I was born in Australia in 1966, (despite this, I continue to be approximately in my mid to late 30s, and will keep this up as long as possible), where I continue to live in the beautiful city of Melbourne with my five wonderful children, who are aged from six to nineteen, and our hilarious collection of pets. 

I published my first personal development eBook, Organized for Life, in 2006, and since then have been writing articles for this website and seeking out new ways to first save myself, then contribute to greater sanity amongst the rest of humankind.

I began writing mostly about the topic of my eBook, i.e. organization, and my approach naturally tended towards the emotional and mindset factors affecting our ability to be organized.  I chose organization as my first topic to write about because I was keenly aware of how much better being organized made me feel and could also make others feel.

I had now reached the point where I knew that what I wanted to do was to help people help themselves though personal development.  I started to write more general personal development articles and to think about other ways I might be able to help people with their personal growth.

As I continued to read, write and explore in the area of personal development, my certainty that I wanted to find more ways to help people overcome thier limitations intensified, leading me to enrol in a Diploma course in Life Coaching.

I have now completed Certificate IV in Life Coaching, am an NLP (Neuro Lingustic Programming) Certified Practitiioner and Extended DISC Behavioural Profiling Consultant and Trainer.

My learning and growth as a Transformational Life Coach, as a Writer and as a Speaker and Trainer is not something which will ever be 'done' or 'complete'.  I'm committed to 'walking my talk', that is I continue to work on my own personal growth through study and being coached myself, and will continue to do so.

I love that this path allows me to connect with people and to write and communicate ideas which have a deep meaning and importance for me.  I feel immense joy in seeing, hearing and feeling people taking responsibility, making realizations and achieving positive change.

Why the funny surname?  I can explain, and will, to whomever will listen.

Apart from my coaching and writing, my time is spent studying, attending trainings, cooking, doing housework, buying groceries, driving children around and generally being climbed upon, joining in XBox and WII games, but only the dancing ones and Guitar Hero, telling them I don't know how to do their maths homework and being forced to listen to terrible pop music.  I'm your typical busy single mother.

Interests

I enjoy music, (a lot!), reading, writing of course, hanging out with friends and extended family, movies, TV, singing, keeping pets, cooking, eating out, roses (the only plant I can't kill), art, dancing, comedy, history, psychology, home aesthetics, personal development and I'm very fond of beer and pizza.  I look forward to travelling one day, and hope to learn to play the piano and have a better relationship with my guitar.

Skills

I can touch type, make decent lasagne and wiggle my ears.  I have pulled things out and put things in my computer with my own bare hands (forget what now).  I can get knots out of fine hair and sew ribbons on ballet slippers.  I can cook a roast dinner for 14 people.  

My adventures on the internet

I published my first page online in October 2006, marketing my eBook Organized for Life.  As the collection of articles started to build up, I decided I quite liked this writing thing, and got myself this domain name so I could write more stuff.

Being a beginner in the wild west world of internet marketing and publishing, I invested in some sturdy gumboots for wading through the ever increasing piles of dung dressed up as information products and software tools, and have tried not to waste too much time or money listening to self proclaimed gurus. 

I’ve written another page detailing the history and struggles of my online outings, called My First Three Years Online.

The subject matter of my writing

Psychology and personal improvement, understanding how to get control over the aberrations of one's own mind, are things I've always been fascinated with.  I'm interested in reading anything which might contribute to a better understanding and mastery of myself, and I believe that freedom and happiness are within our control by learning how our minds work. 

I think that in talking about my own efforts to understand and apply concepts and ideas, I will find ways of expressing them which may make them more accessible to more people.  After all, I'm not alone in wanting to gain more control over my own life.

Personality

With what I now know about behavioural profiling through my study of Extended DISC and Neuro Linguistic Programming, it seems irrelevant to mention that I was born on the cusp of Aries and Pisces in the year of the Horse or that Jungian or Myers Briggs tests tend to vary from ENFJ to ESTJ.  I now understand where my desire for accuracy, my natural empathy, and my tendency to experience the world both through feelings and through analysing facts more than visually come from, and even the way I experience music.  

What I previously described here as personality traits, I now see as code for strategies, fears and limiting beliefs.  As I work on examining my values system, focussing on my strengths and finding more resourceful strategies for meeting my needs, I feel my identity, who I am, is much less restricted.  In coaching, we ask ourselves who we need to be to do what we need to do to have what we want to have.

Resume

I began my working life as a tea lady/kitchenhand at 14, then went on to work in a shoe factory, sandwich bars, retail, publishing, car insurance, waitressing and bar tending, workers compensation insurance, as a restaurateur, and in call centres.  I did my Higher School Certificate (year 12) at night school at 19.  There were three unsuccessful attempts to get started on an arts degree, and an attempt to complete a sound engineering course in my teens.  Then I started writing in 2006, and here I am with my own personal development business. 

Values

I value honesty, openness and good manners.  I believe in not judging people, in the power of forgiveness, and in taking responsibility for oneself.  I believe in keeping an open mind. 

I value family very highly, and feel very fortunate to have a large one of my own, which is what I always wanted.  I look forward to lots and lots of grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on. 

I'm fastidious about communication, accuracy, getting things right, that sort of thing.

A full re-examination of my values is in progress, thanks to the work of Anthony Robbins, which will mean a big re-work of this section.

But enough about me, tell me about yourself - what do you think of me?  Yes, that's a joke.  (I'm quoting Bette Midler).  Don't go emailing me, unless you have something very insightful, and well, complimentary to say.  About me.