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The positive life plan - how to define your values

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You know I love words. And I love my journal - it’s one of my most treasured possessions. Recently I took a big step - for me - and stopped combining my notebook (lists, thoughts, work stuff, finances… basically everything life-related) with my personal journal. I’ve started a beautiful new notebook, and I’m going to keep it just for journal entries and writing prompts. It’s not a diary by any means, but just a personal place to explore thoughts and feelings, record quotes that I love, and jot down things that I want to remember or revisit at a later date. I was reading an article recently - I think it was in Stylist - about choosing a ‘values-based career’. It basically talked about how choosing a career based on your core values is the secret to finding job satisfaction. I soon got lost down a values-based rabbit hole and it was SO interesting that I knew I had to share. Here’s a great exercise on how to define your values - the results may surprise you!

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Positive life plan - an update

The positive life plan: perform your own life audit

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Hello! Happy Saturday. I hope you’re reading this in a sunny spot in the garden - isn’t it lovely to see the sunshine? I was looking back on my blog posts recently, and noticed that it’s been absolutely ages since I updated my positive life plan notebook. Quite a lot has changed since I last thought about it, and it’s weirdly comforting and - I don’t know - grounding, somehow, to sit down, grab a cuppa and perform your own life audit: think about where you are in life, what you’re loving, what you’d maybe like to change… who you’d like to be. If you’ve never come across the positive life plan before, it’s a chilled out way to do a bit of a positive life edit, where you can take stock, set goals, record your hopes and dreams, then keep referring back and updating to keep track of your progress. Plus it’s a great excuse to buy a lovely new notebook.

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Discovering the W8 GYM at St James Club, Antigua

Discovering the W8 GYM at St James Club, Antigua

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Imagine receiving an email that says ‘hey, you’re into fitness - fancy coming to Antigua with Fleur East for the launch of a brand new fitness partnership?’. Well of course I said yes, and last week, we jetted off to the beautiful island of Antigua for a few days of workouts on the beach, and of course a little downtime in the sunshine too. So what was it all about? Well, Elite Island Resorts - a beautiful collection of beachfront resorts in the Caribbean, has teamed up with W8 GYM, a really clever, completely portable gym system created by the lovely Fleur East and her cousins Nick Meaney and Clive Payne. The exclusive partnership will see the W8 GYM being available at Elite Island Resorts locations in Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados (remember I went to their beautiful The Club Barbados resort for my singing holiday?) and The Grenadines, to use in-room, in the resort gym (where group lessons will be available) and even on the beach, if you fancy it. I spent a happy few days discovering the W8 GYM at St James Club, Antigua, and do you know what? It turned out to be a pretty life changing experience. Let me explain…

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The positive life plan: a September life audit

The positive life plan: a September life audit

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Don’t you just adore September? It has such a lovely fresh start feel about it: new stationery, new uniform and of course the promise of crunchy autumn leaves, roast dinners and blackberry and apple crumble… You might have seen that I wrote recently about some of the lessons I’d learned after 12 years of blogging. I made a mental note at the time to revisit my positive life plan and update a few of the categories, because I feel like I’ve been making quite a few changes recently, both with my work, my health, and my general outlook on life. If you’ve never come across the positive life plan before, it’s a chilled out way to perform a bit of a positive life edit, where you can take stock, set goals, record your hopes and dreams, then keep referring back and updating to keep track of your progress. I find it hugely helpful, so it thought it was about time for a September life audit. Here goes, then:

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M&S activewear for my couch to 5k journey

Weekday wishlist: M&S activewear for my couch to 5k journey

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Yes, I know I usually do a weekend wishlist, but I’ve got a lovely bit of baking for you this weekend, so I thought I’d mix things up a bit and bring you a weekday wishlist instead. If you’ve read my last couple of posts about my plans for 2018, you’ll know that I’m trying hard to look after and nourish my body, cut down on alcohol, eat healthily and get back into my running. On Monday, I deleted my Couch to 5k app details and then started it again from the beginning. I quickly realised, though, that I had actually made some progress and didn’t need to stop and walk. I ended up running the whole week 1 run 1 and although I ached the next day, I felt a huge sense of achievement. I’m going to carry it on, but one thing I really need is some decent new running gear. Happily, there’s a great selection of gorgeous M&S activewear, so I’m going to treat myself to some lovely new stuff. Here are a few bits that caught my eye:

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My health and alcohol - plans for 2018

My health and alcohol: plans for 2018

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So you’ll probably have seen that Erica and I have updated the positive life plan for 2018. I do hope you’ve decided to join in, whether throwing yourself in wholeheartedly, or just jotting down a few things that you want to change this year or some goals that you might have. It did make me smile that after promising myself a healthy, alcohol free New Year, my Dad went and tested me by popping his clogs on New Year’s Day. Many of you knew what he was like and will know that he’d have laughed heartily to himself about that. So, on to my plans for 2018, then.

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A positive life plan for 2018

A positive life plan for 2018

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I adore Christmas. I’m a planner and a note-maker, and always need to have something to look forward to, so for me, the build up is one of my favourite parts: choosing and wrapping special gifts, planning and buying all the food, decorating the house with scented candles and twinkling lights… it all makes me really happy . We had a gorgeous Christmas this year, and rounded off the season with a small New Year’s Eve gathering with some of our favourite people. Now, though, I’m already wanting the decorations down, the house clean and tidy again, and I’ll be raring to dive headfirst into this squeaky clean, fresh and sparkly New Year. One of the first things I’ll be doing is opening a lovely new notebook and creating my positive life plan for 2018.

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Five reasons why you should start the positive life plan

Five reasons why you should start the positive life plan

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Did you keep a diary when you were younger? I kept one for a few years when I was in my early teens, and me and my best friend also wrote to each other all the time (this was before the internet, people!) and I kept those letters for years and years too. I’d love to read them again now and get to know my teenage self again. I wonder what happened to them? Think of the positive life plan as the grown up equivalent of those teenage ramblings: a constructive and uplifting way to keep track of all aspects of your life and maybe even make a few changes along the way too. Here, we’ve listed five reasons why you should start the positive life plan.

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The positive life plan: fitness

The positive life plan: fitness, and my couch to 5k journey so far

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If you’re new to the positive life plan, let me recap: it’s basically just a lovely way to keep track of all the different areas of your life: health, fitness, money, beauty/personal style, relationships, work, quality time, aspirations, self, and really there are no rules (apart from one: everything has to be positive, so no being hard on yourself for anything). It’s a great opportunity to spend a bit of time on you and perform a positive life edit that you can continue to work on and update. It’s also a good excuse to buy a new notebook, and you know how happy that makes us. I’m now trying to devote a whole post to each category. So last time was self, and this time the focus is on one of the toughest categories in the positive life plan: fitness.

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The positive life plan self

The positive life plan: self

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About the positive life plan

Regular readers will know that my friend: writer, blogger, and life coach, Erica Douglas, and I originally came up with the positive life plan when we were on holiday together. We were just chatting about life and the germ of an idea started to form: we split the main topics of our thoughts into different categories: health, fitness, money, beauty/personal style, relationships, work/personal brand, quality time, aspirations, self, and added the rule that everything had to be positive, no being hard on ourselves. We thought it would give us the opportunity to perform a positive life edit that we could continue to work on and refer back to now and again to keep ourselves on track. Basically the plan is as simple or as complicated as you make it. Many people have said that they have a notebook split into sections, and just keep track of their thoughts and feelings on each topic, updating and editing every so often, but do whatever suits you. This month, we’re focusing on the first category of the positive life plan: self.

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Singing holidays in Barbados: our Caribbean choir experience

Singing holidays in Barbados: our Caribbean choir experience

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A couple of weeks ago, I received a pretty fabulous invitation to Barbados. Flying out with Virgin Holidays for a week at The Club Barbados, right next to Sandy Lane on the gorgeous, calm west coast of Barbados - a no brainer right? Well, almost. The bit of the invitation that had me hesitating was this: ‘come and be part of an exclusive expert led “Caribbean Choir” singing workshop’. Singing? Me?! I mean, yes, I sing in the shower, but a choir? I was nervous, but in my positive life plan notes, I’ve definitely written ‘be brave’ and ‘do something that scares you’, so I decided to embrace the challenge and replied with a firm yes!

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Positive life plan update

The positive life plan update

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So remember a while ago (actually about a year ago) I talked about the positive life plan? It stemmed from a lovely conversation with my friend Erica, and was a bit of a life-affirming exercise in which we discussed aspects of our life and added our thoughts about them (adding the rule that everything had to be positive). I now have a notebook especially for the plan, and update and add bits to it all the time (I’m pretty much a notebook nut - my whole life revolves around notes and to do lists and little snippets of things I’ve copied down).

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Il de Ré

The positive life plan

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I’ve just spent a gorgeous week on board P & O Cruises’ beautiful ship, Britannia with my friend Erica. We spent the week discovering all the dining options on board, as well as exploring bits of France and Spain and doing some baking with Eric Lanlard too - I know! Anyhoo, more of that later - for now, I wanted to tell you about a fantastic conversation we had one night in The Glass House over a couple of drinkies. We started off just chatting about life, the future, family, etc as you do, and a bit of a plan started to form. We split our thoughts into topics and added the rule that everything had to be positive - no beating ourselves up - and this positive life plan was born. I’m excited to share it with you!

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