Giving up wine n chocs for Lent ...!

Now why did I do that? It was Pancake Day and my son and I were on the way to the school bus. I was explaining to him what it was about ... you know, 'Well the real reason why we have pancakes is, er, it's something to do with Easter and Jesus, and giving up things for Lent, so we have to eat up all the eggs and milk and lemons and caster sugar and golden syrup and ...'

Anyway, this led A to ask me what I was giving up for Lent (kids - ha!) and that's when I heard myself say I was giving up eating chocolate and drinking wine .... He sort of smiled and then said, 'Right - well, I could give up eating chocolates'. I pointed out that he didn't really like chocolate so that was not really going to be a hardship, now was it?!

So then he said he would give up sweets, which is more of a big deal with him, and he added, 'Cos it's not good for my teeth, is it Mum?'

I was really stuck then, cos he was taking it seriously, and if he was going to, then so did I - didn't I? I did a bit of thinking (not easy at 7.45am) and said, 'OK, well then you give up sweets and I'll give up chocolates till Easter Sunday, and I will give up wine during the week.'

So that's what we have agreed - and amazingly, so far we have not eaten any sweets, chocolates or drunk any wine (the wine's me, not him you understand!). Admittedly, I have got a cold and cough and haven't felt like it, and it is only 3 days so far, but even so ...!

I'm still not sure why we did it, (not having much of a religious streak, and never having given anything up voluntarily before!) but it may not be a bad thing ... and my clothes could just fit a bit better for when spring does finally come. I'll keep you posted.

If you were to give up one thing till Easter Sunday, what would it be? Look at the positive benefits you might get - and it's not for too long. Let me know if you like, and we'll keep each other company ...

A Valentine's Message for You

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. It is a day to celebrate love and I want to thank all of you who I have worked with in the past year, who have supported me both professionally and personally and everyone whose lives I have touched in whatever way.

A couple of days ago I interviewed a really charming man as part of my research into Inspiring Leadership. He is the Bishop of Penrith and he shared with me many of his beliefs and ideas about modern-day leadership. It was so refreshing to hear someone using the word 'love' when talking about this subject. He said it was very important for a good leader to love those whom he or she leads, and that he hoped they would love their leader too.

Maybe the word 'love' word needs to be resurrected in the business community, where we have seen so much greed and self-serving uncovered in the past few months.

I wish you love and happiness at this time and all through the year ... and may you pass that love on to others in your life, whoever they are and wherever they may be.

The Flirt Guru

This afternoon I had coffee with Elizabeth Clark, better known as the Flirt Guru. She lives not far from me and my lovely mentor, Allan, had suggested I talk to her in my quest to re-invent myself and take a new angle to my work in 2009.

We met in a local garden centre cafe and immediately discovered both of us only had enough change to buy a coffee instead of the lunch we had promised ourselves! Ice broken, we then sat down to a 3 hour chat about becoming a 'name' rather than a business, and how it could be done.

Elizabeth is very successful, having published books, been on TV and radio and getting booked for speaking engagements all over the place. She was really down-to-earth, very friendly and gave me loads of help and encouragement in my current quest. So, if you want to find out how to flirt better, overcome your nerves speaking in public or have a really inspiring and fun speaker check out http://www.flirtguru.com/ and give her a call!

... and watch this space as I continue my search for a new way of connecting my passion for being true to yourself, with helping others to become the really great, unique people they were born to be ....