BLOGGING: My love of writing, and other blogs..

I’ve spoken previously about my love of writing, and my attempts to be more regular with blogging.

I thought it might be worthwhile to at least reference the other places I write, in their own post, for anyone who would like to read other snippets of my thoughts on different subjects, outside of work. Because the reality is that all of my thinking ultimately revolves around similar things – and I genuinely believe that we need to find ways to integrate our work and life, not run them separately.

I’ve had a number of huge changes / pivots / revelations in the last decade or so. Making the huge decision to move to the other side of the world (from Scotland to Australia, in 2011) – away from my family, my friends, my career history – everything I knew basically – was one of the hardest, but ultimately the best move I ever agreed to make. It all happened very fast, and yet also very slowly! My husband of over 20 years (25 years together this year in fact) had wanted to try coming to live in Australia for all the time I’d known him, but it was never even on my radar, if I’m honest. Didn’t consider ever moving to another country. I liked familiarity and routine, with the odd bit of impulsivity and spontaneity being an occasional frivolity.
He ‘mentioned’ it fairly regularly over the space of the first 10 years we were together, so I eventually conceded that he was serious. I figured I could give it a go for a couple of years to let him live his dream. We had a friend living in Australia at the time, and I joked in February of 2011, after a particularly snowy winter, that maybe we should consider moving there! Less than 10 months later, my (super-excited) husband had a job lined up, and I found myself selling everything, including our family home (all in or nothing!), and boarding a flight to Brisbane with our two young boys!

The last 12 years have often been a bit of blur. Some amazing memories, incredible experiences and connections, and – some huge life shifts. These include

  • Personality: realising at 42 that I was very introverted as a person, and had been masquerading (exhausted) as an extrovert most of my life
  • Passion: rediscovering writing as a huge passion – I used to do this in the form of letter-writing to family and friends when I was much younger, and love to write casually and with my own brand of humour ☺
  • Perspective: coming to the realisation that one of my biggest strengths is perspective – looking at things with fresh eyes, and seeing patterns or paths that not everyone notices

And in terms of things I’ve let go of, which have been life-changing –

  • Smoking: stopped smoking in 2014, after far longer than I care to admit (in case my kids read this!)
  • Alcohol: stopped drinking alcohol in 2018, same as above..
  • Mindless money-earning: I stopped focusing on earning big $$$, and gave up working with people who are driven primarily by wealth, and instead focused on doing work with, and for, people that my values align with. This has resulted in me earning more money and making a difference in the world. This happened slowly, over the space of the last 5 years.

In order to support others who might be having similar hurdles or values misalignments, I decided it was time for me to write more about all of my life shifts, career and personal. I then spent waaaaay too much time second-guessing myself and allowing Imposter Syndrome to sit on my shoulder, before embracing a new world of Imperfect Impact, where I live now (most days – I still have unscheduled knocks on the door from Imposter Syndrome, but it shows up less often now it knows I have a new favourite place to spend my days).

So those different blogs I mentioned came about when I realised I needed somewhere to talk about the good, the bad and the hurdles along the way. (maybe there will be a podcast one day, but I’m not there yet!)

Obviously, the business blogs have mostly stayed here on the website, and I do hope to be able to have the others more readily available from here in the future. For the time being, the non-business ones are stored on Blogger sites –

I hope you enjoy my writing, and I’d love to hear any feedback you might have, or if you have had similar shifts in your life – I am always so pleased to hear that I’m not alone in my experience of the world!

I genuinely believe that if we are all a little (or a lot) more authentic in how we live our lives, and where and how we choose to work, that we will have a much more balanced society.

/by