These these last couple of weeks have been challenging. Last Sunday I walked for just over 5 hours with covering nearly 19 km. It was hot! I only made it 2/3 of the way back up the summit. Turning around was hard, I was drinking all my electrolytes, I had eaten...I couldn't work out why I had no energy. I turned around, blubbered as I walked back down and tried to find my car. This was the fun point, as I had to park over 2 km from my normal start. As I mentioned, I was nearly delirious and I thought I had lost my car. At one stage police came up the hill and I wanted to dive in front to have them carry me to my car. Obviously I made it, and did not manage my ice bath on getting home as I had to go to a school camp for leaders that afternoon. 

Since I have put this crazy challenge  'out there' I have had the most beautiful support and words from the least likely sources. I have found though that being in a positive mindset has allowed for me to be more open and responsive to positive people around me. I have started to write down quotes and the like as little reminders. As you can see by my student's quote. I was really anticipating something very deep and meaningful, as he is a very motivated, serious young man. When he told me that he just tells his mind to 'shut up!" I thought that was brilliant. 
My body on the other hand is holding out, however I have become friends with my roller and my physio. I know for a fact that Maxi will not have these issues and training will be quite last minute for him. My biggest enemy though, is my mind. It is a constant battle.  As I have been doing my long walks I have been listening to audio books, the latest have been Daring Greatly (Brene Brown)  and  GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Angela Duckworth). Believe it or not I love these types of books and find the audio version so easy to follow when I am out for hours walking, plus they are good for my work! Thank you to an amazing past colleague and beautiful friend for these recommendations.
I am have also started to follow an amazing young Australian, that if I had my time again I would love to be in her shoes. Please check out Lucy and Wombat (a beautiful cattle dog) at www.tanglesandtail.com   

Off to do some training. I have asked my husband of a thousand years to join me to dinner there tonight. He couldn't think of anything worse than dinner at the gym...but my gym has a great restaurant! So date night it is!

​I am out - that is...Maxi+Mum is out of my mind and into the world! I cannot tell you how vulnerable this feels. When I was growing up, vulnerability was seen as a weakness in my house, coming from a military up-bringing by parents of the 60's. Mind you - we did share feelings, but normally in a reactive, explosive way, than collectively laugh about it or turn it into a funny situation. As I have grown I have physically felt vulnerability as over-whelming and exhaustive. I would rather sleep and let it pass. Emotionally I used it to constantly seek acceptance by others, even those very close to me. I have now come to the mindset that vulnerability is required, but it is not at the centre of everything, courage however is!

In the last couple of days I felt these weaker ideas of vulnerability slip through, I had a cry, stated things like, "If I cannot reach this $100 000 goal, everyone will now I am a failure?" Funny thing is, it has taken my 17 year old daughter, with the back up from her little sister that brought me back to reality. I was reminded that it may take time, people are generally good and want to do good. Just put it out there mum, and it will come back at you ten-fold. Where and when did my children gain this wisdom?

So 'putting it out there' has become one of my mantras for 2019. I actually had the privilege of hearing one of Australia's top voice over artist and speaker at a conference last week. I reached out via email and could not believe in her busy schedule she got back to me and has offered support. Many of you may know her by voice only, as she was doing Australian commercials for 44 years, voiced Blinky Bill and 6 other female characters on the show, is ALL the female characters on 'How Green Was My Cactus", was the St George Bank phone banking voice and many more. PLUS...she knows and embraces the power of words. Please check her out if you are curious @ www.robynmoore.com.au
I was also sent a message from a very close friend attached to a photo that stated, "Did you teach this guy?" It just so happened that I did, when he was about 13. Now he is in his early 20's and has started a media business after he completed uni. He bases his short form videos on stories that have a positive impact on the world. So...I reached out! He came back immediately and believe it or not, he actually had Leukaemia when he was 4. He and his family know first-hand the impact of this disease.

​So here we go, my first blog...see you out there!