I think Wayne Dyer is on to something very important here. Maybe every now and again it would be worth asking someone else what they see? And then try looking at things from a different perspective.
Do you agree?
do what you love Page 40 of 81
Mentorship giveaway winner announced
Huge thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway to win a place on Jennifer Lee’s Right Brain Entrepreneur Mentorship Program worth nearly $1000. The winner is…
Theresa Smythe from the US
Congratulations Theresa! We hope the programme will be a huge boost to you as you grow your children’s book illustration business. Be sure to let us know how you get on!
To everyone who didn’t win – stay tuned for more gievaways here in the coming weeks, and keep taking those steps towards doing what you love!
Life According To Mr K. – Love to Change (1)
I appreciate that the majority of you who read this blog are female. I just hope by sharing a few thoughts and experiences with you I can provide a little insight to the male perspective. This may surprise you but we are not always the most vocal or the best at communicating. That hasn’t been our role! But trust me, we certainly have our own personal insecurities and issues. I am sure this is true of the men in your life as well.
Change! This month’s theme is certainly a very fitting topic for me to begin my blog adventure with you. I guess that this blog is a change in itself.
To ‘love to change’ though is certainly a strange concept at the off-set, as most changes are inevitably difficult at first. That said just because it is difficult does not mean that we should not embrace change. We all just need to find the courage to do so.
“Change will never happen when people lack the ability and courage to see themselves for who they are.” – Bryant H. McGill
I have made some huge decisions in the past two years. All of which have dictated big changes in my life. Basically because it needed to change and change it certainly has!
I must stress that there was nothing particularly wrong with my life before. In fact if I’m honest my life has been pretty good. I have great family and friends, I have been lucky in health (touch wood) and six years ago my greatest inspiration walked into my life (my now wife – more on that later in the month). I found myself in a good job with plenty of career opportunities.
My moment of epiphany occurred around two years ago. It was in the winter during an early drive to work through the rain and sleet that I questioned…. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Where am I going?
Answering these questions had been easy at one time. I was going to work like most people to primarily earn some money. These questions became much more difficult to answer once my girlfriend (now wife) started her company ‘Do What You Love’.
The concept was brilliant and the scope almost limitless. Who wouldn’t want to do what they love? But while I supported her endeavours, the cynical male in me was thinking “But very few people, especially guys with families to feed, are that lucky!”
Throughout the months prior to my a-ha moment I witnessed how many people were actually changing their lives in positive ways directly because of ‘Do What You Love’. I was becoming one big contradiction. I was sat across the table from the person helping so many people change their lives yet I was too stubborn to accept the reality of my own life. I was not doing what I loved, in fact far from it! As the months went by I was even beginning to hate what I did.
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading” – Lao Tzu
Did I really want another 30 years of feeling like this? No.
So what was I going to do about it?
I could moan about it and do nothing, which at best is a momentary escape or I could put my male cynicism aside and accept that I needed to make changes. Ultimately who else other than me is in charge of my life?
“There are two primary choices in life: To accept conditions as they exist, or accept responsibility for changing them.” – Dennis Waitley
I decided to take a six month sabbatical and go and live in Kyoto, Japan with Beth, both for a change of scene and to find some time to think. A little drastic I admit. The truth is the destination could really have been anywhere. The point was I needed time away from the daily grind to give myself an opportunity to take charge of my life.
“It is never too late to be what you might have been” – Mahatma Gandhi
Later this month I will share what happened to my outlook whilst taking that all important time out. For now I’d like to know what changes do you know deep down you need to make? Or what changes have you made recently – and how are things different now?
And if there are any men in your life in a similar situation to me, try to encourage them to talk about it or at least think about it. Please don’t be surprised if it is a difficult subject for them to talk about. Maybe they just need to take some time for themselves to reassess. Just because we never raise the topic doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking about it.
Until next time…
Mr K
Places & spaces: The canal boat cafe and book shop
Welcome to ‘Places and Spaces’, our new Wednesday column where we share places we go to think, get inspired, or come alive. The environment around us has such a bearing on how we feel, and sometimes a change of scene can make a world of difference to your perspective, thought process, or decisions.
Today I want to share somewhere I discovered recently when stepping out of the office, hopping on a train and going to London for the day. I was there researching a super-secret new project with Rachael Taylor, and we decided to walk between tube stations taking a detour by a canal. And look what we discovered – a travelling cafe and bookshop, in two separate barges moored alongside each other! It didn’t take much to persuade us to stop and have our meeting with a slice of cake and a steaming cup of tea, sat inside the floating cafe.
When we found the boats they were near Angel Tube but they never stay in one place for more than a week. Ahh life on a canal boat…
‘Word on the Water’ canal boat bookshop
Canal boat cafe
Who says you have to be stuck in a boring office to get productive work done?
Where is the most inspiring place you have ever had a meeting?
Thought for the Week (15)
It may seem very obvious, right? But how many of us can honestly say that where we are heading is where we hope to end up?
When was the last time you really thought about the path you find yourself on and where is it going to take you?
And is it time to change that path?
IF YOU WANT THINGS TO CHANGE, YOU HAVE TO TAKE ACTION. GET READY TO L.E.A.P.!
Time for change (+ amazing giveaway – win mentoring worth $997!)
As the grey skies fold back to reveal a swathe of blue, and as the sun comes out and the coats come off, it feels like change is in the air. And there is certainly a lot of change going on around here at DWYL HQ.
We are putting the final touches to our brand new website (which will launch this month and we hope you will love). With that will come a new kind of blogging from us, with a different theme for each month to explore all the different aspects of doing what you love.
We are starting this today, June 1, with the first theme ‘Love change’. Change is fundamental to shifting from a life doing what you don’t love, to doing what you do love. Over the coming month we will share a series of interviews with people who have undergone major changes in their life (often involving bravery, excitement, and no small measure of fear), along with our own thoughts on how change has and continues to be a major part of our lives.
Fittingly, this month we are preparing for a major personal change, packing up our home in the north of England to go and live by the sea! We have spent many holidays by the ocean, or by other kinds of water, and every time we are near it we just feel happy. I grew up on the south coast of England, and it is time to return, and start to live in the environment which makes us happiest.
Brighton here we come!
This is yet another major change after several big ones these past couple of months – from getting married to my new husband then quitting his career of 12 years and starting to work together here at Do What You Love. After two months of it we have started to find our own work rhythm, and I know for sure both those changes were very good decisions. The best in fact!
Through this month’s posts we will be exploring the things that push us to change, the things that inspire us to change, and the things that hold us back from changing. We hope that along the way you will share your stories of change too.
And we are excited to kick of this brand new blog series with a massive giveaway from Jennifer Lee of Artizen Coaching, someone who has experienced significant change in their own life, and now helps others make major changes in their creative businesses – see below for details, and get involved! (THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ENTERED.)
THE PRIZE: The Right-Brain Entrepreneur Mentorship Program, which starts on June 10th, is an intensive 8-month programme led by The Right-Brain Business Plan bestselling author Jennifer Lee. You have a chance to win a seat at the Cohort Circle level (valued at $997) where you’ll learn how to develop new moola making methods, package your gifts and craft your offers, build your list so you can authentically attract and connect with your right peeps, create a successful plan to launch your offers, and more through right-brain interactive video chats, group coaching calls, and a private Facebook group. Any questions? Check out the programme’s FAQ here (includes dates for calls).
IS THIS FOR YOU? The mentorship program is for you if you’re a Right-Brain Entrepreneur yearning to finally take your creative business to the next level but are unsure what steps to take next because the left-brain details overwhelm you. Or you’ve been at your work for awhile but are tired of struggling to make a living doing what you love. You can find out more here.
HOW TO ENTER: Check out The Right-Brain Entrepreneur Mentorship Program here and think carefully about how this could benefit you and your business. Come back and leave a comment below this post explaining where you are on your enterprise journey, and why this programme is exactly what you need right now. Please include your full name, country and a link to your business website/blog if possible.
DEADLINE: This giveaway will close on Friday June 7, 2013 at 9am EST / 2pm GMT. Any comments left after that time will not be counted. THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ENTERED.
THE SMALL PRINT: This giveaway is open to anyone over the age of 18 from any country, and entry is free of charge. One winner will be chosen from the comments left below this post by the deadline. Do What You Love’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. There is no cash alternative. The winner will be requested to write a blog post for the Do What You Love blog once the mentoring programme has finished, to explain the impact it had on them. By entering this giveaway you give permission for your name and email address to be added to the Do What You Love mailing list. We will not pass your details on to third parties, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
If you think this is for you please go for it! Someone has to win… it might just be you. And if anyone you know might benefit from this amazing prize please share this with them.
Pop back on Thursday for a special Do What You Love interview with Jennifer Lee, the mastermind behind this mentorship programme!
MOYO Issue 4 (The PAPER Issue) – is here, and it’s delicious!
The fourth issue of MOYO is here and it is all about paper (yum!). Your FREE copy includes:
- Behind the scenes with top art agent Lilla Rogers
- An interview with stationery designer Carolyn Gavin
- Papercutting with Mr Yen
- Rachel Hazell on patterns in paper
- Hannah Nunn reports from a wallpaper factory
- MOYO learns to make paper
- …and much more!
We also have design tips, a designer diary, a brief for you and more – see inside for details. Being a team of paper lovers you can only imagine how much fun we had putting this together!
Get your FREE copy of MOYO Issue 4 here!
MOYO is the world’s only online magazine dedicated to surface pattern design. Packed with interviews, design briefs, colour challenges, art reviews, student showcases, design tips, inspiration, trends and more, this free resource is published quarterly. You can see the our back issues here.
MOYO is free and we want to share the wonderful world of surface pattern design with as many people as possible – please help! You can share it on Facebook, Tweet about it (@surfacepatternd #moyomagazine) or email a link to your friends. Please also feel free to blog about it or share it in your newsletter and inspire even more people to dive into the exciting world of surface pattern design!
Get your free copy HERE!
Honeymoon part 1 – Florence
And so to the honeymoon story… After our brilliant wedding (pictures of which are coming soon), we headed off to Italy for our honeymoon. I don’t know what it is about the word ‘honeymoon’ but it has a dreaminess about it which perfectly describes how you feel when you are on one.
We flew into Pisa and took a train through the Italian countryside to Florence, a beautiful city packed with history and art at every turn.
We only had one night in the city, so spent many hours walking the cobbled streets, strolling through the Boboli Gardens, basking in the sunshine and eating gelato.
Borgo San Jacopo inside Salvatore Ferragamo’s beautiful Hotel Lungarno where we stayed
We had promised ourselves that we would eat and drink whatever delicious feasts we fancied while away, so we started with dinner at Borgo San Jacopo, a fine dining restaurant I had visited on my own a few weeks before Mr K and I first met.
Back then, as I sat by the window overlooking the River Arno shortly after my 30th birthday I made a promise to myself that when I met the love of my life I would bring him here – so it was the perfect place to start out Italian honeymoon.
You should have seen Mr K’s face when the ‘amuse bouche’ appeared as a gift from the chef. I think he thought this was the world’s tiniest starter (or some kind of culinary joke – but it tasted delicious!)…
Pop back soon for Honeymoon part 2, when we venture into the Italian countryside for a taste of Tuscany…
***
You can read my other honeymoon posts here: (1) Florence / (2) Castel Monastero / (3) Winetasting in Tuscany / (4) Borgo Santo Pietro / (5) Pasta masterclass / (6) Pisa and home
Wedding countdown: Hen do!
It feels a little strange writing about this now when my hen do was back in late March, but I made a decision to take 5 weeks off around my wedding and honeymoon, and that included virtually no blogging or social media – so now I am back I want to share it all with you, even if it is a little late!
For those of you who have never heard of a ‘hen do’, it is what brides call the party they have with their girl friends before getting married (and boys have a ‘stag do’). In the US I think the closest thing would be a ‘bachelorette party’, although hen dos here tend to include going away for several days.
Anyway, because we had decided on a tiny wedding, I felt strange about the idea of having a large hen do with lovely friends who weren’t coming to the wedding, so instead I decided to have the World’s Smallest Hen Do (WSHD) with just me and my best friend Heather.
Heather and I met at university nearly 20 years ago, and have been like sisters ever since. Everyone used to joke that we seem to come as a pair, often getting us mixed up (although I don’t think we look alike!). We were actually born on the same day, so share lots of Taurean traits, and have a great excuse for celebrating our birthdays together!
Tradition has it that the bride-to-be gets dressed up in a lot of pink (often including variations on cowboys/tiaras/feathers etc) and totters around town in very high heels and a very short dress, drinking a lot and cackling wildly. But that isn’t really my scene, so we went for something else. For the WSHD Heather and I decided to take a trip down memory lane, and go to a spa up in the North East of England, near where we went to university (in Durham). It was a blissful few days, where we got to catch up properly on the details of our lives, get pampered, skim stones at the beach, and blow away the cobwebs on a blustery visit to the coast. Just my kind of trip away. Here are some pictures from this very special time…
Zipping off in Heather’s sports car for a few days away
We went via one of the most fabulous bookshops I have ever been too – Barter books, inside an old railway station. (I know, who goes to a bookshop on their hen do? But you have to realise this was MY hen do and I love bookshops!)
Off to the lovely Doxford Hall hotel & spa
We got lost in the hotel’s maze…
And every day Heather surprised me with a little gift to help me prepare for married life!
We spent one wonderful evening an incredible restaurant IN THE TREES!
(Above three images via The Treehouse Restaurant)
The Treehouse Restaurant is in the grounds of Alnwick Castle, where Harry Potter was filmed, and is as magical as you might imagine, and a whole lot more delicious than we had expected. You reach it via a wooden walkway and it is literally in the treetops.
(The North Face coat over a summer dress is never a good look, but it was freeeeeezing!)
We were blown along by crazy winds out at Bamburgh Castle
…where the shoreline reminded me of Cape Cod
…And we skimmed stones near the lifeboats at Seahouses, famous for the incredibly brave local resident Grace Darling (read more about her amazing story here)
Of course by then it was time for tea…
And we couldn’t resist this sweet little local shop with such a brilliant sign in the window (our kind of place).
We spent hours reminiscing about old times (shared adventures at uni, in Japan where we have both lived for several years, on holidays in Thailand, Greece and more…) and looked ahead to our plans and dreams for the future. What a special few days it was. We have decided to make it an annual thing, to get away in Spring for a few days, just the two of us.
And then it started to snow! We had to race back through the countryside to make it in time for my final wedding dress fitting, and this is what awaited when we got there:
A rowdy, drunken, sun-soaked hen do it wasn’t, but my kind of hen do it was. Thank you Heather!
Thought for the week (14)
Do you agree with Winston Churchill? I’m not sure there is such a thing as perfect, but I say the word ‘perfect’ many times a day…