I am delighted to announce that very soon my first book, “A different truth” will be published on Amazon.

Read on to find out more about the book.

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In a single day at work, how many stories run through your head? Stories about what life is like, what everyone expects of you, and what you are capable of. Some of the stories will help you move forward, but others, like the following, can suck your energy dry and keep you small.

“Wouldn’t it be great to leave early for once, like by 7:00, not 10:00 or 11:00? I might even be able to have dinner with my other half for the first time in months. But if I do that, people will say that I’m not a team player when everyone else is still in the office. I’d better call home; they’ll understand.”

“My boss just told me he wants to put me forward for partnership. Holy crap. I would love that, it has always been my dream, but just not yet. I’m not ready. I need another year at least before I even think about it. Can he not see that I am drowning here?”

“Hell, that presentation this afternoon; what a terrible audience. I don’t know why I even bother; they just spent the whole time on their phones. They don’t care about the subject at all. What’s the point of even trying to talk to them about it?”

We all tell ourselves stories about how life is meant to be. It’s part of being human. The stories we learned as kids and then through our life experiences; stories that became the foundations we live by, even to the detriment of our health, happiness, and relationships.

But if we are doing ourselves so much harm, can it really be the truth about life? What if there is a different truth just waiting for us to choose that would allow us to live a different life, one where we can thrive in all areas of our lives and succeed in the career we have chosen.

In this lets-sit-down-and-chat guide, I serve up personal stories, easy exercises, and a way to identify and work through some of the most common stories we tell ourselves in corporate life, stories that start to dictate how we feel we have to live and how we make our everyday choices.

Because this was my life, too. In 2014, sixteen years into my tax career, I went through my second burnout in five years and decided it was finally time to change my life.

Since then, in my journey back from burnout, I have learned to identify the stories I was telling myself, stories that kept me small and ran me into the ground. I have learned to challenge and change them, finally moving through them to a life with more joy and fulfillment (but a whole lot less tax). A life where I have  control over my every day choices again.

I wrote this book to share with you some techniques to do that for yourself because you are going through exactly the same thing, aren’t you? You’re staying small, running yourself into the ground, and letting those stories run your life. Deep down you know it, even if you aren’t going to let anyone see. You’re the one who is meant to be strong, not the one losing it completely. Because that would be weak, right?

Oh, yeah—spoiler alert—that’s a story too.

So listen up. Don’t wait until your life is falling apart completely to start changing your stories. Don’t wait until you have no other choice but to jump ship completely.

But remember, it’s not enough to see the story and try to change it. You need some actual tools to live that different story, and that’s where I call on twenty years as a speaker and trainer to give you the bulk of this book: tangible soft skills training, exercises, and techniques that you can dip into and take back to work and apply straight away.

In particular, in this book, you will learn to:

• Give yourself permission to take five minutes to breathe and a whole bunch of examples of things to do in those five minutes
• Rewire out of the fears and into the possibilities standing in front of you
• Stop trying to fit into a box all the time and find the people who really get you
• Step up and take credit once in a while for the awesome job you are doing
• Captivate and inspire your audience when you talk about your subject

It’s time to do something about the stories. By the end of the book, you will see the stories you tell yourself and understand why they are hijacking your life and career by keeping you small and running you into the ground. You will have started to challenge and change them, and best of all, you will have a plan to move past them into something better—better choices that work for you and how you really want to live your life.

Buy this book. 😊

Available from soon on Amazon

PS credit for the book cover design: Debbie O’Byrne at JETLAUNCH