Tonight apparantly is a solar eclipse…… there is certainly something in the air as many I am meeting with seem to be having struggles at the moment. If you want bad news, sad news, tragic news, upsetting news then it is pretty easy to find in the world. Everyone can find something that is not going so well in their lives. It can quickly become pretty energy sapping if you are always faced with the grumpy planet people. I am not saying that life on my “Happy Planet” is always positive and perfect, I am just very humbled to have people in my life who taught me to take challenges on board, deal with them, learn from them, then let them go.

I was blessed to have two influential female grandparents who were always reminding me to find the good in others. My Dads mum (grandma) was an eccletic but talented teacher who spent many hours philosophying with us over a card game or three. She would remind me “there is not that much difference between the cleaner and the CEO. In fact the cleaner can become the CEO and the CEO can become the cleaner in the blink of an eye. The only real difference is belief” With that advice in mind as I travelled the world I was always treated people as equally as I could, never knowing who they were or what them might offer.

My Mum’s mum (Nana) was a humble and beautiful soul. She loved people and as we shared marmalade toast and scenarioed out her kitchen window she reminded me “there was good in everyone you meet. The trick is to take the time to find that good.” She shared that when things weren’t going so well the fastest way to pick yourself up was to find the lesson in the challenge, keep things simple and always smile.

In my 39 years I have taken all these great pieces of advice, including the words of the great Audrey Hepburn and Dr Suess and the beautifulness of two more inspirations in my life Mother Teresa and Anne Frank and have come up with my own five Rules of Life to cope with my challenging days.
1. Look for the good in others, speak words of kindness and believe it is worth inspiring others to find their good news.
2. When life throws you lemons work out how to make your own version of lemondade and use these lessons
3. Anyone can be a cleaner and anyone can be a CEO – the difference is all about what you believe in
4. If you are truely happy with where YOU are at then then where you live, what you do, how you do it and when you do it shouldn’t matter to anyone but you. – Those who mind don’t matter and those that matter don’t mind!
5. A smile costs nothing and a hug is free.

So if you are finding yourself heading to the grumpy planet or are in a world full of negativity or woefullness, stop, breath, find the lesson, smile and help people find their good news. You never know it might rub off on you and help you find some more good news about yourself 🙂

Smiles and Hugs

Cate x