Are you addicted to struggle? 10 Clues.
Long before my coaching days I attended a seminar for women facilitated by Denise Linn. One young woman listened with growing impatience to Denise’s talk and finally burst out defiantly: “You make it all sound so easy – but I have problem x, y and z to deal...
What to Do when You Have to Wait
The people and things we mostly want to influence are usually the ones we can't influence at all: babies, teenagers and the person on the hotline for our technical problem come to mind. As to the things we can't influence, TIME is of course on top of the list. We all...
Remembering the Future
When I took the metro for the first time, 25 years ago, I was giddy with excitement. Everything was romantic. This very special Parisian metro smell, the way the trains came rattling into the station, and then the names of the stations! My phantasy went spinning:...
How to Deal with Criticism from your Loved Ones
You had thought about it for a long time or it came as a sudden inspiration: things are going to change. You’ll take the leap. You are going to do something different. You are excited, a bit scared, too, but your soul sings at the prospect of feeling alive in a new...
The Number One Error of a House MakeOver
- Do you dream of making the world in general and your life in particular more beautiful, one room at a time? - Do you feel that if only you could get that desk organized, your career would soar; or that streamlining your closet would be the fastest way to...
10 Ways to be Elegant (sans wearing Couture)
Most of us would like to be elegant or more elegant, preferably effortless. What is elegance? Now, of course, elegance is in the eye of the beholder. For some Audrey Hepburn will be the epitome of elegance, for others Lady Gaga, or their grandmother. Personally I find...
How to Double your Creativity when You Declutter
Recently we had an animated discussion in our Facebook group* about my upcoming program #MySpaceFirst and about the energetic blueprint and the influence of all the things we surround ourselves with. Naturally, clutter and clutter clearing were part of...
How to be at your Best when People don’t accept your NO
You knew that the only right answer was saying No. You had thought it through and evaluated all the options. Or you had a clear gut feeling. This was a red-velvet-rope-no-one-passes moment. So you said what you hoped to be a loud and clear “No”: No, you were not...
A better Word than “Sorry”
Recently I had an appointment in a yet unknown place and was circling around to find a parking space. As I found one and was preparing to get in, a man started to gesticulate, to yell, to roll his eyes and make angry faces, and to signal in every possible...
How to get out of this everyday Trap
When I was working in opera, I shared my dressing room with a charming and pretty colleague, who, night after night, would slap on her stage make-up, shrug into her costume, do a scale or two, cast a glance in the mirror and declare to her reflection: “Ca ira...
What to do when you are not “in the mood”.
When I was working in opera, no one gave a fig about being in the “mood” for getting out on stage and - hopefully - doing something worth the name “music”. With 900 people waiting in their seats for the curtain to rise and an irascible conductor in the...
In Lieu of Sugar (the Elegant Version of Candy)
What happens if you keep a glass jar full of candy on your desk? Unless you are a genetically altered person or a yogi about to dissolve into enlightenment, you will eventually eat the candy. The whole jar of it. This is because you see the jar all the time....
100 Things to Throw Out!
One question my clients hear a lot when we explore what they want to accomplish is “What difference would you notice?” Almost invariably “I’d feel lighter” is part of the answer. So, in lieu of a new year’s resolution, here’s something to make you feel lighter:...
Your Wardrobe as Your Life Coach (Part 3)
Welcome to the third and last part of “Your wardrobe as your Life Coach”. It is fascinating and truly amusing how much our closets are a carbon copy of what is going on in our lives! In Part 1 we discussed how to organise your wardrobe and how to keep it...
Juicy, inspiring, brilliant “Should’s”!
Sshh, I'll tell you a secret - I'm endorsing Should's. Now here is one phrase I thought I would never say! As every person who has talked to me longer than five minutes is well aware, "should" is about the blackest on my list of black words, to be banished from the...