Every year for as long as I can remember, I’ve watched the London Marathon with the deepest of admiration for all those people running 26.2 miles (40K) for their personal charities, and thinking what a worthwhile goal to achieve. I make no apologies for admitting that running is not my thing. However, I love walking and really wanted a new personal challenge to take on. 

Whilst browsing the various challenges online I noticed Discover Adventure London Marathon Walk 2017. Perfect! So back in February I booked myself up for my first ever London Marathon Walk, which ran on Saturday 23rd September. 

As this was my first Marathon I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d never really tested my fitness nor my trainers to this level before. I wasn’t with a group, I was striking out on my own, I wasn’t sure what the weather would throw at me or how much sponsorship I would get. The fact is I could have worried about so many things and talked myself out of it a million times over. This really isn’t my style though.  I’m a great believer in ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ which enables me to turn my fears into my personal achievements and more often than not greatest successes.

Remaining positive gave me the opportunity stay fit and active, raise awareness and vital funds for my charity, as well as achieving a lifetime goal, with the prospect of making some new positive like-minded friends along the way. It's all to do with your perspective. The fear of the unknown was always going to lose badly when so much can be gained with an optimistic outlook.

On the day the weather was perfect for walking. I met up with two other amazing ladies (Susan and Sheila) before we started out, each of which were solo walkers and first-timers to the London Marathon. Susan navigated the course, Sheila was our official photographer and I was the pace setter. We completed the London Marathon in just over 9 hours. We were a great team on the day, dubbing ourselves ‘The Marathon Queens’. We raised around £3,500 for our personal charities between us, as well as becoming firm friends.  Yes we all had our own aches and pains to deal with from the day, which are temporary, but in a weird way the discomfort enables you to understand just a little of what our charities receivers go through every day of their lives. 
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I would like to extend a huge thank you to Discover Adventure for making the day so much fun, setting up such an interesting course and making sure we had plenty of water and snacks to keep our energy levels maintained.

Words of wisdom;
‘Erase your fears and your world becomes a limitless adventure’.

Here are some photos from the day, courtesy of Sheila.
Enjoy life!
Julia – Asteria Life Coaching

I would love to hear your feedback on this blog. Perhaps you have some experience yourself of running or walking a Marathon or tips that you’d like to share with me. Please like and retweet this article on Twitter @AsterlifeC

If you want to discover your star potential, meet your lifetime goals and think I may be able to help you, then please call me on 07752565740

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Hi there!
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In this week’s blog I just wanted to give you a little update on what I’ve been up to, and today I’m talking about my weight loss journey since November 2016.

For the past 7 months I’ve been on a weight loss program with my local slimming club.  Prior to joining the club I’d gradually been putting on the pounds and knew I needed to lose weight. I could do all the things I enjoyed doing, but I was finding it difficult to fit into the clothes I liked, and my fitness levels were poor so I was starting to feel not quite myself.

A good friend of mine suggested I join her at the slimming club. Not one to turn down a challenge I went along with her, a little nervous but with an open mind.

My first weigh-in was a bit of a shock! I weighed far more than I’d predicted, and that hurt, really hurt. I stayed to listen to the talk; which the coach does every week and decided I’d give their plan a go. What did I have to lose other than a few pounds?!

The first week didn’t seem too difficult, so when I was at the following weeks meeting I thought I’d have lost a couple of pounds. Imagine my surprise when I found that I’d lost 7.5lbs! I was astounded. Just goes to show how many naughty things I was eating usually!

Week on week I’ve continued to lose weight. Sure, there are some weeks I don’t lose anything, and every now and again I put on half a pound or so usually due to special occasions and holidays. I think you should allow yourself a few treats as long as you get right back on the diet horse.

Seven months in I’m still losing weight and today I went to my meeting and found I’d lost 2.5lbs this week. I feel so much healthier and I’m fitting into clothes I haven’t done for years which is another bonus!

I would love to hear your comments, and please share your weight loss journey with me.
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Discover your star potential!

Julia

Follow me on Twitter : AsterialifeC
 

​How do you know if you are ready for a coaching relationship? Do you have the drive and commitment required to achieve your goals? Are you really looking to make changes?  Do you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve in life? This blog answers these questions. You will find sections concerned with WILL and PURPOSE to help you discover whether hiring a life coach is the most appropriate course of action for you to take.

Will

With the best will in the world a life coach is not a miracle worker. We do require certain qualities in our client’s mind-set for us to be able to work our magic. All you need to do is answer YES or NO to the statements below.

1.  There are areas in my life where I want to make a make positive change
2.  I am ready to trying new experiences, ideas and ways of thinking
3.  I am ready to let go of beliefs that hold me back
4.  I am ready to have honest and open conversations, even when they are challenging
5.  I am committed to putting in the time to make that change happen, even when it gets tough
6.  I am committed to keeping my promises
7.  I am ready to let go of beliefs that hold me back
8.  I have the support I need to make any significant changes
9.  I am mentally/emotionally stable to be in a coaching relationship and do not require medical treatment or therapy from a professional
10. I am able to take full responsibility for my own life and the decisions I make

If you have answered NO to a couple of these statements, then it might not be the right time for you to experience the coaching relationship just yet. If you are prepared to make adjustments to the NO statements, life coaching could still be the right choice for YOU!

​If you answered YES to all the statements then that’s great! You are well on your way to getting the most out of the coaching relationship. 

Purpose

Are there any aspects of your life or career that you feel could be improved upon?  Are you living an OK or it’ll do for now life? Do you have aspirations of living a life that is truly fulfilling, purposeful, meaningful and rewarding to YOU? 
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The next 7 questions identify if you have the ‘Purpose’ for a successful coaching relationship. They may be more difficult to answer. The reason I say this is because unless you know your authentic-self the answers to some of these questions require investigation, so I’ve included some examples to help you figure this out.

1/ What type of life do I want to live?
Think about the type of career you’d love to have, or places you’d love to travel to. You could have too little time on your hands and want to live a life that is more balanced. Perhaps you’d like to fit in more exercise. Maybe you’d like to be able to talk to people with confidence and ease, or have a wider circle of friends. Are you artistic or creative and want a life that nurtures your talents with your lifestyle and career ambitions.  Or that business idea you’ve been promising to get off the ground, but you have no idea where to start.

2/ What does success look like to you?
It’s important to have a clear vision of what success is for you, so that you can visualise what achieving the goal will look like to you once you’ve accomplished it. So imagine for a moment that you’ve planned out the type of life you want for yourself.  What will you be doing? Where and how would you be living? What are the sights and sounds around you? If it’s a business venture what sort of income do you expect from it? If you want to have a more balanced life, how much of your day, week or month will change? What percentage of your time will be free-time and work time? What would you do with more free-time? How will this make you feel to achieve this and how will this change and enhance your life?

3/ What do you want to achieve?
Perhaps you’d like to lose weight for that holiday of a lifetime or just feel fitter and healthier in general. Maybe your life is too stressful and you want to simplify it. Do you have specific goals in mind that would support you to create the life you dream of living? It doesn’t matter if your goals are big or small, or that they are long term or short term goals. If you need someone to support you to achieving those goals then a life coach can help you get there.

4/ Do you need support?
It can be extremely difficult trying to achieve a goal without the support or encouragement of another fellow human being. A life coach could be the strength you need to help get you focused and move from you where you are now to where you want to be quicker than you can do it on your own. They are your motivator and champion, encouraging you to pass the finish line. There is no one more proud of you (with the exception of yourself) than your life coach when you achieve the goal or dream you set out to achieve. So if you don’t feel you have that support, but you are highly motivated to make changes, hiring a life coach might be the perfect solution.

5/ How much time and money are you willing to invest to achieve this?
Is this something that will take up much of your time? What length of time do you have in mind to complete these goals? Having an idea of the time you are prepared to invest to achieve the goal will give you an indication of how long it will take and discover if it’s realistic or not. This will also identify how many hours coaching you will need and a clue of how much it will cost you financially.

6/ Am I ready to take action now?
So what are you waiting for? If not now when and why? How long are you prepared to wait for that perfect sometime? You know what they say about tomorrow – it never comes! This is an old English proverb that warns of procrastination. What you are really saying to yourself is “I’m not ready yet!” This could be for several reasons; you don’t have the confidence, you don’t know enough, you don’t want to take the risk. You’re scared that you might fail.  

Let me reassure you these mental scaremongers that buzz around everyone’s brains can all be resolved in the coaching relationship when you find the right coach for you. It’s ok if you are content with what you already have, just avoid looking back in years to come and saying, “Life could have been so different if only I’d have done…” or “Why did I never get round to doing…?” “Why am I still doing this job I really don’t enjoy anymore?”

7/ What type coach would be best to help me with this?
Employing a coach can be one of the most rewarding investments in your life. There are many types of coaches for you to choose from, these include business coaches, executive coaches, career coaches, holistic coaches, health & wellness coaches, personal life coaches, sports coaches and niche coaches. They may also employ very structured methods of goal setting or can be more intuitive to delivering a more authentic, holistic and customised coaching relationship. It’s really up to you to decide what works best for you.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and it’s cleared up any thoughts you might be having, as to whether you have the will and purpose and ready to enter into a productive and rewarding coaching relationship.
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I wish you all the best in discovering YOUR star potential!

If you have the time I would love to hear your feedback from this week’s ‘Julia’s Journal’ article.

You can also follow me on Twitter​