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Last chance to join our life-changing e-course Do What You Love (Starts today!)

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One of the best parts of my job is guiding people through the Do What You Love e-course journey, because I see them cracking open, unfolding and growing in front of my eyes.

I see people grow in confidence, make bold moves, discover new things about themselves.

They get a ton of ideas for getting paid to do what they love, and put together real plans for moving forward.

Crucially they reorganise their lives around what really matters to them, so they can do more of what they love every single day.

This is the ninth time we have run this course and the results continue to astound us. Just recently one of our course graduates said,

“I can’t believe it’s nearly a year that’s flown by since we took the course and how far I’ve come; physically, emotionally, personally and professionally.”

This is why we do what we do, and I why I started Do What You Love in the first place.

Class begins today, and this will be the last time we run it until the end of 2016 (because I’ll be working on a very exciting project which I will share shortly…)

CLICK HERE to register and begin your journey of self-discovery to find out how to do what you love, every day.

Hope to see you in class for a transformational experience to remember!

Beth

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What does living a simple life mean to you?

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“Joy is in the detail… the spice in your egg nog, grass sparkling with frost. There is happiness in moments – of quiet by the tree, in a distant peal of bells. Acts of kindness capture it; family traditions preserve it. Savour it your own way, perhaps curled up on the sofa, making decorations or stepping out in the wintry air. Christmas is complete when you celebrate the simple things.” ~ The Simple Things magazine, December ’14

If you’d love to make life simpler in 2016, don’t just make yet another New Year’s resolution, start a revolution!

Our fabulous FREE resource, ‘New Year’s Revolution‘, is a practical kit to help you make 2016 the year you do what you love. Our 24-page PDF will help you extract the good from 2015, look ahead and shape your 2016 into the year you want it to be. It includes a powerful technique to help you make positive life changes to turn your dreams into reality, and make your ideas happen. Download your copy for free here and be inspired.

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Your free 2016 New Year’s Revolution kit is here!

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With the holidays rapidly approaching it’s easy to get caught up in all the busyness and festivities, and before you know it, the new year will be here. Take a few moments for yourself, before things get too hectic, to reflect on 2015 and plan ahead for 2016 to make it amazing. Our wildly popular resource ‘New Year’s Revolution’ kit is back, and it’s still free! You can download your copy here.

New Year’s Revolution: A practical kit to help you make 2016 the year you do what you love’ is a FREE 24-page PDF to help you extract the good from 2015, look ahead and shape your 2016 into the year you want it to be. It includes a powerful technique to help you make dreams into reality, and make your ideas happen.

Doing what you love doesn’t happen overnight. It is an attitude, and a way of life, and it takes courage and boldness to make the tough decisions which let you get there. It also takes thought and planning, so we have created this special gift to help you on your way. Thousands of people like you have used this resource for meaningful planning and visioning.

Don’t make yet another New Year’s resolution, start a revolution!

**UPDATE: YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION OF NEW YEAR’S REVOLUTION FOR 2017 HERE.**

Stressed? Try slowing down

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This is a guest post by one of the UK’s leading experts in digital distraction and digital detox and author of The Distraction Trap: How to Focus in a Digital World, Frances Booth. Find out more about Frances here.

Frances Booth profile

It’s easy to get into the cycle of thinking we need to go faster, faster, faster all the time.

“It’s so slow …”, we complain, if a web page takes an extra half-second to load. “I haven’t got time for this …”, we think, tensing up, if we’re forced to wait in a queue.

We’re busy, we’re stressed, and we’ve got too much to do.

But what happens, if, instead of always trying to go faster, we consciously and deliberately slow everything down?

I’m not talking about huge changes. I’m talking about slowing things down just a fraction.

So you might take a second longer to put on your shoes before you rush out of the door, spend a moment more looking at the scenery as you walk, or consider for a few seconds the task you’re about to launch in to.

One technique that can help you slow down in this way is consciously naming (in your head) each object as you come across it. So “bowl, milk, cereal, spoon” as you have your breakfast, for example.

Of course you don’t have to carry on like this all day long. But it can be a useful technique if you need a reminder or a way to shift down a gear from rush, rush, rush mode.

By slowing things down just a tiny bit, and doing things deliberately, we can shift our awareness. We become focused in the present moment, rather than our thoughts racing ahead or repeating past events on a loop. This can calm us down.

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Sometimes we try and go faster, faster, faster just because everyone else is.

Often it’s because we want to cram more in to each day. I’m all for productivity. But there’s such a thing as going too fast, trying to fit in too much. This can leave us overwhelmed and overloaded. We need to know how to keep a balance, and slowing down a fraction is one way to do this.

It’s when we’re most stressed and busiest that we need to step back the most. Yet the challenge arises because it’s precisely at this point that we feel like we have no time at all to stop. We feel like we literally don’t have five minutes to spare, and the smallest task added to our workload can utterly overwhelm us. In this state of mind, it can be hard to catch ourselves long enough to even realise that slowing down would help. We’re on automatic …

Sometimes we operate at top speed for too long just because we’ve become stuck in that mode.

So when we’re stressed, a few seconds here and a few seconds there of slowing down, can shift our awareness and bring us into the present moment.

It can make us wonder; why were we in such a rush?

A little inspiration to help you relax

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Download a high res version to print here.

ZEN FOR TEN

Are you always rushing from one thing to the next, trying to get through your neverending to-do list, trying to outwardly multitask with confidence, whilst inside you’re wondering when the spinning plates are all going to come crashing down? Do you find yourself so busy that there doesn’t seem to be any time for the simple things these days – for laughter, and joy and conversation?

Well, I can assure you that you are not alone. Sometimes life gets so hectic we hardly have time to think, let alone dream and plan the road towards doing what you love.

As founder of Do What You Love and author of ‘Freedom Seeker: Live more. Worry less. Do what you love.’, I know as well as anyone that it can be hard to tune out the noise and listen to what we really want to offer the world.

So that’s why I’ve created ‘Zen for Ten’ – a ten day challenge to help you slow down, tune in and light up.

It will help you be more present, get quiet and focus. It will help you see more beauty. It will let you travel lighter. And it will get you on the road to doing what you love, for life.

Join me to breathe more deeply, live more slowly and appreciate life more during this special ten days. Sign up HERE, then check your inbox for all the details and get ready to begin.

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Life According to Mr K: New Beginnings (Fatherhood and Doing What You Love)

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As we enter into a New Year we first reflect on the previous year. There will undoubtedly be aspects of our life that have been exhilarating and taken a breath away. There have also been times that will have tried our patience and prompted us to ask the question ‘What am I doing this for?’

I am very aware that my 2013 was a very special year and one which I will hold dear to my heart. Of all the changes and decisions made in 2013 the greatest moment was on Christmas Day when my wife and I became parents for the first time. Sienna May Kempton was born. The moment she was placed onto my wife’s chest, all covered up, was the moment my life changed forever.

Mummy and Sienna

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Nelson Mandela – tribute to a true leader

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“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

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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.

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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

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Kieran Richardson & Ryan Giggs (image: Getty Images)

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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)

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Briefing the team on the way to the children’s hospital

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Darren Fletcher, Jonny Evans and Ben Foster say goodbye to one of the children who shared their story that day (image: Getty Images)

Big, heavy, slow… and grateful

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I haven’t talked much about being pregnant here on the blog over the past few months, but now I am at week 38 I just want to capture a few thoughts before we welcome our baby girl into the world. Right now I feel huge and heavy, I struggle to put my own shoes on, and I walk more slowly than a snail. But I feel well and happy, and am enjoying this very special experience very much.

When we found out about the pregnancy just a couple of weeks after our Spring wedding Mr K and I were both over the moon. It feels like exactly the right time in our lives for this, and we have been lucky to have an enjoyable journey over the past few months.

Pregnancy has been fascinating. It feels like a whole new world is opening up to us, and I have never spent so much time thinking about my body and what it is capable of. We have a new vocabulary now, and have had some hilarious conversations – sometimes with complete strangers at antenatal classes.

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At 37 weeks

As I have watched my bump grow, slowly at first, then at a slightly alarming rate in the past few weeks(!) the approaching new phase of our lives has felt more and more real. Each night I watch in wonder as my belly moves in waves, as baby stretches her limbs and tests out her little body. I love to imagine what her face will look like when she is smiling, sleeping, dreaming. The whole thing is a complete miracle to me.

Although we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in the UK as many of our US friends do, this feels like the perfect time to share just how thankful I am for this life, right now, and for the one developing inside me. I am thankful for many things, but particularly for…

  • Being able to get pregnant at 36, and having a smooth and enjoyable pregnancy so far (touch wood!)
  • Having the most amazing, supportive, loving partner in Mr K to share this very special adventure
  • Having built a company which allows us to enjoy this at our own pace, in our own way, and has allowed Mr K to be completely involved at every point, coming to every ante-natal appointment, sharing daily morning walks to stave off the queasiness, and running the business while I am off. I am so very grateful that he is going to be share the daily magic of having a little girl in our life, working from home and being there for all the important milestones, as well as the little details of every day
  • Business partners who are incredibly supportive of the major life events we have experienced this year – time off for our wedding and honeymoon, and now for maternity leave – who are genuinely excited for us, and flexible as we learn to navigate this new stage of life
  • Friends, family, colleagues, this community… for your love and support, and for keeping us motivated and excited about what is to come. THANK YOU!

What are you grateful for?

Life According to Mr. K – Handwriting On The Wall

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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…

The Handwriting On The Wall

(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?

Dreamcatching

Dreamcatching

This week a very good friend sent us a Dream Catcher as a late wedding/early baby gift. It was handmade by the talented Rachael Rice, in beautiful neutrals and pastels, draped in feathers and trinkets. We absolutely love it, and have hung it above the baby’s cot in anticipation of her arrival in the next few weeks.

I love the idea of Dream Catchers, and did a bit of reading to find out more about them. Apparently the Native American Ojibwe people have an ancient legend of the dreamcatcher:

“Storytellers speak of the Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; she took care of the children and the people on the land. Eventually, the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America and it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children. So the mothers and grandmothers would weave magical webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew, or cordage made from plants. The dreamcatchers would filter out all bad dreams and only allow good thoughts to enter our mind. Once the sun rises, all bad dreams just disappear.” (from Wikipedia)

Isn’t that magical? What if all your bad dreams just disappeared when you woke up (or snapped out of a daydream), and your mind was only filled with good thoughts? What a powerful thing that would be.

When you are trying to make major changes in your life – which are inevitable if you want to move from doing something you don’t love to doing something you do love – then dreaming is an important part of that. But worrying about the worst that could happen tends to go alongside it.

This week, instead of getting caught up in the “But what if things go wrong…?” why not think about both sets of possible consequences, acknowledge the risks, but then also acknowledge the possibility of the best outcome if you do take that leap. Remember, if you do do it, something might go wrong. But if you don’t do it, you can guarantee things are not going to suddenly start going right!

This week imagine the Dream Catcher is working for you, harnessing all your good thoughts and dreams, and willing you along the path towards doing what you love!

If you are in the process of making any major changes, and find that this helps you, be sure to tell us about it in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter.

Happy dreaming!

Beth and team