The bright eyed gymnast looks up at her coach and asks ‘what if I fall?‘
And as if her coach has just scooped her up into her arms, catching her and forever protecting her, she replies ‘oh, but mydarling, what if you fly?‘

What better way to influence our future generations than by giving them the confidence and belief in themselves that through trying, perseverance and by giving it their best shot, whatever ‘it’ is, they will not only grow wings and learn to fly,  but that they will always be successful.

But success doesn’t always look like we might expect it to; medals, trophies, wedding rings, houses, expensive cars, intelligent children etc. Success comes in all different guises and to have the opportunity to teach and influence children’s thoughts and help them understand that sometimes success is merely a matter of perspective, is something that we should never take lightly in our role as a coach.

There will always be winners and there will always be losers, and teaching children how to do both with their heads held high, with grace and with respect for their competitors is another wonderful lesson that we help teach. But any opportunity and experience that any of us can learn from should be considered a success, merely as a result of our growth, personally or professionally.

I often set quite unrealistic and seemingly unattainable goals for myself which can lead to frustration and feeling like I have failed when it doesn’t quite turn out as I had planned, but when I reflect back over the years, I realise that some of my greatest achievements have come at my weakest moments. I learnt how to save money by getting myself into and out of a financial pickle; I learnt how to really love someone by having my heart broken and by concluding that I too had a part to play in the relationship breakdown. I learnt what it takes to run a business in the very moment that I was ready to walk away from it all; I learnt how to be independent when I realised that no one was going to take the rubbish bins out for me anymore. And I am learning to be a better mum every single day that I am fortunate enough to be one.

Our gymnasts learn from falling down and getting back up time and time again. As coaches we give them the confidence and foundations to be able to eventually master whatever it is they are working towards. But along with a skill set and a strong body, we teach them resilience, persistence and the power of never giving up, so that when they grow up, they have a greater chance of succeeding in this crazy world, whatever they choose to do.

So next time you’re faced with an opportunity but you’re unsure whether you are ready for it, or you find yourself questioning whether you will succeed or not, remember this…

…you’ll never really know if you can fly, unless you go out there and try 💜.<<<
gt;

Source: A bit about me…

I’ve had a few people ask me lately ‘what made you decide to write a book?’  The very simple answer is, I did it for the smiles…and because I wanted to. 

But for those who’d like to maybe know a little more, here goes. I’ve taught gymnastics for over 25 years now and having owned my own gymnastics club since 2009, I have found that in recent years my ‘why’ around coaching has shifted. I used to dream of teaching elite level competitive gymnastics, thinking that this would be the pinnacle of my coaching career. But somewhere along the way, these coaching aspirations have fallen by the wayside and I am much more focussed on helping children be the best they can be by offering them amazing gymnastics experiences. I care more about the smiles on their little faces and the life skills that gymnastics programs help them develop than whether they make it onto a podium and win a medal. 

And herein lies the reason I decided to write a children illustration book all about gymnastics. I wanted to create something special for all the little people who love being upside down; for the children who love to ‘flip’ and roll, who love to twist and turn and who get pure enjoyment out of this wonderful sport. Most of all I wanted to fuel children’s passion for gymnastics, long after they leave the gymnastics hall. 

I had some time on my hands on a recent trip to the UK so I put pencil to paper. I made a clay doll so that I could visualise the character, for whom my sister ‘Sarah Katie’ was the inspiration and I knew the perfect person to approach to bring her to life in the illustrations. Tiana jumped at the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful project, it helped that she was once a gymnast and coach herself. 

I’ve never written a book before, so I needed to research what to do and I spent a lot of time investigating different publishing options and getting the book just as I wanted it. I loved the process from start to finish and like most goals I set for myself, I was determined to see it through to the end. I am often applauded for my grit and tenacity in seeing projects through, regardless how out of reach they may seem at the start. 

To see the book I have written, in print for the first time was truly wonderful and you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for about a week, but what sealed the deal for me and what has made the journey truly worthwhile, is the smiles on the faces of the gymnasts who have read ‘Sarah Katie wants to be a gymnast’ and who have loved it. It has touched their hearts as I hoped it would and they have fallen in love with the little piggy-tailed girl as she starts her journey into the world of gymnastics. 

I can only hope that the book continues to give pleasure and enjoyment to many other aspiring young gymnastics the world over. And in typical me style, book 2 will be out in time for Christmas 💕

Learning how to stay positive and never giving up, even when whatever we are trying to achieve seems impossible, is a challenge that most of us will face at one time or another. 

When you are caught up in the middle of something and when nothing seems to be going your way, it can be very tempting to throw your hands in the air and walk away; to give up on all the hard work you’ve done up to that point and lose sight of your goal or dream through fear, frustration and feelings of defeat. 

But what we need to remember at times like this, is that sometimes things take time and that even the best laid plans can go awry. Sometimes the road is more winding that we would like and we may not be able to see the path on the other side of the forest for the many trees we have to navigate our way through at any given moment. And it is usually the things which we crave and desire the most that we have to work the hardest to achieve and it is in those dreams which we invest our hearts, our emotions and so much of our energy. 

The road may be long and the journey tumultuous; there may be tears and tantrums and moments of weakness and despair; many things along the way may seem uncertain and scary but the only thing that we can be absolutely sure of, without question or doubt, is that if we admit defeat, give up and walk away, our dreams and goals will never have the opportunity to come true. 

Something I need to remind myself of often  is to trust in the journey, try to remember that all things happen for a reason and if we can learn to let go of the things which we cannot control, even just a little bit, the roller coaster ride may be a little less scary and much less emotionally draining. 

Trust in the journey. Never give up 💜

An escape, some soul food, a time to just ‘be’. Three hours in the car, just the music and me.  

It sets me free from my thoughts, from the stresses of life. Music has helped me through many moments of strife. 

The lyrics wash over me occasionally un sung, but nearly always they are loud, at the top of my lungs. 

The songs play on and my mind is still. The thoughts are there but their effect is nil. 

I am here, just listening with nowhere to be. Hopelessly content, just the music and me. 

Georgie x

Something that I try to impart on the gymnasts I teach when they are trying new things or striving to achieve a skill they’ve been working on for a while, is that they have two choices;  they can either believe that they can, or believe that they can’t, and to be mindful that whichever choice they allow their brain to make, it will almost certainly end up being their truth. 

I get that this is a tough lesson for an 8 or 9 year old to fully understand but it is my hope that by offering life lessons and food for thought to their sponge-like brains, such as this one, I can help a child to realise their dreams.  By encouraging them to challenge their fears, doubts and the negative voices, and instead help them focus on visions of success, positivity and self belief in achieving what they set out to, I have planted a seed in their minds, that just maybe, anything is possible. 

While many adults may undersrand this concept, actually realising the power of self belief, of putting stuff ‘out into the universe’ and of refusing to ‘see’ or believe in any alternate outcome to a specific dream or goal, seems much more difficult to grasp. And therefore many of our grown-up ideas and dreams end up merely as ‘what ifs?’ or ‘wouldn’t that be nice?’ or ‘I couldn’t possibly do that’. 

But what if you could? What if there was nothing holding you back? What if someone gave you permission to believe? 

How would it feel to know that there might be the slightest chance that the dreams and goals you have kept hidden for so long could come true or be achieved? I reckon it would feel pretty amazing, liberating even and maybe a little scary too. 

So can I let you into a little secret? In the words of my very favourite film, the Wizard of Oz:

‘You’ve always had the power, my dear, you just have to learn it for yourself‘.’

You may notice that I used a little poetic licence on the tense in the quote. Apologies Mr Baum. You see, it’s not enough to merely want something, desire an outcome or to consider alternates as options for what we hope to achieve. We must be able to really see our dreams, clear as day in our minds, in our thoughts and when we close our eyes at night. We have to truly believe in them; with our whole heart and talk about them with passion and energy and enthusiasm, sometimes to the extent which others may never understand and may even think a little crazy, odd, strange or otherwise.

I have my personal goals and dreams written on the mirror in which I do my make up every morning. Having them there reminds me everyday of what I’m striving for. I also have a pen next to my shower to capture my thoughts as they happen; I have a chalk board in my kitchen with positive words to help keep me on track; I have quotes and words of inspiration all around my house to help steer me in the right direction if I start to lose my way.  But probably most important or all, is that I don’t ever give myself the option of a plan b. 

I have set myself some pretty big goals in the last few years of my life and with very few exceptions, I have achieved every one of them, and its pretty safe to say that I am not done yet. In fact I know I have only scratched the surface on what I know I am going  to achieve in this lifetime. 

So don’t be afraid to let your brain wander to what seems like the wildest of places; let yourself imagine what might have once seemed impossible; give yourself permission to dream and don’t just believe that you can…

…know that you will. 

People often tell me that they get exhausted just hearing about all of the things that I manage to fit into a 24 hour period and that I maybe I should try relaxing once in a while.  It is true, I live a very busy life and every so often I do hit a wall and have to stop and recharge my batteries…just so that I can do it all over again. 

The truth is, I love being busy and I would be bored in a heartbeat if my life was anything other than it is – completely crazy. 

So what makes it so busy? There’s my business (which I’m sure is still categorised as small, but with a team of 30 and programs that run 7 days a week, I would happily argue that even a small business takes a massive effort to run by all involved and that there are no real days off when you’re the boss). 

There’s my six year old who operates very similarly to me, either at full speed or fast asleep and the transition is often instantaneous and definitely dependent of being vertical or horizontal. 

Then there’s exercise, which for the most part I enjoy and do as regularly as I can, but which sometimes is a chore and a bore and therefore something I have an aversion to at times; however I am very conscious not to subject the ‘not exercised for a week’ version of George on anyone whom I hold dear, as I really value the friendships I have and do not wish to drive those close to me (or anyone else for that matter) away with my monster-like demeanour.

Then there is the two books I am writing, the house I’m trying to pack up, the website I’m building, the toy I’m inventing, the business consultancy career I’m trying to begin, the Spanish I’m learning and the moving of two gyms in two weeks that I’m planning; oh and don’t forget that in 11 weeks, I’ll be running my business from another henishephere! And breathe….

…then there is my brain. 

I am quite comfortable saying that I have a love/hate relationship with my brain a lot of the time. I love that it can conjure up the most amazing thoughts and ideas, often instantaneously. I love that it supports my inner belief that I can achieve anything I set my mind to. I love its tenacity and its seemingly endless ability to see the good in life and in people, and I love that it chooses to ‘love’ like it’s never been hurt, over and over again. 

However, I do not love that it challenges absolutely everything; and I’m not a fan of the million and one questions that it throws at me every hour of every day, or that it races from 6.27 in the morning when my first alarm goes off until I fall asleep to the ‘not quite loud enough to hear what’s actually being said, but loud enough to drown out my thoughts long enough to allow me to fall asleep‘ tv in my bedroom more often than not at around midnight.  I don’t very much care for the emotional roller coaster that it takes me on regularly; and I would be quite happy if my beautiful and brilliant brain never uttered another self doubting or negative word about me ever again, but I also know that is highly unlikely.  I suppose you have to take the good with the bad. 

Through all of this, I am grateful for the brain I have and thankful for the courage that it gives me. Courageous enough to let me chase after every one of my dreams (and there are many), knowing that there is a chance of failure or of falling down, but giving me the strength to get back up again if I am to falter. Courageous enough to enable me to try again if I don’t succeed the first time, or the second or the third; and courageous enough to allow me to ‘see‘ my own success long before I ever achieve it. 

So even though, at times my brain is my worst enemy, I wouldn’t change it for the world because it is the reason I am who I am and the reason I can truly be whatever I dare to dream to be. 

G x 

At school we are taught to read and write, to think before we speak, and to always read the question before we answer. What isn’t included in the curriculum however, or at least not when I was at school, is how to mentally prepare, and develop an instant skill set for every role we may find ourselves in as we embark on our journey into adulthood and into the ‘real world’. 

I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about this concept over the last 10 years and have discovered that for every hat I’ve worn since leaving university, I’ve had to develop a unique set of skills to navigate the vast unknown. 

As a young girl, I was sure I would follow in my mother’s footsteps; be married at 19, have my first child by 23 and a second planned for a couple of years later. Two girls preferably. My husband and I would buy a house with a nice garden, have a car big enough to fit the four of us in comfortably, and we’d go on family holidays to the south of France, annually. All of these thoughts were very much in line with how tradition and society once suggested that a little girl’s story should play out, and I too believed it was my hearts desire. 

I realise now (age, experience, a divorce and hindsight are wonderful things) that I was young and that it was quite naive of me to believe that upon finding Mr Right, and in walking down the aisle, that suddenly the title of Mrs Right would bring with it a new persona, a certain ‘marriedness’ and that I would wake up the next morning feeling completely different to the single, 24 hours younger, version of myself. 

I was genuinely shocked when I woke up that next day, albeit with a wedding ring and marriage certificate (oh and a husband lying next to me) that I still felt like Georgina Mitchell. Where was the magical transformation? Why did I not feel instantly like the ‘wife’ that I now was?! 

It happened again when my son was born. I remember thinking to myself when he was about 6 months old and when my brain hadn’t been starved completely of sleep and I could muster a semi intelligent thought, ‘why don’t I feel like a mum? Why have I not been granted the same skill set that my mum has, or of all those other amazing mums out there who (seem to) know exactly what they are doing?’ 

Experience and age have helped me work out that most of us just fumble through this stuff, making it up as we go, hoping that we do an ok job. None of us instantly (or maybe ever) know how to be the perfect husband or wife and there isn’t an app we can download to help us do it. How can we possibly have all the answers to the many questions that run through our minds 24/7, when we suddenly find ourselves in the role of parent, when we’ve actually never done anything like it before? And while others freely hand out advice and citicisim, they are only going off their own experiences, which will never be the same as ours. The reality is, that we have to work it out for ourselves. 

There are no wands or magical transformations and the fairytale dream remains as it always has, just a little bit further out of reach. So instead, we default to the person we’ve always been, with the same thoughts, hopes, dreams and fears, just a little older and hopefully a fraction wiser. 

I’ve tried to pass on these revelations to a few young, impressionable girls in my life over the years, who have been eager to tick all of the adult boxes at a young age; thinking that the fairytale holds all of the answers for them. I try to pass on what I have learnt and warn them that nothing really changes when we ‘achieve’ marital status, or have a small human to care for. And that while we may think (at 18, 21, 39) we know everything, the reality is, we know very little. I try to impart that they will still feel very much like they did at 16 or 18 and that these ‘achievements’ are all stepping stones to living a life full of experience, wonder and lessons, but they are definitely not our end game. I let them know that there will be more wrinkles and more worries, and while there will be many amazing times, that the fairytale isn’t all sunshine and roses and that regardless of how ‘perfect’ someone’s life may seem, there will always be hard and trying times. 

They appear to take it all in, the ramblings of this 40 year old as they look at me and nod in agreement. But I know that for the most part, they have dismissed what I have just said because it doesn’t match the ideal they have in their head, so therefore it can’t possibly be true. I have just become another ‘old’ person trying to tell them what to do. I don’t think I am and I genuinely have their best interests at heart, but at that moment, I also realise that they are entitled to the romance of it all just as I once was, and that they will navigate/stumble through their own journey, developing the skills that they need to do the best they can. My only hope is that they work out that they have the chance to rewrite the ending to their own story, so that when the sun goes down on the fairytale ‘happy ever after’ they still have hopes and dreams for an amazing adventure. Life is after all, what we choose to make it. 

The End.  

There are some people in the world for whom overnight success just happens; the girl next door who is suddenly the next top model; the entrepreneur making his first million before the age of 30 from a genius idea he had at the age of 9; the singing sensation whose wife recorded him in the shower late one Sunday night and who is now sitting top of the Spotify chart. 

We hear an increasing number of stories like this, largely related to the the ease of spreading news, stories, ideas, videos and information through a variety of social media, but I think it’s safe to say that in general, success of this magnitude is still pretty rare and if it does happen, I’m pretty sure Lady Luck is lurking somewhere in the wings. 

I don’t begrudge these people their success. Not for a moment. I think it’s fantastic and I wish them ongoing success in whatever adventure life takes them on. I’m actually a little envious, as my mind races daily in an attempt to come up with an idea or a plan or…anything actually that might even come close to achieving this level of ‘fame’, for want of a better word.  

I think I have always (secretly or not so) dreamed of a life of fame and fortune. Only last night, I was sat at the theatre watching ‘Wicked’, in awe and amazement of the leading lady singing her heart out, and I leant over to my friend and said ‘I wish I could sing, ‘cos I could have so lived a stage and screen kind of lifestyle’ and I could picture it as clear as day in my minds eye. 

In some ways I honestly believe that I missed my calling for acting/singing/dancing/prancing maybe, somewhere along the line. At school I always landed the lead role in plays and I have always loved being in front of an audience. But I think being cast as a vulture in my schools rendition of the my all time favourite, the Wizard of Oz, knocked my confidence somewhat, and so my journey down the yellow brick road and the dreams that went along with it got a little off track...as have I. 

So back to the point I am trying to make. For most of us, success on a grande scale is either something we (can only) dream of achieving, or its something that we don’t really care to achieve at all.  Either way, most of us finish school and go out to work to earn a living in the hope that we can live a fulfilled and happy life, where we can hopefully not have to worry too much about money and where we can support our loved ones.  I would like to add that while I do still have dreams of grandeur (and I will achieve them), that I also believe wholeheartedly that success doesn’t need to have a dollar sign attached to it or for a name to be written in lights; success can and does come in many guises. 

It can be raising a wonderful family; doing a job that you pat yourself on the back for and are proud of; it can be creating something from nothing; it can be merely ‘showing up’. It can be making a difference in another persons life, even if you don’t know it. 

I know all of this because I have a beautiful six year old boy whose smile reminds me of my biggest success everyday. 

What success means to each of us though, is as unique as our fingerprints and the ‘why’ behind what we choose to do for a job, whether we are conscious of it or not, is our internal driver for success.  And actually if you can discover the ‘why’, you are on the right track to achieving your dreams. One thing that I’m pretty convinced about however (with the experience, the highs and the lows to back it up) is that to achieve our dreams, our goals, the top job, the good pay packet – we must work for it, and actually be prepared to work damn hard.

I’ve made my fair share of cups of tea over the years being the newbie; I’ve cleaned the toilets in the pub because that was what my job involved. I’ve done the crappy jobs that I believed I was better than, I’ve worked late, volunteered, gone hungry as I’ve worked through another lunch break, and been scolded by at least one boss over the years. But what I know to be true is that without these experiences and the opportunities to learn, to fall down, to thrive and also to sit back while others got their fifteen minutes of fame, I wouldn’t be where I am today. 

So to the school leavers and the twenty somethings, and to my son in the future  – don’t take this the wrong way, but take it as something to really consider – take a moment to look around you and appreciate how hard other people have worked to get where they are; respect their experience and knowledge, even if you don’t agree or you think it can be done differently, and until you have walked in another persons shoes, don’t judge. It’s great to know what you want and I admire it, but it’s even better to be humble enough to try and understand what it’s actually going to take to achieve it and not just expect it to land in your lap. Then go and work to make it happen. Success doesn’t just happen; it must be worked for and the journey can often feel like you are chasing the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. And even when we do actually achieve what we set out to, although satisfying in many ways, it can also be a very long and lonely road which few others will truly understand. 

So my advice to those searching for success, fame, fortune, lights…whatever. Know that you have to work for what you want. Be grateful for the opportunities given to you, big or small, wanted or not. Be positive, always. Be kind, always. Smile often and be careful what you wish for, cos it may just come true. 

Georgie x