If there is one thing nearly all of us could do with more of, it is confidence. Science tells us that few are born confident, so that means confident people have learnt to be confident. Which means you can too. It just takes effort, practice, and more practice.
Here are some tips:
‘New year, new you’ must be the most over-used phrase in the world of magazine headlines, but there is a very good reason for that. The beginning of a new year can be a watershed. ‘Next year’ becomes ‘this year’. The time is now. If you had a bad year, that is now in the past. If you had a great year, you can step it up a level and make this one even better.
A new year is like a gift. It’s a chance to start again, and to tell yourself you have the power to decide how this year pans out. What will you do? Where will you go? Who will you spend time with? Who will you avoid? How will you behave differently so things work out differently? What different choices will you make? What will you tell yourself about what could be possible for you? And what steps will you take to make that happen?
Do you have a secret dream to write a book? Or publish a blog? Or pitch to write for a magazine? Or do you simply want to get into regular writing in your journal, or create poetry, for fun? Then join our FREE Winter Writing Workshop with seven days of prompts and inspiration to help you to discover your inner writer!
Here in England the time between Christmas and New Year is often quiet, after the hustle and bustle of preparations and the chaos of the festivities. It is also cold and dark, so we thought this would be the perfect time to get cosy next to a roaring fire, journal in hand, to write. We invite you to join us, whether you are a seasoned writer or just starting out. (And if you live somewhere hot then of course you are still welcome – perhaps you will sit out in the sun writing?)
We have teamed up with Frances Booth, author of The Distraction Trap, to bring you seven days’ worth of writing exercises, so by the end of the week you will have made real progress on whatever piece of writing you choose to commit to.
Each day you will be emailed a short note from professional writer Frances, along with those daily writing prompts, writer development exercises and some special tips from well known writers. At the end of the series you will also receive a PDF of 100 writing prompts to keep you writing all year long.
The workshop runs over the New Year period, from December 29 – Jan 4 and is the perfect way to kick start your writing for 2015.
It is completely free, and is our Christmas gift to you!
See https://dowhatyouloveforlife.com/www for more details and to book your place. Please tell all your friends too!
Beth and team
This fantastic commercial prompts some important questions, not least “What can you do to witness more happiness today?”
[youtube width=”550″ height=”445″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU[/youtube]
The Do What You Love e-course is open for registration! This acclaimed transformational online course is for people like you who want to find financial and personal freedom, living a full and happy life.
Do What You Love is about re-opening doors that you thought were locked shut… re-opening possibilities that you thought were long gone… and illuminating possibilities you never knew existed.
It’s about discovering what you really want to do, and giving you practical exercises and tools to do more of it, get paid to do it (if that’s what you want) and generally have a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Sounds like something you need?
Class begins on Monday October 13 and runs for five weeks. Hurry and register now. Don’t miss this chance – it could change everything.
I hope you will choose to be a part of this adventure with us!
Beth
This is one of my favourite ever quotes, because it puts the power in your hands. It reminds us that if we have the capacity to dream of something, we have the capability to make it happen, if only we begin…
Back in 2010 I went on my first art retreat, and when I was there I distinctly remember picking up a copy of ‘Somerset Studio’, one of the beautiful magazines from American publishing house Stampington, and thinking “Just imagine getting published in a magazine like that.” Four years on and I am now a columnist for Stampington’s brilliant magazine ‘Where Women Create Business‘, and have been featured in several of their other titles in between.
If I think about how it happened, it was a combination of…
However big or small the dream, it can often be made a reality through a combination of the things above.
What steps do you find help you make your ideas happen?
PS: The column in Where Women Create Business is jointly-authored with Kelly Rae Roberts. In this third of four articles we talk about the importance of choosing to deliver products and services which serve your audience and support your purpose. It is a fab magazine – you can get a copy in all major US bookshops or via the Stampington site here.
This post is written by Louise Gale, a valuable member of the DWYL team who assists with our e-courses and project manages the beautiful Moyo magazine. Louise is a mixed media artist with a passion for colour, nature and energy. She lives in Spain overlooking the ocean with a view of Gibraltar rock, tiny fishing boats and the north African coastline in the distance. Feel free to pop by her website and say hi.
Festive greetings everyone! Paul and Beth kindly invited me to guest post on “What Christmas means to me”, so I thought I would write and share a little festive poem with you.
What does Christmas mean to me?
Family, friends and a beautiful tree
Frosty mornings, hear the robin red breast sing
Here are a few of my festive favourite things
Making Mince pies with little stars on top
Toasting good health with champagne until I might just pop
Twinkle lights and exchanging smiles
Sending heartfelt greetings across the miles
Living in the moment of festive joy
Faces full of excitement on little girls and boys
Christmas crackers and mistletoe
Holly and ivy tied with a big red bow
Reindeers called Rudolph, Prancer and Dancer
Watching Christmas movies in my snowflake pyjamas
Handmade ornaments that tell a story
Neighbourhood decorations in all their glory
Decorating the tree and sipping mulled wine
Being thankful, loving and kind
To those less fortunate than ourselves
Take time to help out to stack their shelves
The wish I bestow upon one and all
Be healthy, happy and stand up tall
To love one another, give thanks and spread peace
Let go of fear, so any anger can cease
No matter where on earth I roam
Christmas isn’t Christmas without being home
Home is where the heart lives, so precious and true
so, take some time to reflect on….
What does this festive season mean to you?
This post is written by Susannah Keene who is lending a helping hand at DWYL whilst Beth prepares herself for motherhood. Susie met Beth when they worked together at UNICEF in London and they then spent a couple of years working together in Ghana before moving back to the UK to get married. She is expecting her first baby in the New Year and in the meantime she’s enjoying exploring new opportunities for DWYL’s development and sharing growth ideas with Paul for 2014…
If you ask someone to describe to you what Christmas means to them, I bet a lot of people would say that it is a time of celebration, a time to spend with your family, to share presents and indulge in copious amounts of food and treats. Year after year, we follow the same routine and, whilst the majority of us enjoy it, Christmas can just be an event in our annual calendars that we switch into auto-pilot for.
I vividly remember during my teenage years that every Christmas Day afternoon I would burst out crying; a release of the feeling that had built during the day brought on by the sheer number of presents that were exchanged amongst our privileged family. Did we really need all of this stuff? What about all of those people in the world who weren’t as fortunate as us? Why was so much money being wasted on things that were only going to be put at the back of a cupboard?
And yet, I find myself today falling into this cultural trap of giving presents for birthdays, Christmas, weddings and christenings because it is expected of you. So why do I do it? Is it because I want them to do the same for me? Definitely not. The pleasure for me lies in thinking carefully about something that someone special might enjoy, in wrapping the present to make it look beautiful and in watching the joy of the individual receive the present. If this is the case, why do all of these things have to be achieved through giving a physical present?
One of the main reasons we have the custom of giving and receiving presents at Christmas is to remind us of the presents of Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh given to Jesus by the Three Wise Men. In our consumer driven society, our senses are attacked at this time of year by brands persuading us that we need to buy their product. But what if we looked at the gift of giving in a different way? What if each year we decided to give something of ourselves at Christmas time instead of another bar of soap or pair of socks?
We all have individual talents that others would love to learn from us, own things that we can share and have time to spend with others so why don’t we give those valuable things at Christmas instead? I personally can’t think of anything better than opening a gift this Christmas from someone offering to spend a morning with me teaching me a new skill or spending an afternoon to go to my favourite museum. Yes of course I enjoy receiving lovely new things for our house or new clothes to wear but they aren’t really the things that make me happy. This Christmas I’m looking forward to teaching my Mum how to read sheet music so that she can enjoy, and participate more easily, in her new choir.
But perhaps most importantly, or relevantly, you could spend some time with a loved one this Christmas to help them discover what it is that they truly love doing. If you’ve taken one of our courses, could you share some of the things that you have learnt with them? Could you spend some time to talk through and encourage them to find their passion and participate in a life doing what they love? The gift of giving doesn’t have to be the exchange of a physical item. I feel sure that if you helped someone find their passion this Christmas it would be the best gift they ever received.
For further inspiration around giving actions visit The Do Nation.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela
A few years ago I had the great honour of meeting Nelson Mandela, one of the most inspirational men of our age. When I worked at UNICEF and was responsible for our relationship with Manchester United FC, I joined the team on their tour of South Africa. We had a private audience with Nelson Mandela. He was already an old man then, but he was such a strong presence.
Sir Bobby Charlton, Sir Alex Ferguson and Ryan Giggs shared a few words about the impact he had had on them personally, and it was amazing to see some of the most famous footballers in the world humbled by this true leader of men. I felt incredibly lucky to be in that room at that moment. Nelson Mandela will long remain a beacon of hope, a symbol of good, and a demonstration of the triumph of the human spirit. Rest in peace.
On that same trip we visited a number of projects supported by Manchester United in Cape Town, including the Tygerberg Hospital and a community centre. The players were in high spirits, and there was something about that whole trip (and the country itself) which clearly inspired them and helped remind them how they can use their profile as a force for good in the world. Nelson Mandela was not just a man who inspired a nation, but a man who inspired people from all walks of life, all over the world. Here are a few pictures from that trip. – Beth
Kieran Richardson & Ryan Giggs (image: Getty Images)
With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, one of the most gentle, thoughtful and generous football players I ever had the honour of working with (image: Getty Images)
Briefing the team on the way to the children’s hospital
Darren Fletcher, Jonny Evans and Ben Foster say goodbye to one of the children who shared their story that day (image: Getty Images)
Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!
Audrey Hepburn
Where do we look for inspiration? Do we delve into books, relive great sporting moments, do we wait to be inspired by others, do we look back at historical events or can inspiration be found everywhere and anywhere if we are ready to be inspired?
Personally my inspiration has come from my family, friends, films, sport, travel and books and more recently my wife. This was until I joined Do What You Love.
Here at Do What You Love we are blessed to be enveloped by inspiration on a daily basis. People are changing their lives. No it isn’t always easy but, what worth having is? There is a growing movement of people who are finding the courage to step out from the life they have to create a life they want. They are finding courage from within a community that is reaching far and wide. Throwing away the shackles of insecurity they are empowering one another to give it ago and fulfil their dreams. How can you not be inspired!
I took some of our own advice recently and registered on a creative writing course. I had to start from somewhere to try and realise my dream of writing a children’s book. It has been fantastic. I have met other people with a passion and love for the power of words. By merely choosing the correct words and placing them in the correct order you can create something very poetic, dramatic, haunting or even humorous. This journey is one of blood, sweat and tears and then most probably a few more tears.
I have tried to draw inspiration from the likes of AA Milne, JRR Tolkien, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll and C S Lewis to name but a few. They have created worlds which have mesmerised children and adults alike for decades spanning various generations. They have even gone as far as to create their own languages.
My idea is starting to gather a little momentum but it will be a while until I have the courage to share it with you. Whether it will be worth the wait will be debatable but the enjoyment of writing and creating a world to harness dreams has and is a constant pleasure. Even if it only keeps my wife entertained.
I have been reading lots of different books and poems to see what I can learn. I stumbled across a great little poem which I thought I would share with you. I read it a few times and loved it. See what you think…
(author unknown)
A weary mother returned from the store,
Lugging groceries through the kitchen door.
Awaiting her arrival was her 8 year old son,
Anxious to relate what his younger brother had done.
“While I was out playing and Dad was on a call,
T.J. took his crayons and wrote on the wall!
It’s on the new paper you just hung in the den.
I told him you’d be mad at having to do it again.”
She let out a moan and furrowed her brow,
“Where is your little brother right now?”
She emptied her arms and with a purposeful stride,
She marched to his closet where he had gone to hide.
She called his full name as she entered his room.
He trembled with fear–he knew that meant doom!
For the next ten minutes, she ranted and raved
About the expensive wallpaper and how she had saved.
Lamenting all the work it would take to repair,
She condemned his actions and total lack of care.
The more she scolded, the madder she got,
Then stomped from his room, totally distraught!
She headed for the den to confirm her fears.
When she saw the wall, her eyes flooded with tears.
The message she read pierced her soul with a dart.
It said, “I love Mommy”, surrounded by a heart.
Well, the wallpaper remained, just as she found it,
With an empty picture frame hung to surround it.
A reminder to her, and indeed to all,
Take time to read the handwriting on the wall.
Can you think of a moment or time you were convinced you knew the truth until it was put into context and it all changed?