As I welcome everyone to the new year and reflect on the past year…well I guess the past couple of years, I can’t help but wonder where the hell they went! Especially 2022 and I’ve come to the realisation that we have all been on fast forward for a year trying to make up for the 2 that seem lost.

No matter what religion you are, I hope that you are having wonderful celebrations at this time of year.

Are you being true to who you really are or are you being someone that you think you should be to appease others?After choosing a career path and following that for 14 years I decided it wasn’t what I wanted in life. It was hard for my father to accept that I didn’t want to make policing a life long career, as he and his father had. But he supported and respected my decision. Yes I missed working with the lifelong friends that I had gained but they are still in my life, well at least the important and authentic ones are.

I remember as a little girl I loved getting presents, I mean who doesn’t?! Even today if we are honest with ourselves, we love getting a beautifully wrapped gift to open. Everyone opens presents different, some may just rip it open off excited to see what is under the colourful paper and bows, but some just methodically take the parcel apart trying not to rip the paper so that it can be used again. As a child I think I was a definite paper ripper! But as I got older, I did like taking my time, relishing what was in the parcel.

Have you ever been so caught up in doing something that time just passes you by? Have you focused so much on what you are doing that you seem to miss out on other things in life? Well the life of an elite athlete can be exactly that.

How many times have we all set goals only to set our sights on the outcome instead of the process? I know that I have done it in the past even during a race by aiming for a specific time or speed that I want to finish in (the end product), instead of looking at the process during the race. Most often than not I fail at reaching that certain time or speed.

It’s amazing how dreams can become goals and goals can become reality if you put the hard work in and believe in yourself! 1968 – 7 years old I watched my first Olympics.

I often get questions after a talk about how I stay so positive. Well I have always believed that it is better to be positive than negative. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have my negative times, of course I do, but I really don’t like who I am when I am negative. I have found over the years that no one ever likes hanging around with someone who is constantly negative.

How many really good friends do you have in your life? I am one of the lucky ones that I actually need my two hands to count the number of true friends I have. Those friends who would stand by you no matter what and who accept you for who you are, not who they think you should be, warts and all!

The one thing that I have been learning from my daily meditation is to live in the moment and within that moment to accept whatever is happening be it good or bad. If we are trying to change things then we aren’t accepting what is in this exact moment. We have to be open to each new moment without expectation. Let go of the past as each new moment emerges.

As I am writing this blog I am sitting looking out at Batemans Bay in New South Wales on the east coast of Australia. Yes I have escaped the confines of Melbourne. Who would have thought that I would be talking about escaping exactly a year ago when we first went into lockdown! This pandemic has changed the whole world.