What you must know about jealousy at work.

Jacinta*, is a successful executive who, frankly, works her butt off. In her last role, she was carrying her team a lot of the time. There was a lot going on for her at work but what REALLY got to her was a colleague who left early.

Now when I say 'early', I mean, the colleague left at about 6pm each night (hours earlier than Jacinta). This colleague took vacations and even had the audacity to take lunch breaks each day.

There was plenty wrong with her colleague's performance at work but the final straw for Jacinta was this woman's work-life balance.

You might already see that Jacinta's jealousy was the window to what she really wanted. 

• Reasonable work hours.
• Daily lunch breaks.
• R and R during regular holidays.

This is not the first time I've heard this scenario. 

Let's stop judging ourselves for jealousy and start looking at what it is showing us... what we really want.

Is it recognition? More responsibility? A holiday? Less responsibility? Reasonable working hours?

Once you know, you can make a plan to go get it!

What are you jealous of? What is it telling you?

And Jacinta? She's now in a role where she gets everything she used to be jealous about, which means she has time to also enjoy her relationships, have more energy, be more creative and explore her passions and gifts beyond the 9-5!

Big love,
Lara xx

P.S. Working well with others and with your mind are just two of the many insightful, life changing activities you'll focus on during Smash It - a group coaching course to makeover your work-life in just 10 weeks! Learn more here and register today - class starts 1st September!

*Name changed for privacy

The recipe to a happy working life.

What feelings do you most want from your working life?

For most people I work with (and know) it's these things...

• Peace of mind
• To feel on the right track
• Enjoyment
• To make a positive impact on the world
• To have energy and feel good

To create these feelings, we need the right internal and external conditions.

What we have SO MUCH control over are our internal conditions - they are our job!

Even a half managed mind does INCREDIBLE things - so it's not about being perfect. Not a dot.

How about I give you the tools, the info and the community to help you feel wonderful at work?

That's what my new online course is all about. 

You can watch the workshops live or in your own time, get loads of support and feedback through weekly Q and A sessions and posts you put in my Smash It! Facebook group. 

You can makeover your work-life in 10 weeks, starting 1st September!

Learn more about the course - Smash It! and register!

Big love,
Lara xx 

P.S. It's time to get happy at work, my friend!

1. Join the Conscious Ambition Group and connect with other smart, fabulous women who are boosting their work-lives each week. This is my Facebook community where talented women learn to get more confidence and peace-of-mind and find more fulfilment through work. Click here to join. 

2. Work with me privately.

If you'd like to work directly with me to take you from feeling meh about work to excited and self-assured ... just schedule a call.

Stop using self-criticism as motivation.

Something that KILLS ME is when clients try to find that motivation through harsh self-criticism.

We all have that voice in our head that tells us we should do EVERYTHING better than we do.

It says that if you weren’t so lazy, thick, stubborn, [insert insult] you could act, think, look and feel SO much better.

We BELIEVE the voice of our inner critic.

We think it speaks the truth and has the recipe for killing it at work, looking like a goddess, being the greatest friend/partner/mother/community member/customer….

Why is it there?

Believe it or not, it’s evolved for the best of intentions. It wants to protect us and keep us safe in the world but it does so by shaming and picking at us.

You can get pretty far beating yourself up into taking action but you can’t get where you want to go in life feeling how you want to feel.

Whenever you reach your goal you will get there exhausted, stressed and hanging on for dear life because your inner critic will just keep raising the bar.


You will only feel the way you want to feel AND achieve what you want in your work-life when you can manage your thoughts and act on what your body tells you about what you really want.

Try celebrating every small win.

Start training your brain to look for what you are doing right!!

Big love,
Lara xx

Join the Conscious Ambition Group and connect with other smart, fabulous women who are boosting their work-lives each week. Learn to get more confidence and peace-of-mind and fulfilment through work. Click here to join. 

Why don't you act on all those revelations you have?

Do you know that all we have 1-3 insights a week that could improve our lives significantly?* 

Okay, this isn't real research, but doesn't it feel like that?! It seems true for most people I know that are introspective in any way, myself included. 

What was an insight, 'aha' moment or realisation that you have had this week?

It doesn't have to be new (we often have the same ones over and over). 

What would it take for you to bring it into your life? 

Why don't you act on it?

Like, really. Why?

Make today the day you do.

Learn how to act on your insights and not let them float by again at Smash it! Register here now for the webinar before you forget :)

With love,
Lara xx
 

P.S. Want more love and attention to get happy at work?

1. Join the Conscious Ambition Group and connect with other smart, fabulous women who are boosting their work-lives each week. This is my Facebook community where talented women learn to get more confidence and peace-of-mind and find more fulfilment through work. Click here to join. 

2. Work with me privately.

If you'd like to work directly with me to take you from feeling meh about work to excited and self-assured ... just schedule a call.

"I just want to feel like I'm on the right path"

Does this run through your mind?

"I just want to feel like I'm on the right path".

There are some people that can go through the motions and work anywhere doing anything and they are unphased. 

Then there's us. 

We want it to feel right, to feel like we are on the right path. 

Being off the path feels shite, like this ongoing restlessness and dissatisfaction.

Instead, we want it to feel right because we know what changes when it does... strange, wonderful things happen, over and over again. 

We have a deep peace of mind, even though life never becomes 'perfect' (how boring would that be?!). 

It's rich and good and clear. 

I can tell when things start getting aligned with clients - it begins when they start really working with their body compass (what is opening up their chest, feeling light, peaceful versus what makes it contract?).

They make small and larger decisions that feel right, even if their head is freaking out. 

That's when the fun starts.

That's when random people come into their lives to help with specific things they need.

When they get amazing 'downloads' from the universe about creative projects and next steps. 

Just the right opportunity, conversation or item springs up. 

I get phone call after phone call saying 'You will not believe what just happened'. 

When we get aligned, everything starts working for us. It's one hell of a ride!

Feel more aligned in your work-life and learn how to rock your work at Smash it! Register here now for the webinar before you forget :)

With love,
Lara xx
 

P.S. When you’re ready, here are two other ways I can help you to fall in love with your work-life (again)!

1. Join the Conscious Ambition Group and connect with other smart, fabulous women who are creating kickass careers + lives. This is my Facebook community where talented women learn to get more confidence and peace-of-mind and find more fulfilment through work. Click here to join. 

2. Work with me privately.

If you'd like to work directly with me to take you from feeling meh about work to excited and self-assured ... just schedule a free - no strings or pressure - call.

"I don't want to seem like I'm up myself"

Do you ever think or say this?

"I don't want to seem up myself"
"I don't want to come across as arrogant"
"I don't want them to think I'm a b*tch"

Some version of what's above is what almost every client says on the topic of growing their confidence.

Women are associating confidence with aggression, with narcissism and with being unlikeable. 

We are scared of what we associate with confidence, so we avoid it. 

It feels dangerous.

Avoiding confidence, changes a lot of things.

It stops a lot of GOOD things.
Things we are HERE TO DO.

It's stopping us from shining our God-given lights around the world! From changing organisations, to changing lives. From changing what we say to changing what we do. 

From BEING OURSELVES. Doing our thing.

We are socialised to be quiet and above all likeable. Well done, patriarchy. Very effective crowd control. 

But how's that working for us? For the world?

Is dulling your shine and not speaking up serving you or is it just frustrating you and sabotaging what you know you can do.

It's time to get comfortable in your skin.

To back yourself.

To know that the right people will still adore you.

Women will save the world. 

It starts by saving ourselves from the shit we've been sold and bought for way too long.

Confidence is self-love, self-worth, self-assuredness.

It is freedom.

It gives permission to others to rise and it is inspiring. 

Let yours bloom! 

Shining your light is part of my new online course for smart, spiritual women to rock their work-lives! Register here for my upcoming webinar and you'll get to join me live with your questions and will also get the recording if you can't make it. 

Yay!

xx Lara
 

P.S. When you’re ready, here are two other ways I can help you to fall in love with your work-life (again)!

1. Join the Conscious Ambition Group and connect with other smart, fabulous women who are creating kickass careers + lives. This is my Facebook community where talented women learn to get more confidence and peace-of-mind and find more fulfilment through work. Click here to join. 

2. Work with me privately.

If you'd like to work directly with me to take you from feeling meh about work to excited and self-assured ... just schedule a free - no strings or pressure - call to see if we are a match. 

Ask the right people... here they are!

Who do you talk to when you need advice, direction or clarity?

Tell me. 

Think of at least one or two people. 

Now, tell me this...

Do these people have a lot of experience being brave and taking calculated risks?

Do they have the capacity to support your choices, even if it goes against what they want or would choose?

No?

Then, I have to tell you that we need to STOP asking people what we should do with our lives, our work, our loves, unless they have experience being truly brave and they will find out what is best for you and CHEER for you and support you, no matter what.

Enough of asking the people that have played it safe forever (God, love 'em) if you should be brave. The answer will be - most likely - that it's not safe to be brave.

Don't ask the person who can't put aside how much they love having you near if you should go to New York for that promotion that makes your stomach leap and your eyes sparkle and leaves you in a puddle of terror.

Enough, enough, enough.

Find the people being imperfectly brave, who are being true to themselves regularly, who are willing and able to put their needs aside to listen, to support and cheer and support you in YOUR path. 

They are the people to talk to. 

The others are the people you inform later, gently, with your heart held by you, that you have made your choice. That you see clearly and it's going to be okay. 

With love,
Lara xx

P.S. If you'd like to work with me, you can have 1:1 coaching! Make an appointment today for a free clarity session today. 

There is help for your path all around you!

I know life can be tough or just kind of flat sometimes. Sometimes we get stuck or feel off track.

When that happens, I strongly believe that there is a veritable army of people as well as all sorts of other things that are gently helping us on our way.

It's never just up to us.

We are never alone (unless we want to be).

I really object to the idea that we brave life alone and don't draw on help that's available.

When in any level of need, from niggle to crisis, there are the usual suspects - family, friends and colleagues - that would support you given half a chance (how are you at asking for help?!).

Then there are a few things I love to play with for extra help from the Universe (or whatever you call the Divine force in the world). 

To do this, you can follow your gut and your curiosity to notice... books that come your way or you feel urged to seek out; song lyrics that jump into your head; internal nudges to talk to new people or have new conversations with people you already know; and instincts to walk a certain way home or to spend time in particular places.

These are common ways of finding help but there are oh so many more. 

We are always loved and guided. 

We always have help.

We just need to ask and pay attention.

With love,
Lara xx
 

P.S. You can also follow your gut to spend some quality time with me, helping you to be free to follow your highest good. It's wonderful, illuminating and fascinating. Make an appointment today for a free clarity session and see what happens. 

Can you beat your inner critic?

Recently, I talked with a client who is well on her way to creating a beautiful work life. She had been brave enough to explore her passions and leadings to uncover an amazing creative pursuit that is shaping up to be a fabulous business. She didn't want it to be everything though and decided she also wanted to pivot with her skills and experience to be employed in a new area. This combo of side gig and steady job felt great to her. She narrowed it down enough to start job hunting. 

There were jobs she wanted and could do - yay!

Then the opinionated voice - the inner critic - came out all guns blazing.

As she recounted to be how it stripped her down and made her breathless it felt so universal to me. 

I've been there. 

You've been there.

We get excited, we dip our toes in the water and self-doubt comes screaming up in our faces and brings us to a halt. 

'You aren't good enough to do it'

'You've made the wrong life choices'

'You'll never do it'

What do we do with these crushing thoughts?

Can we beat our inner critic?

The short answer is, no.

We cannot beat the inner critic at its game, because its game will never end. 

It survives by being relevant, so it will just find another pain point to press into until you stop trying.

It's time to play a different game that ends with you creating a bloody fantastic life, fear in hand, face to the wind, eyes sparkling, heart beaming.

You can do it. 

With love,
Lara xx
 

P.S. BIG NEWS! I'm putting the best of everything I've learnt from science, coaching and spirituality* about work and wellbeing into an amazing new online course - Smash It!! 

Designed to help ambitious women to meet their unique potential, Smash It will be 10 weeks of practical, aha inspiring awesomeness to help you whip your work life into shape. 

Watch out for more info in the coming weeks :)

*By spirituality, I’m talking about whatever way you connect to and experience something bigger, whether through nature, meditation, prayer or acts of service. Whatever you call it or them. All methods and approaches welcome.

What you need to know about confidence.

I'll be damned if there isn't an area in your life that you'd like more confidence in.

Feeling confident - backing yourself and acting on what you need to - is a brilliant muscle to build. 

We know why we want to be confident, but how do we make it happen?

The first thing you need to know is that the absolute core of confidence is action. 

Confidence is the end point of repeated action. 

So here's what you need to do to build confidence:

1. Start small and build to the big kahona. What's a tiny version of what you are trying to build confidence in? 
2. Decide what your small step is and do it. 
3. Give yourself permission to 'fail fast' and accompany any disappointments that arise with true self-compassion.
4. Be disciplined in not generalising any frustrations or disappointments from your efforts to your whole life. You might have missed the ball 10 times at golf, it does not mean your life is a failure! 
5. Be determined and try, try again. Keep trying!! Give yourself permission to try 10, 15 times or more before you feel good about what you're doing. Decide you will be PROUD of your effort. Any effort is fucking great and powerful!
6. Don't connect falling short on your efforts to your personal value. If you mess up in something it doesn't mean you as a person don't have immense value - we all do, no matter what.
7. Give yourself permission to find the bit that can be tweaked and improved then drop rumination and move on.  Then you will keep improving and become unstoppable!!

Confidence is within your reach - print this out and keep diligent with your efforts and your self-talk.

Go get em, tiger!!

I believe in you.

I'm so interested to know, what would you like more confidence in at work or in business?

xxx Lara

P.S. If you'd like to read in more detail about gaining confidence - the evidence-based book 'The Confidence Code' by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman is fab (and the basis of this article).