The book 'Palm Trees and Margaritas' is out now

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or send a cheque to M Power, 326 Cotham Road, Kew Vic 3101


PALM TREES AND MARGARITAS – WORK/LIFE BALANCE OR
JUST EMPOWERED LIVING

Hello and welcome to the ‘Palm trees and margaritas' web page.

Palm trees and margaritas is an idea with traction. It started in July 2006 when I wrote an article expressing my mood at that moment, using ‘palm trees and margaritas' as a metaphor for a little of what you fancy, if not the much sought after work/life balance. That article was about getting to mid life and remembering to seize the day. It became a missive that I shared with our email database and based on the way it connected with people, it became a monthly e-newsletter, then a topic I speak on and there's more to come.

Here's an excerpt of how I introduced the idea that ‘life can't be all palm trees and margaritas but there are worse game plans.'

“Palm trees and margaritas, this free e-newsletter, is about life, the universe and what really matters. No it is not a cover for a Christian organisation and absolutely no redemption is on offer. Think of this as a five minute ‘time out' each month, just to pause and reflect about how you are doing in the scheme of things. Hopefully, there will be the occasional smirk or even giggle in it too.

I am at the beginning of the second half of my life, all going to plan. I am 41. With three kids at three different schools, football five times a week, various music lessons, medical appointments, a house to run and a career as a speaker, consultant and writer, I figure I know the ‘balls in the air' life as well as anyone.

I have always been an optimist, sometimes excruciatingly so, and I try to find the gold lining (forget silver) in everything. What can I learn from this? How can I see this as a gift? I did say it could be excruciating! But my stage of life means – sadly – that my peers are getting medical problems and living with them or dying from them. Some have nothing wrong with their health but their ‘just coasting' approach to life means they may as well have.

There is no gift in the disappointments of life or the failures of the human body other than the clichéd reminder to ‘seize the day'.

Life can't be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans. It doesn't have to be all work and no play – to use another cliché – either.”

The free monthly e-newsletter, published on the last Friday of each month, includes tips, stories and reflections on seizing the day, or not, and on punctuating your life with palm trees and margaritas, whatever that means to you.

I love to include readers' stories, tips on work/life balance and responses of any kind in the newsletters so please contact me by clicking here if you have something you think will benefit others. There is a regular ‘to enjoy' list, so please let me know of anything you can recommend that you think readers would enjoy.

Have an empowered life.

Karen Morath

karen@mpowercct.com
www.communicationempowers.com

To subscribe free to the monthly e-newsletter ‘Palm trees and margaritas', use the form on the top right hand corner of this page.

To read the archived back issues of ‘Palm trees and margaritas', click here.

Visit the Palm trees and margaritas blog here.