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...

  No, I don't mean in a 'Saturday Night at the Movies' kind of way (Google it if you have no idea what I'm talking about!).  I mean don't be a drifter as in letting life pass you by. I've been in a very reflective mood this week.  I had my Covid vaccine last Sunday and then on Tuesday we had the minute silence to think about all those people who have died due to Covid and all the many families it has affected.  These kind of things tend to make you reflect on your own life and your own mortality.  Stick with me, I will get more upbeat in this blog! It's just that these kind of moments make you realise how precious life is and how important it is to be happy, every single day, and not drift through life without appreciating what you have. The other day Mr Bob was reading out some b****cks that someone had put on Facebook about what they would do if they won the lottery.  It saddened me somewhat that people were making comments such as how much they hated the...

  Last week I mentioned two incidents that shaped my life career-wise, this week I'm going to be talking about the people who shaped and influenced my life. Throughout our whole lives, we are continuously being influenced and shaped by other people, whether it's just for a few brief moments or whether it's a life-changing experience. Take a few moments to think about all the people, up to now, who have helped you along the way to becoming the person you are.  It's often not until we actually sit down and do this, that we realise just how many people are involved in shaping us as human beings.   Here's a few of mine: My family - goes without saying that my parents and big sister shaped me hugely as a person.  They taught me right from wrong, how to always respect other people's points of views and instilled a 'never give up' work ethic in me.  Sadly my big sister passed away a number of years ago but even when she was ill, she only had my best interes...

How to improve your career prospects, chance of promotion or a pay rise The world of work has changed significantly over the past decade and, unless you're in a career with a very defined path of progression such as a doctor, you're more than likely to have quite an unstructured and often bumpy road ahead when it comes to your career. So what can you do in order to smooth out those bumps and improve your career prospects?  That's what we're going to discuss in this week's blog. More important than anything else when it comes to your career is that you should be happy and actually enjoy what you do.  Your time is your life so don't ever waste it on something you don't enjoy doing because you can't ever get that time back. Whether you're looking to move jobs or you're happy in your current role , there are numerous things you can do to improve your career prospects and earnings potential: Volunteer - whether it's help...

I dare you I'm setting you a dare this week and on the surface it sounds really simple but apparently it's really not. Your dare, should you wish to accept it, is to say thank you to the next person who pays you a compliment.  Easy right? Well, I was actually quite saddened last Tuesday evening at my running club.  Throughout winter we have a club race every 3 weeks or so and there's 8 races in total so of course you will have good runs and not so good runs during that time.  I was amazed by the number of people last week who were so quick to dismiss a compliment from their fellow runners.  People were saying 'oh well done tonight' and 'you looked to be having a good run' and all I heard in return was 'no, I was rubbish tonight' or 'I wasn't as good as last time' etc etc. Now in my eyes that's bordering on damn well rude to the person who's paying you a compliment.  Think about for a second, they didn...

Life's too short to stuff a mushroom .... Said Shirley Conran, author of "Superwoman", way back in the 1970's.  We seem to think that juggling work and home life is a relatively new concept but as this book reveals, it's most definitely not. I got thinking about the phrase "life's too short" following a recent, and rather messy it has to be said, night out with the girls.  The next morning as the fog started to lift, I checked my phone and there it was in all its glory, my Facebook post declaring "I'm going to Ibiza for my 50th next year, who's coming?!"  What the *&%!  Ok, what now?  Do I just ignore it, pretend it never happened and hope that no-one mentions it ever again.  Yeah right, as I scrolled down the comments, it seemed that my friends were actually quite keen, some of which had not been there on the night out and were fully compos mentis. I sat pondering for a while and that little phrase "life's...