Joy gives anyone who wants it just that chance.  Each of those people singing took a risk, joined the group, had a go, tested the water, tried it out, call it what you will – they followed a dream, a passion, a yearning, and the result is they created the most wonderful sounds when they thought, in the beginning, they would never be able to.

Yes, they have a great leader who coaxes the best out of all of them, she encourages them and teaches them in a way that suits each individual.  We all learn in different ways and she is able to recognise their strengths and build on them.  But it took the brave step from each one to join the group in the first place and have a go at something they knew nothing about.

It’s the same with anything in life, if you don’t have a go you will never know if you can…

Enjoy the journey.

When someone close to us in our lives has a crisis how far do we go to help out?

When someone not so close to us has a crisis how far do we go to help out then?  And what about someone we don’t know at all, a stranger in the street?

Recently on UK tv there have been a number of programmes based around strangers helping others who need it.  Usually the ‘helper’ is extremely wealthy and helps financially. The results have often been life changing for the recipient.  The results for the helper have often been life changing too as they realise what great benefits they can bring to others with a little bit of thought and sharing a little of what they have.

Most of us don’t have great wealth.  It is often difficult to find enough for our own needs without considering what others need, but in a crisis we all can find that little bit extra to help out.

Often it isn’t money that is needed.  We can give our time, we can give our compassion, we can give our support, and all of these are free and only cost us a bit of effort.

Help out where you can.  The rewards can be immense.

Enjoy the journey.

When I was planning my trip to America I felt like a bit of a spendthrift.  I mean, how many ordinary people get to go to the USA, and especially at this point in time when so many are struggling to make ends meet?  It seems somehow less extravagant to say ‘I’m going to Turkey’, but I guess that’s because we are part of Europe and it’s ‘just next door’.

The reality is that the flight to the USA was very reasonable, and having checked again and again they seem to be pretty much the same, month in, month out.  The actual cost, including insurance and taxes, was way less than £500 – and I have spent that on a package trip to Barcelona before now.

Of course that wasn’t the only cost, and I managed to barter some freebies to make it affordable for me.  I have a friend who does not have a car currently.  I offered her the use of my car for the three weeks I was away if she could take me to and from the airport.  I saved the parking fees and she paid the petrol in return for the car loan.  She was over the moon with the deal!

I bartered accomodation in the USA with an American friend who has just had her return visit here.  Staying with someone severely cuts the costs.  All the stories you hear about everything being very much cheaper in the USA is entirely true – we ate our main meal out most days and paid less than $5 in many of the cases, and never more than $10.  I didn’t take very much spending money, less than £200 for the three weeks.  My spending money came from not drinking lattes out every day before I went!  Every time I didn’t have one I saved the money in a pot.  And I made sandwiches at home for lunches instead of buying one from the deli.  Another large saving.

It’s the same with everything in life.  We can just assume we can’t afford it, or we can work to make it happen, compromising where we can, bartering and sharing.  Remember that in your Internet business too.  Use free information where you can, join a good quality membership site for a small monthly fee and download as much content and tutoring as you need.

I use Keith Alston’s Resale Rights for You as I find his content very good value and there is so much choice.  He is always very willing to help you out and will add content requested if there is something in particular you require.  Pop over and have a look, and remember, work to make your dreams happen – you can do it!

Enjoy the journey.

I have just returned from a three week break in the USA.  It was a great opportunity to meet some people I have made friends with via the internet, to talk lots about Internet Marketing, and to see a little bit of a country I have always wanted to visit.  In fact I liked it so much I am returning there in September.

While I was there I was amazed at the amount of American people I met who had never met a British person.  I was amazed at the amount of American people who clearly are not in the least bit used to hearing a British accent in their midst.  I found myself being followed around supermarkets, stalked among the shelves so they could hear me speak.  Most were brave enough to come up to me and tell me how wonderful they thought my accent was, but it made me feel almost famous it happened so often.

In restaurants as soon as they realised I was British all the staff appeared at our table to see if we had everything we needed (yes, I know the Americans are incredibly attentive in restaurants but usually it’s only the person allocated to your table).  In a service station I heard people discussing me at the counter while I browsed the shop, and at a winery I came out rather the worse for the free samples as the assistant never left my side and kept topping my glass up saying ‘and you must try this one’.

In 1979 Andy Warhol said ‘In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes’.  I think I just had mine in an extended version, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  God Bless America!

Enjoy the journey.

My posting has been a little spasmodic lately due to some ‘off-line life’ activities and events that have prevented me from spending as much time as I would like online.  When I have managed to get on here I seem to sit staring at a blank screen with a topic in mind – but no words come to me.

How hard can it be to write 200 quality and informative words on any single topic?  Or even a longer article, say 400-800 words?

Well, most of us bloggers know that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, it simply does not happen.

For you, the answer could be to enter into the world of ghostwriters.  This is a simple and cost effective way of keeping your blog fresh, with quality content, keeping up with those important articles, and you can even outsource longer reports and ebooks for such small amounts that I wonder why we all don’t do it.

Well I don’t do it too often because I do like to write my own content, but it’s a great resource when you’re tight for time, have ‘off-line’ events that demand your constant attention, or simply can’t get something down on paper in the way you want it to be.

The key is to find a quality ghostwriter who you can depend on, not only to get the job done quickly, but also someone who you can revisit every time you need something doing, and you know you will get the same standard of presentation with each written piece that comes back to you.  Kathy Dobson has just written a post on outsourcing, you can visit her blog here.

I love my ghostwriter – just ask if you want their details.  You can be assured of highly researched quality content in every piece of writing produced.  Finding a good ghostwriter is hard – it’s always a great idea to follow recommendations from trusted fellow marketers.

Enjoy the journey.

I am amazed at how we can lose things that seem to be intrinsic to our very being but then find something far more precious, far more satisfying, and giving us a feeling of being far more complete.  There is a saying that when one door closes another opens, and this is very true.  The door that opens can bring great rewards.  Loss is often a hard thing to cope with but if we did not lose things from time to time our lives would become so very full there would be no room for the new adventures we need to explore.

If we want to grow as people we need to embrace these losses, accepting the changes that come our way so we can make room for the new beginnings and new experiences that face us, and these may well bring us much greater happiness than we have ever known.

Enjoy the journey.

On a daily basis we face changes in our lives.  Sometimes these changes are so small we hardly notice them.  Every now and again a major change happens.  That can be okay if you have instigated the change yourself, but there are times when that change is forced on you by someone else, or by circumstances beyond your control.  How we deal with these changes, how we receive them, how we process the feelings they produce, is the key to being happy in our lives.

Since my last post I have been faced with a series of changes.  One of those change was unexpected and certainly unwanted.  One of the horses in the WOW! World of  Whispers herd became ill and died.  It was tragic, tremendously upsetting and left a big void in the project.  The space Glen’s death has left will not be filled, no matter how many other horses come into the project.  All of us in the project needed to deal with this change, we had to come to terms with our loss.  One of the things Glen’s death brought about was a renewed enthusiasm for the work the project does.  The people who cared for Glen realised that the immense learning they went through whilst trying to save him can be used positively for other horses who may find themselves in similar situations.

Try to recognise the positives in every change in your life.  Change is inevitable and it is essential for us to learn and grow.  Embrace change.

Enjoy the journey.