Wow, what a week that was!

Thank goodness it’s Saturday, and the moment to have time to sit, sip and smell your coffee, rather than your usual gulp it down, while throwing food into school lunch bags whilst stuffing a slice of toast in your mouth at the same time style! Moments to ourselves are a precious thing, right? Surely, we deserve to relax a little after the week of craziness?

Are you taking a moment? If not, what is stopping you?
This, my friend, is the topic for today, what stops us. 

Last night was the inaugural Wine, Women and Wellbeing event and what a night it was. I loved, loved, loved having a house full of beautiful women who were wining, dining and learning. The chatter and laughter could be heard 100 meters away before the calm of being focused and introspective took over as the thinking, dreaming and visions for 2019 came to light, and the realizations that YOU CAN make 2019 the most phenomenal year possible.

One topic I touched on last night was identifying the things that stop us doing the things we want (sometimes desperately). It can be a nagging doubt, perhaps someone made a comment that we wouldn’t be able to the ‘thing’, or they‘ wouldn’t dream of doing something like that’; even a throw away WOW!! can create self-doubt in the things we think possible.

If we listened to every opinion, every voice (even the ones in our head) that said we couldn’t or shouldn’t do something because are setting ourselves up to fail, the world would be devoid of the strong, courageous women.  We owe it to ourselves to be our best selves.

What if we were able to identify what is in your way, what is stopping us from doing the things we want?  I’m going to introduce one of mine, and I bet my last $ that you have one too.

One of the things that keeps me small and stops me thinking big is called Sam, he’s my gremlin.  I don’t know why he is called Sam, but I do know that he sits on my left shoulder and tells me to play it safe, to stay small. He is protecting me, but from what? Success? Living my dreams?

When I identify that his opinion is overriding my thoughts and dreams, I imagine putting him in a box and putting the box onto a cupboard. I shut him up, and it works, temporarily. He will always be there, and that’s OK, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have an equivalent of Sam.

So, next time your gremlin rears its ugly head shut it up and listen to your instinct, your gut and your heart; they know you better than your gremlin.

Try working through these questions to see where your gremlin is playing a far greater role in your life than perhaps it should.

What can’t you do and who says so?
How true is what it says to you?
Where do the words it tells you belong?

As always, you know where to find me,
Zoe x