Happy New Year

I don't know about you, but I hate New Year's Eve.

It's one of those times when you're meant to be happy and I don't do compulsory happiness. I like spending New Year's Eve as a time of reflection, thinking back over everything I've done in the last year (or even things I haven't done) and working out what I'd like the next year to be like. Then I like going to bed early so I can wake up feeling fully refreshed for the New Year.

I'm in for a treat this year. I'm in Sri Lanka and due to the full moon it's a Buddhist ceremony and no alcohol is allowed to be served on the island. Of course, everyone has found a way around this, but I like the idea of a full moon starting the New Year and I like the idea of not getting drunk but taking time for reflection.

I spent 2009 writing two books and I've just been sent these photos of one of them (The Life Book) in Waterstone's Piccadilly sitting side by side some of my favourite books, so I'm feeling that maybe some of my year has been worthwhile. My reflections have started.

Do let me know what your 2010 holds in store.

This year I'm going to focus more on Life Clubs and less on writing. I can't wait.

Happy New Year to you all.
Nina,
Author of The Life Book (just released and ready for consumption)! Allow it to help you with 2010.

Mary Portas at my club...

Well... not quite, but almost. That was wishful thinking. I think Mary Portas is great.

We had a creativity workshop last week and, at the end of it, one of my clubbers sat there grinning from ear to ear. She's having a two month sabbatical in South Africa (her hometown) and wants to earn some money at the same time. Her lightbulb moment (and it was a big one) was that she could buy clothes in the UK and sell them in South Africa for a profit. Her goal for this week is to ask her daughters if they want to get involved.

Creativity is amazing and yet sometimes, without help, we don't feel creative. If we don't feel creative then we don't allow ourselves to get all silly and laugh and have creative thoughts and then we feel we're not creative and so don't even try to be creative and on and on the cycle goes.

At Life Clubs we brainstormed and got silly and, hey, businesses were conceived.

See you in the New Year.
I wish you all the very best for 2010.
Thanks for all your support.
Nina
If you're interested on coming on a weekend with me, check this out.
If you'd like to buy my new book, click here

Way to go!

Change was last week's Life Clubs topic and it's a huge one. We change every second of every day - whether we want to or not - and we can make changes too.

An obvious change is when you travel. These photos are of the first lovely Canadian Life Clubs Hosts in Toronto. You can see them all working hard learning what it takes to run a club. In a way being around that table in Toronto could have been being around my table in London and yet I'd changed time zone, changed temperature, changed language (up to a point) and changed families (swapping mine for Eva Marie's for the week).

At Life Clubs this week, we were talking about what can help one with change. One of my clubbers had as her Lightbulb Moment that her reaction to change was what was key. How right she was.

We can take change very badly and we can enjoy it. Often all it depends on is the frame of mind we're in when the change happens. If we're feeling good about ourselves and our lives, it can help us react positively. Conversely if everything is going wrong around us and we're feeling overwhelmed we can react negatively to yet another change. The question is how to keep your frame of mind positive so you can be open to change.

In order to enjoy Canada I spent some time on my own, showered twice a day and kept in touch with home. I also determined to stay open to my new experiences and the people I met.

What can I tell you - I loved every minute of it.

Eva-Marie, Monica, Sue, Debbie and Sonia... all I can say is 'Way to go!'

See you all for my last week of Life Clubs in 2009.
Nina
Founder Life Clubs
PS If you feel you'd like hints around change (or any of our other 50 topics), sign up to my bulletin via our website www.lifeclubs.com.

'til death us do part

I've had a bit of a values week. This week's Life Club was all about values and I was interviewed by a wedding planner about values in a relationship and ended up (as usual) talking about my relationships.

I don't have much 'in common' with my husband in the 'hobbies' sense of the word. He loves boats and I get sea-sick really easily (even on a river). He loves history and I (as you know) live in the future. He loves 'being a tourist' and I am very lowbrow on holiday and want to lie low with a book. And on and on it goes. And yet we're happy together and that's because our values are so similar.

We both rate independence which means we can do our own thing if we want to. We both value security, which means we feel secure together and trust each other. And honesty comes at the top of our values which means we'll be open and honest with each other.

I won't say there aren't times when our honesty causes us to be cross with each other, but that's OK too because the security means we're able to do that.

So, 'til death us do part seems appropriate.

Look for the values. Are you living yours?

See you next week,
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

How do you work things out?

I don't know about you, but I spend a lot of my time living in the future. I enjoy the present (and would suggest living there), but to me it hasn't got the excitement of the future.

Of course, the present has loads to recommend it - one can feel connected in the present... absorbed in the present... still in the present and much, much more. But the future - that's my spiritual home.

Living in the future makes it easy to visualise. This week's workshop was about Holding Your Dreams and I can dream far into the future. In my mind leaping forwards 20 years feels like nothing and, doing so, helps me work backwards and work out the minute detail of how I'm going to get there.

I'm in Canada right now and dreaming of Life Clubs all over Canada. We're starting small, training 4 new Hosts this week to run clubs in and around Toronto, but the fantasies are starting. I'm imagining clubs in every available venue, retreats in the woods and by the lakes. In my mind I can see Life Clubs posters on the backs of the local trams and Life Clubs pencils in everyone's pockets. I'm imagining smiling faces and happy people.

Allow me my dreams... they're what keep me going.

What do you dream about?

Hope you have a great weekend and that next week I'll see you at Life Clubs
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

Could I get to sleep...?

Normally I'm like this sleeping baby. I can drop off to sleep anywhere and at any time.

My children are used to finding me on the floor asleep, on sofas asleep and, of course, in my bed asleep.

This week has been different. On Wednesday our Life Club was on stress and the two people I was working with were both insomniacs. They either couldn't get to sleep in the first place or they woke in the early morning and couldn't drop off again. Of course, with all this talk of insomnia it's been on my mind and I've had two of the worst nights I've had for a long time... wild and crazy dreams, waking up every two hours, restless at light-turning-out time.

Of course, you get what you focus on. Silly me.

So, I've gone back to that workshop and have taken my learning from it. This is a temporary worry and won't last, so I can cross it off my 'things that are causing me stress' list. I've done just that.

Let's hope tonight I sleep again as soundly as that baby.

Sweet dreams.
What do you do when you can't get to sleep? Do let me know.

All best,
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

We're excited...

Our lovely pencils just arrived and we can't wait to give them to you...

See you at Life Clubs,
Nina