Baby Bliss

We've been working on something special here and want to share it with you. Baby Bliss is due in November. While we each have much-adored children from previous marriages, this will be our first (and only) child together, and we are over the moon. :-)

So, reasoning that it would be a few years before I could easily take the girls to the Dawn Service, I dragged myself out of bed yesterday at 5ish and rugged up.

Allejandro (as the girls have nicknamed the baby, after the hero of one of Lady GaGa's songs) had other ideas though, and we had to ditch ANZAC Day for a dash to the local hospital with a threatened miscarriage (at 12 weeks). All appears to have settled down today, and we have further tests this week.

Something like this shifts your priorities sharply into perspective. Social events were cancelled, my assignments put on hold, the girls farmed out to my long-suffering parents and sister and our long weekend completely cleared.

At times like this, we instinctively know 'what matters'. Other things that seemed important suddenly aren't. We're so certain of what to do, we don't have to think about our next move.

Start today

Don't wait for a wake-up call to be thankful for what you have. Always protect the things that matter to you most, above all else.

No such thing as 'can't'

I took the girls to the Great Moscow Circus last week, and we were thoroughly entertained.

During the ribbon dancer's high-flying performance, Sophie (nine) nudged me in the ribs and said, 'you know - that lady couldn't always do that...'

It was a motivating observation, compared with what I'd just been thinking: 'wow - I could never do that!'

Put most adults at the foot of two scraps of material and ask us to climb up to the top and perform tricks without a harness and we'd probably say, 'I can't'.

Children tend to think: 'I can't yet'.

Start today

Thomas Edison said, 'many of life's failures are people who didn't realise how close they were to success when they gave up.'

Real success is rarely an overnight phenomenon, but the result of hard work, persistence and self-belief.

When you compare yourself to others who do something amazingly well, remind yourself, like Sophie did, that 'they couldn't always do that...'

One day, if you keep working at it, someone might say the same about you.

Shrink the task

My husband bought me a great book this week called, 'Switch: How to change things, when change is hard'.

One of the chapters is all about 'shrinking the change'. It's about taking something overwhelming and unpleasant (cleaning the whole house, for example) and 'shrinking' the task into a palatable slice.

The online domestic guru, 'FlyLady', is great at this. She advocates setting a kitchen timer for five minutes and attacking the worst room in the house, then stopping after five minutes with a clear conscience.

The idea is that, once you start, you'll probably keep going. It's about setting in motion a 'virtuous circle' of action by first shrinking the unattractive task to a manageable size.

Start today

What tasks can you shrink at work and at home?

Take anything that you have been procrastinating about because the task seems overwhelming, and 'shrink the change'.

• Piles of filing to do? Set yourself a 5-minute deadline.

• Mountain of washing to fold? Just fold the sheets and towels.

• Should do an hour's exercise? Just walk around the block.

Chances are, once you start, you'll keep going.

Too much of a good thing?

How are you feeling about chocolate right now?

I have to tell you I'm feeling not so fussed about it.

Temporarily over it, in fact! Could I have had too much of a good thing?

Start today

Balance is all about doing lots of things in moderation - working, playing, doing housework, eating, drinking, socialising, exercising, learning...

If we have too much of any of these - even good things - we're out of kilter.

Learn to adopt a mindset of 'all things in moderation', and try it out this week. Look for the areas of your life that you are 'overdoing' and reel these in. Look for areas that are missing out, and crank these up.

Enjoy the difference it makes in your life.