Amaze Yourself!
Will you do something amazing this week?
So here we are in the dog days of summer, and in the UK at least a bank holiday week end is in the offing. Lost of people are on holiday, you get loads of ‘out of office’ replies, and no one seems to be around to do any meaningful work.
For those of us at work it can be a really dead time, or it can be a time you really make work for you! When you start on the road to achieving your dreams!
Dreams
The end of August always feels like the end of the year for me – too long in the world of education I guess! September still feels like the start of a new term; all the excitement of new school clothes, bags, pencils, protractors (that dates me, who has those now?) and books full of blank pages to write upon!
Can you use this week to amaze yourself? To put something worthwhile on the next blank page in your book? Take the time to do something for you. To really think about what you want to achieve over the next few months?
In this relatively slack time, can you spare a moment to set yourself some goals this week, maybe one small thing to do each day that will stand you in good stead, and take you nearer where you want to be?
Unfulfilling Work
Maybe work is not fulfilling at the moment, but it pays the bills and it’s a tough economic climate so alternatives are thin on the ground. But now is a good time to take stock of what you really want to do with your life. And get prepared so that when the climate improves, as it will, you are ready to roll!
Love your job
Perhaps you love your work, whatever it is, and want to improve and progress. Where do you want to be? What opportunities might there be for you to progress? If not right now, when things improve? Can you gain some experience that will help? Do you need to sign up for an evening class? Get some mentoring? Shadow someone in the organisation? Join a networking group?
Retirement Dreams
Or maybe you have some long held dreams about what your retirement will be like? Have you done anything practical towards achieving those? Do you know what is possible? Have you shared your dreams with your ‘significant other’? Write down what it is you want and then use this week to take those first steps towards achieving it.
You Are Amazing!
Go on, amaze yourself! Make this week count. Don’t waste this time, take some control of your future now and plan to live the life you want!
Inspirational Women-Morag Joss, Author
I first met Morag when our respective offspring were members of a youth Theatre Group in Bath, so I was thrilled to discover that her first novel, Funeral Music, was highly acclaimed.She is now the author of six novels, including the Sara Selkirk series, and the Silver Dagger winning ‘Half Broken Things’.
Morag began writing in 1996 after a short story of hers was runner-up in a national competition sponsored by Good Housekeeping magazine. The renowned writer P.D.James inspired the plot of her first novel, Funeral Music, which gained a Dilys Award nomination for the year’s best mystery published in the USA.
Further success followed when Half Broken Things was adapted as a television film in 2007, starring Penelope Wilton
In 2009 her sixth novel, The Night Following won a coveted Edgar Allen nomination in the Best Novel category and her new novel, Among the Missing will be published this autumn.
Jane: Morag, thank you so much for talking to us; I hope your story will inspire others to try their hand at writing that novel we all think we have inside of us!
Can you remember what your very first job was? Do you think you still use any of the skills acquired then now?
Morag: When I was twelve I had a Saturday job at a dogs’ beauty parlour. I shampooed mainly poodles and Westies but also a few Afghans, trimmed their toes and tails, and finished them with a brush and blow dry after the proprietor had done the clipping. Can’t say I use those skills any more!
What was your dream job when you were at school? What did you want to ‘grow up’ to be?
I had the usual fantasies – I narrowed it down to explorer and ballet dancer, but insisted I had to be both! But my teenage years were characterised by an extreme lack of confidence so I barely dared to have any ambitions at all. I went to the kind of school where nobody thought of careers for someone “good at English” much beyond teaching, although one teacher thought I would make a good advocate (Scottish equivalent of barrister). I didn’t agree at the time. Nobody ever pointed out that somebody had to write all those books in the bookshops, but even if they had it would have felt impossibly presumptuous to imagine I could do such a thing.
When I was at university I was encouraged to take my singing seriously and for a while I did, before realising I didn’t want a life as a performer.
Who most inspired the young Morag?
I wish there had been someone! If there had been I might have found some focus earlier.
And who is your inspiration or muse now?
Other writers. It works two ways – simple admiration of writers such as Carole Shields, David Mitchell, William Trevor, and then aspiration, a kick of envy of such great talent that just makes me want to keep trying to make better use of any modest talent I may have.
When did you first decide to write a novel?
1996. I’d written a short story, on the quiet, and sent it to a national competition. It was runnerup out of 2000 entries, and that’s when I thought, well, now I must at least try to write a novel.
How long before it was published? Did you get many/any rejections?
I found an agent as soon as it was finished and they found a publisher within two months.
Do you have a role model, or someone, maybe in the public eye that you aspire to emulate?
Can’t say that I do, though there are many people whom I admire, and for many things. As a general observation I think it is unfair to expect people in the public eye to be anything other than flawed. Why should adults require or expect perfection in their fellow human beings? I believe hero-worship should be part of childhood.
What were you doing before you became a writer?
A mixture of things, because I followed my then husband wherever his career took him and had to be very adaptable in order to develop my own career. I ran education departments in museums and galleries, lectured at a university, did consultancy work for the National Trust and other arts bodies.
What has been the best piece of advice you have been given re writing?
To be an artist of any sort, one has to be stubborn, to have a very strong inner compass. It’s the hardest thing and no one can teach you. You have to know yourself. (Donna Tartt)
And best piece of advice about life in general?
Never waste a talent. Look after what you’ve got.
Have you followed a plan? Did you know what where you wanted to be?
No, because I’m aware that I’m not in control of everything that comes along. I try to keep a general attitude of openness to the unforeseeable, in an optimistic, not a pessimistic sense.
How do you relax and unwind?
In company, and usually round a table. Walking, swimming, music, sometimes a deep scented bath…
When are you most happy?
Early evening, after a fruitful day’s work and a walk, and I’m thinking of what to cook for the person I adore, and I hear the door opening. Perfect!
Do you have a favourite saying, book, or piece of wisdom to share with the readers?
If not now, when?
Morag, thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. I wish you huge continued success with your next novel and look forward to reading it.
And if you’d like to find out more about Morag and her work her official web site is here and you can get her books from your local library or here, via Amazon. If you like a good mystery or a well written story, you’ll love them!
It’s Only Too Late if You Don’t Start Now
‘It’s Only Too Late If You Don’t Start Now’ by Barbara Sher is an inspiring book. I think it is only available in the US, although you can get second hand copies in the U.K. She actually wrote it in 1998 but it’s still very relevant today-possibly more so as ageism, particularly femageism, seems to be rife!
The book is about having the life that you want at any age! It’s divided into two halves: part one is titled ‘Nature and Instinct: Your First Life ‘ and part two ‘Reclaiming Your Original Self:Your Second Life.
In part one Barbara guides you through some exercises to help you review your life so far and examine some of your cherished ideas and assumptions. And in part two she takes you on a mission to ‘find your gifts and bring them into your day to day life’
Extract
Here is an extract called ‘Road Fever Pop Quiz’. Try answering her questions yourself.
1) What did “freedom” mean to you when you were younger? What does it mean to you now? Do you ever long for it?
2)Have you ever dreamed of running away to sea or taking to the open highway? What did you hope that would give you?
3) What would you want to take with you? What would you want to leave behind?
4) What do you imagine would change about you if you went to a new place?
5) When was the last time you felt as wide-awake to your environment as a small child does?
6) What would it take for your life to become an adventure?
Thought provoking stuff!
Follow Your Dreams!
In a recent article Jane Asher, actress and successful businesswoman said, “If you have the choice, pursue what you enjoy”. Good advice, as long as you know what it is you enjoy!
When coaching I am always encouraging women to follow their dreams, whatever they are. And it is the knowing what we want that can sometimes be difficult. So many of us know that what we have is not fulfilling us, but just don’t know what we want instead (which is why I wrote ‘When Work isn’t Working‘.)
Any Age
Whatever age you are, it’s worth investing some time to work out what you want to be doing with your life. It may be something you can’t possible ever imagine achieving at this point in time, but it’s always good to have an aspiration. Knowing where you’d like to be in life will help you with all your decision making.
Maybe you have what currently seems like a fantasy of giving up the safe and reliable day job and instead running your own business? It may seem an impossible dream now but there will be things you can be doing now right now which will take you nearer your goal.
Free Help
For example, did you know that the tax office in UK provides all sorts of free seminars for would be business people? Or that Business Link has masses of information freely available on its web site? Get yourself a dream folder and when you see something helpful, put it in your resource pack!
Or maybe you can take up a part time role, perhaps unpaid with a charity, which will help you develop the skills you need to achieve your ultimate goal when the circumstances are right. Remember, luck has been defined as preparation meeting opportunity. Successful people in all walks of life have taken advantage of opportunities that have come their way but they have almost always put in the leg work beforehand.
And don’t let age stop you! Many dot com millionaires are still in their teens when they make it and equally many who have achieved their dreams have done so later in life. I was in my late forties when I pursued my dream working life! And Beryl Cook, at one point the most famous popular artist in Britain, didn’t sell a picture until she was in her sixties!
So what is your dream for your life? And what can you do right now to help take you a step nearer?
And if you’re not sure, please do try out my free visualisation- simply click the link up on the right ‘Your Perfect Day‘.
