8 & 9 of 13 in 13 Challenge

Where have I been?  Well not reading that's for sure.  I think it is pathetic that I have only read two books in the 6 weeks.  Hopefully I will catch up when I am on holiday in October.

The Golden Louise Hay Collection by Louise Hay

I'm actually wondering if I can count this as three books as it does contain three of her best sellers.  You can Heal your Life, You can Heal your Body and The Power is Within You.  I truly enjoyed this book and it really resonated with me.  In fact I have now bought a copy for my book shelf.

While reading it it prompted me to make a couple of changes in my life and that is a good thing.  All three books talk about how you can make a difference to your life and health by changing your thinking and letting go of the past when it is holding you back.  It is a little controversial for some people as she claims you can cure yourself of any disease including Cancer if you are willing to change your thinking.  I personally loved it and there is a lot in there that is just common sense.

I did get the most out of the third book in the collection The Power is Within You and most of those little tabs you see are in that section.  I am hoping my personal copy arrives before this on has to go back to the library so I can transfer all the sticky tabs.

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason

This is a great little book (be warned the writing is tiny) that gives you some incredibly sensible and easy steps to building your wealth.  It is NOT a get rich quick book but gives practical advice for growing your wealth over time.  I love the first step which is to always pay yourself first by putting aside 10% of all your income to start building your wealth.  Guess who is putting that into practice right now.

Only four books to go and 4 months to do it in.  I still feel I might complete this challenge which I think will be the first one I have ever managed to complete.

In other news I am behind on my sewing this year but steaming ahead with the new business and absolutely loving it. I won't bore you all with it here except to say that the only downside to loving what you do is that it is hard to put it aside for long enough to do the other things you love like quilting.

I have a quilt for Jot to finish in the next 4 weeks for her birthday and then one for my nephew for his birthday in January (and have no idea yet what I am going to do with that one) as well as whip up two quilts for childcare workers for Christmas and a number of other childcare worker gifts.  I can see myself having to put time in the diary to sew or I will never get to it :)

{TEN} Blogtoberfest

Some of you may already know I was made redundant in July this year.  Now this didn't some as a big surprise to me as with one thing or another the writing had been on the wall for 18 months or so.  However it did still affect me quite badly.  I have only had one role (or really it is three roles but one company)  since moving to Australia 6 1/2 years ago and it feels really weird to know I won't be going back after my maternity leave finishes.

Once I heard it the first reaction of most people was so what are you looking for now?  That is where I hit problems.  I decided to take a full year maternity leave and intend to stick by this (its only a few more weeks) and in fact am looking to extend it and am trying to find a new position to start in January.

As part of the Career Transition support I got as part of the redundancy package I have had a great deal of support in revising my resume (it now is huge and the 'master' runs to 5 pages) and advice on how to search for and apply for positions.  

One piece of advice was to update my LinkedIn Profile only to find I had two.  At some point I must have forgotten a password and set up a second account.  Anyway I reactivated the one with the most connections and have been hard at work updating it so that is matches my resume.  

One tool of LinkedIn I only discovered yesterday was the recommendations option.  You ask coworkers, boss etc to write a recommendation for you.  Like a mini reference I suppose.  It sits on your profile and is visible to anyone who can view your profile.  So on a bit of a whim I decided to try it out and contacted a couple of my old bosses to ask for a recommendation.  Now I have two recommendations sitting on my profile and it has been a huge boost to my self esteem which I will admit to being a bit shaky at the thought of the job market.

I like this tool.  If nothing else it has helped boost my morale which is flagging as positions are few and far between at the moment.

Wish me luck in finding the right job for me.  Something that will enable me to balance my work with my kids and of course my craft.