Tim forgot all about my first Mother’s Day #heartbroken

It was the first REAL Mother’s Day for me (because up until then I’d only been a “cat-mum”) and I remember waking up on Mother’s Day and seeing pictures of my Mother’s Group friends on Facebook enjoying breakfast in bed, getting framed photos of their kids and other amazing things like jewellery and a sleep in. I was sure that he had something magnificent planned for later in the day, so I said nothing and we got on with what was just another ordinary day with a newborn.

A few hours later we were roaming through the shopping centre and I commented on a baking dish I thought was pretty. “Would you like it?” he asked. He went in a...

One of the most overwhelming and stressful moments of my life/business/motherhood journey was when Amelia was just 6 months old. I was on my way home from work… late of course and she was home, waiting for her next breastfeed while I ran a mental list of everything I needed to do before I got home to her, in my mind. I’d stopped on the side of the road to answer the business phone… another booking. I scrambled to find a scrap of paper to take the details while planning my next moves. Pick up some groceries, check the PO Box and drop off gear to an employee. I could feel my milk-filled breasts starting to burst and I was still half an hour away from town.

I rushed into the supermarket, I grabbed the few things I needed...

It’s no wonder that my 2 hour daily commute for work has become my most favoured part of the day. What used to be a gruelling, wasteful period of time has now become my most inspirational, educational and reflective time in my day, thanks to podcasts.

What is a podcast?

A podcast is a digital audio download that can be accessed on a computer or electronic device to listen to. There are hundreds of thousands of topics/genres to suit just about anyone’s interests.

Why do I love them?

Although typically a visual person, podcasts allow me a ‘hands free’ option of learning through listening. I can subscribe to channels I love and download episodes that play one after the other, ensuring that I’m never...

Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you
{Maori Proverb}

I truly believe that happiness and positivity is a choice.

A hard choice for some, but a choice none the less.

How can we feel less shit about things when our life feels like it sucks a bit?

What’s stopping us from having the dream career, the dream family and the dream lifestyle?

No matter how far we are from having everything we’ve always wanted, we have to accept that we are all in control of getting up off that lounge, turning off the TV, stretching, walking to the door and grounding ourselves barefoot in the earth as we turn our faces towards the sun and let our shadows fall behind us.

It’s clear to me that we are all in complete...

How to make friends with time...

My heart thumped louder than the clock ticked. Time, time, time. With every passing second I became further behind with the tasks I’d set for the day. There became a moment where I felt that I’d collapsed on the hamster wheel and instead of running with it, I was being pulled; attached to the wheel as gravity held me there, spinning around and around. I felt totally out of control and overwhelmed. Sound familiar?

This honestly used to happen to me a lot and if I can be totally honest, there are fleeting moment of time when now, this still happens (if I'm not careful). Pre-baby, my relationship with time wasn't overly relevant. But post-baby, I felt like time hated me. Of course, I...

This is very unlike me. All I can say about these past twelve days is… whoa! For twelve days I wrote NO to-do lists, did NO brain dumps and did NOT use my diary. Me? Yes me. What happened, you may ask? Did I fall into the abyss along with a case of wine? Or did nothing change? The results of this experiment certainly surprised me.

Firstly, I didn’t turn on my laptop at all. Like, at all. Not once. (Ok, maybe once for a meeting but that doesn’t count). I didn’t write any new content, I didn’t do any e-learning and I let 324 emails accumulate. None of which I replied to (sorry Katrina…)

So what did happen?

No I didn’t fall into the abyss (although I did drink a fair bit of wine… and...

My gorgeous, busy mums. Please stop using this word.

Should.

I catch myself saying this word quite frequently. How about you?

“I should drop by and help out.”

“I should get up and do the dishes.”

“I should agree to help at that event.”

“I should hurry up and make up my mind.”

Should is a word. But it’s more than just a word. It’s a sell-out. A word we use when we are busy pleasing others before we please ourselves. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

How many times a day would you say or think the word ‘should’?

The awareness of how often you actually use this word will probably astound you.

Each time you use it, you’re actually giving away...

As a mum,  getting time for myself is something very precious. Last week during one of my coaching calls, my client asked me about how I manage to get so much time to myself (me time) considering how busy I am. As a busy mum, business owner, primary school teacher and domestic goddess, my days are busy, but I’ve always managed to get time for myself every day. But until I was asked this question, I’d never actually explored ‘how’ I manage to do it... so here it goes.

Self Care

Self care is without doubt the most important concept for mums to recognise and understand if she wants to create a harmonious work/life blend and feel relaxed. We are the barometer of our family and when we feel calm, organised...

Housework.

I’m sorry you had to read that.

Did you cringe too?

Here’s the thing about housework. It has to be done.

Again, sorry!

For me, there are different levels of ‘housework’. There are painless things like doing the washing, making beds and dusting. There are mid-range things like putting away clothes, cleaning the kitchen and vacuuming. Then there are highly painful tasks like cleaning the shower, mopping, cleaning windows and tidying.

Tidying? Some may argue that this is not a ‘highly painful task’ but let me break it down. In my experience, tidying is the ‘root’ of all cleaning tasks. Almost nothing else can be done thoroughly until the tidying process has occurred.

Some people are...

I envy all of those amazing office spaces that people create in their homes. You know the ones... they are so perfect that I’m convinced that they’re just show-room offices in people’s homes and their real work spaces are actually tucked away in the corner of the lounge room or taking up the entire dining room table!

Seriously though, after spending way too much time looking at gorgeous offices on Pinterest, I’ve decided that I can have an inspirational work space too; and so can you!

Declutter

Start by removing everything off your desk except your electronics (because, well you know,  they’re super heavy). Wipe the surfaces clean and then make a plan for how you want your office to look and feel. File...