Gravitate towards others who stay calm when met with friction. When you stay composed you stay in control. Calm isn’t passivity it’s precision under pressure.

Power may also be assumed to be action, but real power is what you resist.

Anyone can retaliate, but the person that sees the whole picture not the next move wins over time.

When you step up and trust your values more than your emotions. Resisting the temptation to lower your standards!

Power begins in the daily routine, the way you prepare, plan and show up on days when motivation doesn’t exist.

Daily discipline frees you from being tossed around by every demand, mood or distraction..

A strong person doesn’t fight to be seen or beg to be heard, nor do they demand your attention or try to convince you of their value as they know their worth and won’t compete for your respect, they will stop showing up for you when they realise that their standards are dismissed and they have shown loyalty and not people been valued.

Now life begins to align around the boundary you finally had the courage to enforce.

Protect your peace, as this affects your tone, clarity and creativity. So silence the noise, say no without guilt and step away with grace.

I’ve made a few mistakes, I’ve upset people with my decisions which haven’t aligned with theirs. But, I do not want to be controlled by other people’s viewpoints unless I am in agreement.

In 2025 I disappeared myself for a bit. It was out of choice, I was diagnosed with Glaucoma and I had to go and have emergency eye surgery to save my eye sight. Then, I had a long period of time waiting for my eyes to recover so I could go back to the opticians to get new glasses. In this time I was unable to drive. Thankfully, there were offers from friends to take me to the hospital which was 20 miles away. On one occasion I did go by train and walked quite a distance which was a little distressing as I couldn’t see all that well.

During this time at home I kept occupied by my entrepreneurial pursuits. I was able to listen to trainings and join in with a few zoom calls so I didn’t feel so isolated being at home on my own. I was blessed to have a gorgeous summer and venture out locally to sit on the seafront

Sadly, a friend I had known for many years had a breakdown, followed by a heart attack which brought on early dementia, this resulted in him having to be sectioned and omitted into psychiatric care. This has been a shock to me as he was part of my social circle for 35 years. I went to see him a couple of time and heard yesterday they have finally found a care home for him to stay in which will be easier for his family to reach by bus.

A number of Blackstar networking collegues past away!

Glad I made the effort to have a 121 with Andrew Widgery down at the Waitrose Cafe in Chichester in 2024. Wonderful to hear him speak about his love for his family and gratefulness that his girls had all found wonderful men to partner up and expressing his joy for the new grandson and another one on the way. He told me that he had received treatment and that drug was destroying his cancer lesions and his words to me were that he had been given extra time to love his family and all the special people in his life. Though sadly, not as much time as we were all hoping because Andrew past away on 27.7.24.

Very sad as he was “kicking cancer” ticking more things of his bucket list….

Then on 23 July 2025, we lost Maurice Watts, I regrettably was unable to join in with the “Chez Maurice-Marketing zooms as I was working, nor get to meet him or travel to visit him in hospital as it was too far away.

Maurice was a good friend to me during the Blackstar Ecademy days. Gave me some marketing mentoring, shared knowledge and helped me navigate by way back to the tube stations after our networking events…

Mick Say past away on the cliff tops while out walking with his wife and friends on 25 November 2025, apparently he slipped and banged his head but never regained consciousness.

He loved technology, I did some freelance work for him when we were all trying to create data using Klout, Rise and the game Empire Avenue. He also lately was sharing his accomplishments on #strava.