I haven’t posted for a while and I would like to apologise for that.  However, I have been busy learning a lesson and I think it is one that I should share: Don’t give up.  Don’t let life and the rotten things that it can throw at you get you down enough for you to take your eye off the ball.  Don’t allow yourself to lose sight of what it is that you want.  To be very twee about it – don’t let others steal your dream.

Life is tough and sometimes it’s not fair, but then, we were never promised that it would be.  Sometimes, things can happen that really affect you and make you feel down and when that happens, it is so easy to stop and lose focus.  I decided this week that if I do that, then “life” has won – and I am not going to let it!  This is my year.  2010 is the year in which I will be who I want to be, do what I want to do and achieve all I want to achieve.

So, sorry I wasn’t around for a week – I’m back and I’ve learned (and now shared) a lesson!

love

Sarah

Last year, as you may be aware if you have shuffled around this site for a while, I was divorced.  It was a very sad time, as it is for everyone who goes through it I think.  2009 was my Annus Horribilis and I don’t want to have another year like it. Ever.  I wasn’t working and I didn’t really have anything in my life apart from getting up, surviving the day and going back to bed.  In fact, I think I may well have slept the year away if it wasn’t for my daughters.

At the end of the year, I started to feel like I wanted to do something.  I wasn’t sure what, but I am an action taker, I always have been.  I am one of those people who exhausts others with their energy – and I had wasted a year of my life.  A fellow coach forwarded an email to me about the Social Marketing Blueprint.  This is a course which shows you, through a series of very well made, simple to follow videos and teleseminars, how to create a blog (you are reading the one that I created whilst on this course) and let the world know you are there using social marketing tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.  Ultimately, you can monetise your blog and make a living with it.  Maritza Parra (www.maritzaparra.com) and Jeff Herring (www.jeffherring.com) run the course.  They have made the videos and they have experience with complete beginners, so all of the course material caters for those who are absolutely clueless as well as those with a bit more experience (an example of how basic it can be is that they have videos showing you how to open an account in Facebook and Twitter!  Doesn’t get much more beginner than that!).  Jeff and Maritza are great teachers and make everyone feel comfortable and able to ask questions – however basic.

This course was a life changer for me.  This sounds very dramatic, but it is quite true.  The support that I received, not only from Maritza and Jeff, but also from my fellow students helped me out of a sad place and back into the land of the living.  I now blog regularly (as you know dear reader!) and I write articles, tweet, make videos etc as part of my daily routine.  I have a reason for each day.  In fact, I have a to-do list for each day and I usually have too much on it to do it all!  That’s a big change for a woman whose to-do list was “get up, sort children, sleep” for nearly a year.

Now, I realise that most people aren’t in a sad place, but I am betting that many of you would like to work from home?  Isn’t that why you keep coming back to this blog?  Well, let me tell you that you couldn’t do much better than to take this course as a way to start your online career.  I enjoy working online so much more than offline for several reasons;

• I can do it in my pjs
• I am at home, not out
• I can do it when I am grumpy without offending anyone (!)
• I can control when I work – to the second
• If my children need me – I am here
• I find it very rewarding, especially when people leave comments

If you want to develop an online career, or to find out more about how to do it, take a good look at the Social Marketing Blueprint. (you can click on those words).   I think it is the best social marketing course available!

There is a clickable picture of the Social Marketing Blueprint down the bottom of this page, on the right if you prefer

love

Sarah

Last weekend, we visited my brother and his partner in London.  They live in South West London (I think it is south west – my geography of London isn’t so good!) near Kingston.  We went to Camden Town for the day on Saturday which broadened my childrens’ horizons in about 3 hours!!  (If you haven’t ever heard of/been to Camden Town, Google it – it is an astonishing place full of piercings and tattoos; neon clothes and black clothes; vibrant individuals and just plain scary ones – it’s a cool place to spend some time).

On Sunday, we went to Bushey Park near Hampton Court Palace.  On the way, we passed a building that was extremely austere looking indeed.  We adults commented on the fact that it looked like a prison although it was in fact a University.

About an hour later, my smallest girl (aged 8 ) looked at me very seriously and asked me “Mum, are there two “zeds”  in prison?”

Sigh!  One day, they will be grown up and won’t entertain me like this any more…

The days can drag, but the years fly…

Speak soon

love Sarah