Woody Wonders

I know, I know, it's a phrase that's becoming rather over-used at the moment but relevant all the same for this week's blog. Why does it always take a sad event to jolt you back into reality and re-assess your own life.  A recent death in the family made me do just that.  If there is such a thing as a 'good' funeral, then this was definitely it.  It was a celebration of that person's life and a chance to recall some touching, yet funny stories. But have you noticed that these moments make you question how happy YOU really are in life?  This event especially, as following a very short illness, this person was given the news that they literally had only days to live.  How the *&%! do you process that news? It got me thinking, if a doctor had told me that, would I be happy in the knowledge that I'd been living my best life?  Would I be thinking 'yep, I reckon I've done alright' , this news is NOT what I want to hear but I'm ok with how I...

Don't let an urban myth stop you learning 'It's harder to learn new things as you get older,  your memory isn't as good'    Utter nonsense!  This is one of those urban myths that we've heard so many times that we now actually believe it.   You can learn at any age.  It's nothing to do with our memory and not being able to learn things as fast.  What it comes down to is ... having the time .  Remember as a child when you'd do things over and over and over again to learn something new.  That snazzy little dance routine that you and your friends put together, the one where you practised almost every hour of every day for the whole summer holiday.  You didn't have to go to work, or do the bills, or look after the family, or do the shopping etc.  You had all the time in the world to learn something new. We simply don't have the luxury of time as an adult, there's always something else that needs doing.  S...

Conquering the challenges life throws at you and gaining strength from setbacks Towards the end of 2017 I started looking for a new job and, incredibly, I only had two interviews, one of which turned into my current job.  However, the two experiences couldn't have been any more different. The first interview started well, I had numerous 'tests' to do such as spelling and giving examples of how I'd react in certain situations.  I passed all these with flying colours apparently so I then went on to have the formal part of the interview.  I was answering everything that was thrown at me but I noticed that my interviewers kept coming back to the fact that I'd spent almost 14 years in  the same job in the public sector and were saying how different and fast paced it was in the private sector.  I knew this, I had always worked in the private sector previously and told them as such.  In the end I felt I was trying to justify my situation rather then g...