Todays post is in recognition of my husband, Simon Taylor who went the extra mile for me yesterday.

We went to Bestival, the festival I was most looking forward to, but the rain and mud meant it was unsafe for me - falling over 3 times and losing a welly in the mud does not make a happy festival experience.  People were breakig their ankles and wit my tendency to accidents we thought it would only be time before it was me …

We woke on Saturday morning to yet more torrential rain and a worry that we would not be able to get off the camp site, we lay in bed and chatted and realised we needed to go home, but we had quite a lot of stuff and quite a long trek through a very muddy field and then up a big slope and then cross fields to the car - Simon wondered if I’d make it.

Bless him! He left me in bed and did two trips on his own so I only had one bag to carry on the last trek.

Simon truely is my hero! Few people would have done so much and I think this is a great example of how we are such a good partnership as a couple.

I’m never sure how a client session will go, or indeed what a client will want to talk about.

The other day I met Cindy. She’s a teacher and not very happy, sort of fell into her job, but she does love sport and being healthy.

She booked for a one hour session to see what ideas I could suggest. I’ve found that a lot of teachers feel stuck, they can’t see beyond what they currently do. That’s when an external perspective can help.

We looked at a number of options, linking together her background and her interests and came up with a diverse range of occupations to explore from Outward bound instructor, to drugs advice worker.

One of them - health promotion specialist really appeals, we’ve seen how her current work experience and interests will enhance her application and I’ve talked about how she can find out more via informational interviews.

She left excited and I got a really nice thank you email today, which makes me feel good! She’ll have to remain positive and resilient, but there is no reason why she can’t be successful if she is willing to be flexible on location and listen and take account of what people say to her.

Would you benefit from a one hour career session with Denise?

Many of the people I know are either incredibly driven and work hard by choice, or are working in a job that takes so many demands from them that they have to work exceptionally long hours.

4 days off work - what are you planning to do?

I want to remind you of my posting from Monday  where I suggested taking some time out to recharge.

Have you planned some time for you - where you stop thinking about work and you leave aside all the household chores. Taking time to relax and not to consciously think of anything can be a great way to let your mind think about something that is important to you, but at the level of your subconscious.

So if there is a difficult decsion for you to make, or you want to think about what you actually want to do, why not ask yourself the question and then don’t think about it.   Often by givng our conscious brain a rest it allows our subconscoius to get to work.

Enjoy Easter and talk again next week,

Happy Easter - well shortly!

We’ll shortly get a long weekend - 4 days  away from work.  If you work for yourself, like me, it’s easy to think of it as time to do even more work - i’m always reviewing material and writing articles, but is this the best thing for us.

Many of us haven’t stopped really since the New Year so why not take a little time over the next couple of days and plan to make Easter a refreshing and revitising time.

Yes, you may have jobs around the house to you, but what will be of most benefit for you? Maybe what you need more than anthing is some time to chill out and really appreciate the break - so what will work for you? A weekend away, time to go out in the fresh air, or possibly a couple of days where you do very little but relax and read books.

So plan now for the weekend you want!

Why not let us know your plans?

Umm, this counts as work, and I should be spending more time with my family.

A  survey (commissioned by Warner breaks) has found that British couples spend only the equivalent of 2 1/2 years together during their working life, whereas we spend 12 years with our work colleagues.

Many couples now need to get their diaries out regularly to arrange days when they can do things together. Yes we do spend a lot of time at work, but I think setting a diary date is akin to going on a date.

Personally, I know that when we got out or arrange to spend an evening together, we’ll chat and enjoy each others company rather than just potter around and watch TV.  So the moral is, make sure you spend time with your loved ones each day.

This Christmas we travelled around Southern India. One of the places we visited was a spice garden in Thekaddy. We met Mr Abraham, indeed we had a meal with him, and he said his garden was going to be featured on BBC TV and it was, I’ve just seen it.   We also saw the gardens at Taj Mahal, which we had visited last Christmas.

So why mention this is my career blog? Because the people working in these gardens were doing what they loved. Mr Abraham was the 3rd generation to work in the organic spice garden, and Nek Chand created a garden using waste on land he didn’t own. It was spectacular.

These people have found their passion, what is yours?

We all get in a rut – we do things in the way we always do, we stay at the same sort of hotels, read the same newspaper, watch the same TV programmes, talk to similar people. 

So why not do something different?

Why not stay at a small bed and breakfast and talk to other guests, instead of the international chain of 4* hotels?  Read a newspaper that doesn’t share your political views, watch TV that takes you outside your comfort zone. And don’t judge new people, get to know them rather than make instant decisions.  Why not try something new.  Are you up for it?