One of my goals in 2014, along with writing this blog, is to try more things. Things that I would often consider out of my ‘comfort zone’. Things that challenge me, things i’d usually be a bit scared of trying, or just simply saying ‘yes’ to doing something new, rather than making an excuse and slumping in PJs on the sofa instead. I think I mentioned in a previous blog post that I feel I spent a great deal of my twenties (pre-children) in the pub, or hungover, and really didn’t make the most of opportunities presented to me. Now I intend to say a big ‘YES’ to the new, and an even bigger ‘NO’ to arseholes and reality TV- yay me!
This is the first post of what I hope will be a mini-series of new experiences, kicking off with attending an ‘Inspiration Party’. Forget Ann Summers, pizza, wine, and apparently making yourself a better a person in an evening are ‘in’, and dildos (well, at parties) & nipple tassles are ‘out’…
When my friend, Jenna, mentioned a ‘life coaching’ evening she’d recently attended, but it was in a party format, I was intrigued. What could be better than consuming a few glasses of Pinot whilst having someone help you form a plan of action for aspects of your life that you felt needed improvement? Jenna told me she was so impressed, she was going to host a night herself at her house. Since I’d missed out on the whole ‘gap-year-finding-yourself-thingy’, I jumped at the chance to attend. Maybe if i’d ‘found myself’ earlier, i’d know what the hell I wanted to do with my life? Who knows, but either way, at the age of 30, I was keen to find out if the ‘Inspiration Party’ leader, Sherry, could help me.
On arrival, Jen plied us with welcome food and drink, and the 10 of us attending got comfy, ready to start. Sherry was fab- professional, structured, warm, and she filled me with confidence that she really did know what she was talking about. We started with ‘profiling’ ourselves, and working out which personality type we were, out of a possible four. This involved group exercises whereby we profiled celebs/high profile/historic characters, to get into the swing of things, before using a questionnaire and graphs to work out who we thought we were as individuals. I was comforted by the fact that I am the personality type that I thought I would be (no nasty surprises there!), but some of our friends veered towards types they weren’t expecting, and as a result had epiphanies as to why they didn’t get on with a certain boss/family member well.
The second half of the party was what I would almost akin to a some personal coaching/questioning, but within a group setting. Clutching our pens and paper, we were asked a series of questions about an aspect of our life we wanted to improve, and were told to answer openly and honestly. This could be family time, getting fit, a project/business you want to start, health- practically anything could be applied to the insightful questions that she asked. I chose my blog as my area of improvement, and surprised myself by the amount of detail I answered the questions in. She really got me thinking, and I ended up almost sub-consciously solving a couple of problems that i’d been trying to figure out for a while, all through these questions. (I can’t tell you what they are as I wouldn’t want to ruin the evening for anyone wanting to attend/host one!).
The evening officially lasted two hours, and once Sherry had left after giving us our (ace) goody bags, we all stayed on at Jen’s for another hour or so, chatting about what we’d just discovered. I came away feeling really motivated, and inspired. Which is a good job, what with it being an ‘inspiration party’! I plan to use the questions that she asked in other aspects of my life that I believe could benefit from a bit of a makeover.
I would definitely recommend one of these nights to anyone who feels stuck in a rut in some way, and plan on hosting one myself soon for another group of friends.
Who needs ‘Pampered Chef’ nights, when you can pamper your life?!
If are interested in hosting one of these nights, then please do visit www.inspirationparty.co.uk for more info, or if you live the Surrey/SE London/Kent/Sussex areas, then Sherry Bevan herself – Tweet @InspirationPty or her Facebook page
All words and thoughts are my own.
So glad you enjoyed the party and that you have already started to take action.
Author
Thank you, Sherry 🙂