1 day to go - can't wait!!

Hello!

Just one day to go until the challenge starts, I just can't wait to see where it all takes us, what we get up to and what comes out of consciously planning to do something that makes us smile every day. Knowing that it is about to start I have been thinking about what I am going to do for my first week, I am a planner and like to get things planned in for my week ahead!

I had a fab idea yesterday whilst going through someone's wardrobe (I am an image consultant) of how lovely would it be to go up to random people on the street and give them compliments. It's so nice when someone comes up and tells you how nice you look or comments on something you are wearing, it really gives you a little lift. I often see people and think how fabulous they look but never actually say anything to them for fear of them thinking I am slightly odd! So I think I will do that on a few of my days in the challenge.

Another I idea I have had is to send people thank you cards, this idea came from reading about this fab book 365 Days where the writer sent thank you cards to people every day for a year. Every day I do think about what I am grateful for but this is one step further and again like the compliments idea it's touching other people.

After just spending a couple of weeks in an Ashram  in India I am addicted to yoga now so making sure I do bikram yoga will be another thing this week.

And finally I am going home next weekend to see my parents so I think I might bake a chocolate cake with my mum and enjoy licking the bowl afterwards (with no guilt!).....used to love doing that when I was younger!!!

Looking forward to hearing about what you all get up to!

Louise x

A new idea is formed!

Yesterday whilst musing about what could be my next big challenge I thought about what I could do that is really at the core of my being; people living lives they love. This is the ethos of our whole company, Create Yourself. It's all about helping people to live lives they really love, every day.

So it was then I came up with the idea of a Create Yourself charity event, something that gets people in touch with what they love to do and helps raise money for a great cause. Recently I met an incredible lady, Anna Wallace, who has just got through an extremely rare type of cancer. She is dedicating the next year to putting on a 3 day event next November called Living Beyond Diagnosis. It’s for people who have been affected by breast cancer to give them all the information they need that the doctors don’t tell you about. Stuff like diet, image, dealing with your friends and families reactions, your body changes and so on. The mission is to empower the survivors and connect them with people going through similar experiences to build a strong community of support. She is really thinking big and wants to try to get the likes of Kylie and Gok Wan to speak. Just while I was thinking about this she actually emailed me yesterday afternoon asking me if I would do some style sessions at the event next November?! Love it how people get in touch when you are thinking of them, so I took this as a sign and emailed her about my idea to raise money to help her put on the event and she loves the idea!

My idea so far is that the charity event will be the celebration party at the end of a challenge. The whole idea is people living lives they love so from 14th February (a day all about love!) the challenge will be to do 1 thing you love/makes you smile every day for 2 months. You'll be asked to write regular blog posts on here to share your journey and inspire others.

At the end of the challenge in April we will put on a big party to celebrate your achievements. We will ask for some people to stand up and share what they got from it. We'll also also arrange a speaker or two to share their inspirational stories of creating lives they love. Then there will be a prize draw for everyone who has taken part and completed the full 2 months, the winner will win a full Create Yourself package of a 13 session life coaching course, 10 personal training sessions and a full image consultation, worth £1364.40. There will also be a raffle to win other fantastic donated prizes such beauty treatments/ haircuts/ yoga sessions etc. (All to be confirmed!)

The money from entry to the challenge and the raffle on the night will all go towards putting on Anna's event next November, to ensure attendees pay very little to attend the event (many suffer financial hardship because of their diagnosis).

So this is my idea so far, my new blog has been set up and we are in the process of setting up a new website to promote this. I am excited and full of anticipation of where this project is going to lead, above all I know it's going to be a lot of fun.

xxx