Saturday Morning, All is Well

I finally got sick of working from my bedroom and have moved into the spare room so that I have my own dedicated office.  I've had a glass desk kit sitting in there waiting to be put together for over a month, so yesterday was THE day.  I'm heading off on a silent retreat next weekend and wanted to come home to something much more organised.  I have a lot of cleaning up to do as it *was* the spare bedroom until the bed broke while moving it around - that HAD to have been a sign, right? Now it's MINE!  ALL MINE, I tell ya!  (Except for when we have visitors and then we'll move the sofa bed in the lounge in for them to sleep on)

The serenity I feel while sitting in this space is just glorious.  I can hear birds singing and look on roses and trees. I did in my bedroom as well - every room of this house has beautiful views, but our next door neighbour is into woodwork and his machines made it difficult to focus at times.  I'm one who really likes to only hear nature.  Plus, if people came to visit I was always missing them because my room is at the back of the house.  This one looks onto my front porch.  I really have to look at a Bagua and see what that means in terms of abundance and make corrections if I need to!  I'm no feng shui expert by ANY means!

The revamp of shanwatts.com is coming along.  My trial of Tech Magic continues and so far appears to be a huge success!  As a result, I'll be launching a subscription service to it in early December.  If you'd like to have extremely cheap IT support with a 24 hour turnaround with answers to all the little things that you don't want to pay a fortune for, I invite you to sign up for my newsletter.    There'll be more to come about how Tech Magic works in my November issue.

I originally only logged on to have a look at site traffic and then the mood took me to post.  It's now 2 hours later and my stomach is rumbling!  I need some breakfast and then to get into the housework.  Don't you love it when you feel so much passion for something that when you're involved in it time takes off at the speed of sound?  As you can see, I have much cleaning to do, so it's time to get a move on!

It's Saturday morning, and all is indeed well.  In fact it's spectacular :)

Well, I've Gone and Done it Now......

Finally!  My Tech Magic trial program for new bloggers/business owners has been launched.  It's now available to those who are members of Leonie Dawson's Goddess Circle for free until 25th November, so if you have any niggling little issues that you'd like help with as far as your website or social media, setting up email, etc is concerned please see the this thread in the Business Goddess Circle. 

Please feel welcome to join and ask away to your hearts' content.  The only thing I ask is for a testimonial if you find it helpful so that I can tell more people about how I can be of service to them and ease their learning curves.  I can't WAIT to work with you if it's something that takes your fancy.

If you're not a member of the Goddess Circle and would still like some help, don't worry!  As long as the program is a success, the real thing will be launching during the first week of December on a subscription basis that EVERYONE will be able to afford!

If you'd like to keep informed of how things are progressing, please feel welcome to sign up to my newsletter as I'll be including regular updates in terms of what kind of topics we're covering, the feedback I'm receiving, etc.

Finally, just a short note to let you know that this blog will soon be migrating over to www.shanwatts.com in the not-too-distant future, purely because it has the features I really want in order to create the stuff I'm yearning to share with everyone.

(PS: It's probably really obvious that I'm an avid fan of Leonie - it's true.  I think her courses are amazing, which is why I'm one of her affiliates)

Sometimes.......

....running away to a party to connect with friends you haven't seen for ages is the most refreshing thing in the world for your spirit.

....trying to sleep in the back of your car when it's only a two door is an exercise in futility but you do it for the fun of it anyway and when the leg cramps get too much because you really aren't as short as you thought you were you climb over the seats and sleep in the passenger seat instead because life is for living and it was a choice of either doing that or driving 3 hours home after the party because the party was still going at dawn and you needed to conk out way before then.

....indulging in a little too much alcohol is enough to make you feel relaxed enough to meet a whole swag of new people who are just awesome and who you just know are going to become part of your extended tribe.

....stepping out of your comfort zone opens up the most amazing, wonderful experiences where you connect with people purely because you know you are kindred spirits.

My weekend was awesome, the party rocked, the drive home was filled with amazing scenery and sunshiney goodness and the thrill my heart gave me to see my (adult) daughter again after being away from her for a night was the icing on the cake.  I was going to take photos but I was just too tired to stop on the way home.  Instead the pic below is my beautiful "White Pearl".  She's the land equivalent of Jack Sparrow's "Black Pearl", but man!  She's even shorter than *I* am!

What have you done lately that's pushed you out of your comfort zone and ended up being a fantastic experience that you're so glad you didn't miss out on?

What can you do in the next week that will push you to the edge where you feel a thrill of fear but that presents the opportunity to grow in such a way that you feel so exhilarated that you're willing to step off the edge and fly?  I would SO love to hear of your experiences.  Won't you please share in comments?

Thanks :)

Running Away Today

Today I'm running away for the day.

I'm sitting here with dye in my hair and need to make this a quick post because the alarm goes off to wash it out in about 5 minutes.  Today I'm running away from my normal Saturday routine and I can't wait!

My friends are having a party - they're very sociable people and do this nearly every month during the warmer weather.  I'm staying the night at their place.  But it's not *just* a party.  It's one of my places of deep connection.  They're like family to me and it thrills me whenever I see them, let alone get the chance to connect with others at their place. There's SO much more I could write about that but that's for another post.

Right now I need to pack - it may be Spring but it's still cold.  There was SNOW at their place the night before last and it looked as though I may very well be driving through snow to get there, too.  That's unusual in our part of the world for this time of year and given that there are going to be a great number of people staying overnight and their parties are renowned for going until dawn, I've elected to sleep in my car rather than pitch a tent.  (They have a farm).

So today is going to be delicious!  I'm calling in to buy some new music to listen to on the way because it's a 3 hour drive. I'm driving through the most magnificent countryside, but during the day so there's less chance of hitting the multitude of wildlife that lives in these parts, and the snow should have melted by now, so it will be less dangerous.  I'm stopping off at an alternative medicine's student clinic along the way to have my first full body massage EVER.  (I might get chicken and just go upper body because I'm self conscious about my weight but whatever happens I'll do what's right for me).  Then I'm going to get to the farm early to help my friends before the hordes descend, party, party - catch up with people I haven't seen for ages and meet new friends, stay the night, have a wonderful brekkie and make my tired but oh so happy way home tomorrow.

So dear friends, if I'm quiet today, you'll understand why!  Ooops - finished just in time - there goes the buzzer!  Time to wash the hair, pack the car and be on my way.....sorry for no pics.  Perhaps tomorrow.

The Power of Putting it out There!

Just a short post about my post on October 4.

I received an email today to say my extension had been approved.  I no longer have to get a gazillion assignments submitted by 13th October.

Thank you Universe!  This allows me breathing space to get my girlfriends' logo finished, the website for my other client finished and my logo submitted for marking so that I can then modify both it and the site to reflect my in-the-process-of-being-created-business!  YAY!

Even while I was composing the application for an extension I was visualising that approval email arriving in my inbox.  And it worked.   Why do I keep being surprised by things like that?!

Productivity and "Work"

Well it's Monday.  Again.  But this Monday is different.  I still have my day job so still need to spend 8 hours a day working for my daytime employers, but my approach is changing.

I'd spent a little time starting to resent the fact that I spend my days working for someone else while my dreams go around and around in my head.  It's not just that I'm working for others - a lot of people do it.  There are a whole heap of other things tied up with it that really aren't appropriate to discuss here.  I've purposely done a whole about-face on that though, and now I'm thankful.  Not just for the money, although I really am very appreciative of it.  But for the following:

• My employers are flexible if I need to do stuff like drop my daughter down the street to an appointment because she doesn't drive
• They've been incredibly understanding when she's been in and out of hospital for an incredibly long time in the first part of this year and allowed me to take as much time as I need to provide her with support and make the time up later on
• I learn HEAPS while working on their businesses that I can apply to my own
• I have two employers in two different businesses so the tasks I undertake for them are different or coming from a different angle which increases my learning curve
• I have income to ensure I can pay my bills, put food on the table and have a little extra while my business is taking shape
• I get to work from home and in this day and age when people are struggling to find work, let alone keep it, I am so very, very blessed to be in such a position
• I work for others four days a week and am incredibly fortunate to have three whole days where I can do whatever I want to do - laugh, sleep, love, create, eat (not necessarily in that order!)

I've gained a whole new appreciation that "work" is only "work" when it's not something that inspires you, and there is always something that can inspire you while working for others.  Even if that inspiration is that you learn how to get your business skills down pat so that you can pull those particular things off without a hitch when you work for yourself.  I had this approach when I was younger, but somewhere along the way I seem to have lost it.  So now, I'm purposefully cultivating it again.

So I didn't "work" on the weekend.  I was productive.  A client of mine gave me the go ahead last week to create her new website and that's what I've spent 80% of my waking hours on over the weekend.  There was some stuff there that I've never even contemplated doing in the past and the learning curve was steep, but I did it.  I prospered.  I learnt and I felt goooooooooooooooood.   The other 20% I spent at a pub on a cliff overlooking the beach in one of my favourite small towns.  With my daughter, eating lunch and watching for whales.  We didn't see any but I did beat her in a game of pool afterwards!  If you knew how badly I play pool and how good she is at it, you'd understand why I'm so chuffed.

So anyway, it's Monday.  Again. I'm working for my bosses today, again.  But this week?  I'm being so incredibly productive - and it's not "work". 

How could you turn your approach to "work" around so that it's a hallmark of your productivity as opposed to something to be borne and gotten through?  What approaches have you had to work or life in the past that you've let go of and would like to reconnect with?

Extension Granted!

That's what I hope to find in my inbox soon once my Graphic Design school received my application for an extension.  I'm putting it out there - the earlier part of this year was a bit of a nightmare in terms of getting time to study, so now I'm ready to kick it to the curb and finish Cert III, which is the first part of my Diploma in Commercial Art. 

Mind you, what I want to use it for has changed completely since I first started and I'm currently trying to find time to work on that as well, but baby steps, baby steps - it will all happen when it's meant to.  YAY!