Savoir Vivre Vignettes
The Critical First Five Years of Business: Why Most New Ventures Crash and Burn
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that 49.7% of businesses fail within 5 years. In other countries, the failure rates are often similar, but cultural, economic, and policy differences can influence the exact percentages.
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Remote Work: A Tale of Two Temperaments – Introverts and Extroverts
Remote work offers unique advantages for introverts, but success requires intentional strategy and self-awareness. By acknowledging both the benefits and challenges of this work style, introverts can create systems and habits that support their natural tendencies while protecting against potential...
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A Light-Hearted Guide to Dealing with Difficult People at Work
“The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey We've all been there. That colleague who seems to have a PhD in pushing your buttons, the office drama enthusiast who turns every...
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Knowing Your Life Purpose: The Secret to Living Longer
Living a long and fulfilling life has been a goal of humanity for centuries. While advancements in healthcare, nutrition, and lifestyle have extended lifespans, the quest for longevity often overlooks one critical component: having a clear sense of purpose. Understanding...
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Understanding Empathy Burnout and How to Recognise It in Yourself
Lise came to a From Troubled to Triumphant Transformational Retreat at the beginning of autumn as a last-minute booking. She said she was going through a "career change" life transition. She couldn't cope with her job as a doctor anymore,...
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Grateful, But Still Terrified: How I’m Tackling Anxiety in the Middle of a Life Transition
Because quitting your job at 42 without a backup plan deserves a little help from a gratitude journal (and a lot of coffee). Can Gratitude Really Reduce Anxiety During a Life Transition? The one thing I teach everyone who comes...
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Hot Flashes, Mood Swings, and Midnight Binges
Midlife crisis - the word makes it sound like you’re about to ditch your responsibilities, dye your hair purple, and join a punk band called Existential Dread. But really, it’s just a dramatic way of realising that life is finite....
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During a Life Transition: Make Thanksgiving Less Stressful
Do Something Different this Year (see the end of this post) Thanksgiving: the season of Gratitude, Gatherings, and Glorious Food. For many, it’s a day filled with tradition, joy, and perhaps a competitive round of family board games. But what...
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Moving to the South of France
From Crunching Numbers to Munching Croissants: How I Swapped Spreadsheets for Spectacular French Sunsets Written by Denise G. who moved to France in the middle of a Midlife Crisis after attending a From Troubled to Triumphant: Find Solid Ground during...
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Camino de Santiago Hiking Adventures
Confessions from the Camino: Blisters, Bliss, and Big Life Epiphanies Written by Nina S. a proud Empty-Nester who attended a From Troubled to Triumphant: Find Solid Ground during a Life Quake retreat in the sun-blessed southwest of France #LifeQuake Series...
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How Limiting Beliefs about Money can make Life Transitions 20X worse
Are Your Ingrained Money Myths Secretly Sabotaging Your Progress? During life’s big transitions, we would all like to think we’re making cool, calculated financial decisions. But here’s bad news: your limiting beliefs about money—the ones we picked up from childhood,...
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Books that Bridge the Gap: 12 Must-Read Books to Help You Thrive During Life Transitions
Explore stories and strategies that inspire resilience in the face of uncertainty. Life transitions—moving to a new city, starting a new job, or surviving a break-up that feels straight out of a Netflix drama are like plot twists - they...
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Wintering for Introverts: Finding Strength in Solitude
Book Recommendation: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May Wintering: a time of Rest, Retreat and Renewal This book is at the top of the recommended reading list for my From Troubled to Triumphant:...
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An Introvert’s Guide to Savouring the Christmas Season
Featuring 12 tailormade excuses to use when you need to dodge yet another Christmas party Even though it is only the middle of November, I am already planning for the Christmas season. My Book Lover's Christmas Binge Reading Retreat is...
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Life Transitional Intelligence: The Science of Successful Life Changes
Frameworks to help you navigate personal or professional life transitions with confidence I recently re-read Bruce Feiler's excellent book Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age, in which he describes life transitions as a three-phase process: The...
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The Introvert’s Guide to Communicating with Impact (Without Compromising Your Authentic Self)
Introverts often get labelled as the “quiet ones,” the “deep thinkers,” the “observers” in a world that seems to worship those who can hold court in a room and sell ice to penguins. Introverts actually have a unique superpower when...
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Unconventional Activities that Dramatically Enhance Resilience
Maybe you’re getting through your “transition” with a survival kit of coffee, Netflix, and the occasional breakdown in the bathroom. Your motivational mantra sounds something like, “Today… we did not cry in public. Small wins.” Maybe you’ve Googled “how much...
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I’m Done! Celebrate the End of A Life Transition with these Rituals
Ready to officially kick the old chapter to the curb and usher in something new? Here’s a lineup of rituals—some quirky, some classic—that’ll help you mark the end of your old life and throw open the doors to whatever’s next.
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Embracing New Beginnings: How to incorporate Nature into Your End-of-Transition Rituals
Discover powerful ways to mark major life changes by connecting with the natural world around you. Involving Nature in new beginnings Rituals always makes them somehow more real (and definitely more poignant) to me. Reconnecting to Nature, just when you...
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How to Go From Striving to Thriving during a Life Transition
Find out if you are Thriving and Striving during a Major Life Change Are you thriving or striving on the life transition rollercoaster? Maybe you're that person who’s “embracing change” with a green smoothie in one hand, and a motivational...
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Life Transitions Reveal The True Ikigai Meaning
A Guide to Living with Purpose Through Life Transitions: When Sarah retired, she pictured her days unfolding like a cosy Pinterest board: endless brunches, maybe a vegetable garden, and mastering the fine art of companion planting. But the reality was…well,...
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The Quarter-Life Crisis Survival Guide
12 Weird but Wonderfully Effective Ways to Turn Your Quarter-Life Crisis Into a Quarter-Life Adventure Setting the Scene At 26, Tyler hit what he would later refer to as “The Quarter-Life Catastrophe.” It started late afternoon on a Tuesday, in...
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15 Unique and Unconventional Ideas to Help You Through Life’s Challenges
Introduction Imagine this: you’re in the midst of packing up your life, surrounded by mountains of boxes, immobilised by heart-wrenching memories, when through the window, you see your elderly next-door neighbour struggling to carry her groceries into her house. You...
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15 Creative Ways to Maintain Friendships during Life Transitions
Making Sure Our Friendships Survive Major Life Changes Your friends are your anchors during periods of change. When everything else is in flux – whether it's moving cities, changing careers, starting a new business, or going through a divorce –...
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From Boomers to Gen Z: How Each Generation Tackles Life’s Biggest Transitions
Discover the Surprising Ways Different Generations Cope with Change—and What We Can All Learn from Each Approach The scene: Four friends from different generations are sitting around a table at a coffee shop, catching up on life. Baby Boomer: “You...
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12 Unconventional Ways Travel can Give You A New Lease on Life After a Divorce
Finding Yourself in the Strangest Places Life Quake Series They say travel broadens the mind, but here’s a lesser-known secret: it also closes doors. Yep, the ones that need closing—like the door on a marriage that’s run its course. Forget...
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12 Unconventional Ways of Coping with the Fall-out of Your Divorce
Life Quake Series: Divorce More than 12 actually, because when I researched this some of the proposed solutions made me laugh out loud. This reminded me that humour is a powerful antidote to anguish and getting divorced is one of...
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12 Unconventional Strategies to Help You Survive When You Lose Your Job
Life Quake Series Enraged. Terrified. Adrift. Betrayed. Losing a job isn’t just losing a paycheck; it’s watching a piece of your identity slip away, too. There’s the gut-wrenching sting of rejection, the ever-echoing fear that asks, Was I not good...
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During a Life Transition, use the R.A.I.N. Method to keep your Head above the Water
How to Find Solid Ground during a Life Quake When life throws me in at the deep end — a major change, a sudden shift, an unexpected curveball - or all of these simultaneously - my first thought often is,...
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Purpose-Driven Women are Unstoppable
Focus on what matters most to You Sometimes life feels like an out-of-control carnival - especially to us introverts - lights flashing, crowds pushing, the whole place buzzing with deafening noise. Somehow, you’re supposed to stay balanced, find your way,...
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