Trailblazers’ Stories: not-your-average Blog
Here you’ll find more than 450 full-lenght articles, most 4000 words+, about subjects that would interest people who are navigating huge life changes, challenges and crises and are starting the next chapters in their lives. Most articles feature the story of someone who had to cope with a life-altering crisis. Maybe you’ll find the story of someone who survived the exact same crisis as you are facing? You can use the search function below to find inspiring stories:
Here are the main themes:
1. Retreats – Stress Dissolvers & Direction Finders – The transformative power of retreat experiences for people navigating major life transitions, career pivots, and personal crossroads. Explore how stepping away creates space for clarity, renewal, and intentional next chapters.
2. Horses – Partners in Transformation – How equine-assisted learning can accelerate emotional healing, build self-awareness, and guide stressed professionals toward their next chapter with wisdom that only horses can provide.
3. Navigating Life Changes, Challenges & Crises – Practical strategies and emotional support for weathering life’s storms—from unexpected upheavals to planned transitions. Learn to navigate uncertainty with resilience and emotional adaptability during pivotal life moments.
4. Burnout & Stress Management in Transition – Understanding why life transitions amplify stress and burnout risk. Science-backed approaches to managing acute and chronic stress when you’re already navigating significant personal or professional change.
5. Life Purpose – The Foundation of New Beginnings – Discovering and reconnecting with your deeper purpose during times of change. Explore why clarity of purpose is essential when reinventing your life, career, or identity.
6. Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, Self-Awareness & Mindfulness – Developing the inner resources that make transitions smoother. Cultivate emotional maturity, self-compassion, and mindful practices that support you through life’s most challenging passages.
7. Reinvention and Reconstruction after a Major Life Change – Navigate relationship shifts, empty nests, health scares, career pivots, redundancies, retirement, relocation, professional success without fulfillment, and find clarity for your next chapter.
8. Grief, Loss & Legacy – Honouring what’s been lost while creating meaningful legacy. Process grief from death, relationship endings, or life chapter closures, and discover how loss can transform into purposeful living.
9. Nature, Sustainability & Slow and Solo Travel – Reconnecting with natural rhythms as an antidote to modern overwhelm. Embrace sustainable, intentional living that supports well-being during life transitions and beyond.
10. Writing, Reading & Storytelling – How words heal and transform during major life changes. Explore writing your story, reading for solace and inspiration, book reviews, and storytelling circles as powerful tools for processing transition.
Margaretha Montagu
Experience the transformative power of silent walking that has helped thousands process their deepest losses The first tear fell somewhere between Eauze and Manciet. Marie couldn't pinpoint exactly when. Perhaps it was while walking uphill, her breath labouring, her legs...
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Margaretha Montagu
From Inner Critic to Inner Consultant Summary "That'll never work! You'll fail, and everyone will realise how useless you are!" Your inner critic (or inner committee!) - that persistent voice of doubt and judgment we all have rattling round in...
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Margaretha Montagu
Annual Camino de Santiago Walking Retreats Why do you walk the Camino de Santiago again and again every year? Because it's my annual board meeting with myself. Summary In our fast-paced world of quarterly reports and constant digital connectivity, we...
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Margaretha Montagu
Breaking Through Personal Growth Ceilings: Why Annual Retreats Outperform One-Time Transformations Why do you attend a Camino de Santiago walking retreat every year? To integrate what I learn into who I am. Summary In our rush to make progress, we...
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Margaretha Montagu
When Thinking Fails, Walking Prevails: The Science of Embodied Problem-Solving Why do you attend a Camino de Santiago walking retreat in the southwest of France every year? So my physical body can help me solve my professional problems. Summary When...
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Margaretha Montagu
Why do you attend a Camino de Santiago walking retreat every year? To remind myself who I am without my professional accoutrements. In the crisp autumn air of southwest France, Maria stood at the start of the day's Camino de...
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Margaretha Montagu
Walking the Way to Wisdom: An Annual Pilgrimage and the Somatic Foundation of Exceptional Leadership Why do you attend a Camino de Santiago walking retreat in the southwest of France every year? To enhance my leadership skills. In the rolling...
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Margaretha Montagu
An Annual Pilgrimage as Executive Practice for Recalibrating Professional Judgment Why do you attend a Camino de Santiago walking retreat every year? Because it helps me fine-tune my decision-making process. In the glass-walled conference room, executives stare at PowerPoint slides,...
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Margaretha Montagu
How Holding Space Creates Room for Breakthroughs My article The Strategic Void: The Professional's Guide to Mind-Clearing Breakthroughs, made me think of the concept of "holding space," which prompted the writing of this post. The concept of "holding space" is...
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Margaretha Montagu
Why do you attend a Camino de Santiago walking retreat every year? For the mind-clearing breakthroughs. Picture this: the CEO of a tech empire or the maestro of mergers, vanishing into the ether for a springtime sojourn along a thousand-year-old...
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Margaretha Montagu
The Surprising Power of A Yearly Week-long "Pilgrimage" to the Southwest of France "Pilgrimage" in quotation marks, because the Camino de Santiago trail no longer has a solely religious connection. These days, 200,000+ people walk the Camino every year to...
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Margaretha Montagu
Claire’s Story I wake to the gentle clatter of breakfast preparations at the farmhouse. There’s a reassuring hum of activity in the kitchen—our host trundling crates of rosy apples in, someone humming an old troubadour melody, the clink of butter...
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Margaretha Montagu
It sometimes feels as if life consists of one transition after another - from career shifts and relocations to relationship changes, health challenges, or processing loss. These moments can feel overwhelming, yet with the right support, they can become tremendous...
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Margaretha Montagu
In the landscape of personal and professional development, we've been sold a seductive narrative: when life throws you a curveball, reinvent yourself. This mantra has become the gospel of countless self-help books, TED talks, and LinkedIn posts. In certain situations,...
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Margaretha Montagu
Mindful Miners vs Surface Skimmers In the high-stakes world of professional achievement, we've mastered the art of the pivot. We navigate corporate restructuring, career changes, and industry disruptions with the composed exterior of seasoned veterans. We survive. We adapt. We...
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Margaretha Montagu
Essential Tips from Experienced Travellers The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step—and a bit of preparation. Whether you're joining one of my Camino de Santiago walking retreats or embarking on another adventure, the difference between a...
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Margaretha Montagu
5 Key Takeaways The Camino can be walked year-round, with each season offering unique experiences. There's no single "best" time to walk—it depends on your personal preferences, though spring (May-June) and fall (September-October) generally offer the most balanced conditions. Summer...
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Margaretha Montagu
A Path to Impactful Reinvention There's a particular kind of disorientation that arrives after the dust of divorce begins to settle. The immediate legal and logistical storms may have passed, but in their wake lies a question that can feel...
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Margaretha Montagu
Finding Your Way Back to Self-Trust There's a particular kind of silence that follows a professional setback. It's the space between who you thought you were and who you fear you might be. If you're reading this, chances are you...
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Margaretha Montagu
“Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don’t you agree?” —Christopher Paolini Introduction: The Gentle Art of Getting Lost (in a Book) When was the last time you...
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Margaretha Montagu
Because someday, Future You will thank Present You for remembering what Past You went through on this walk... Listen, I get it. You’re already carrying blister plasters, protein bars, and a pebble from your garden to drop on the way…...
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Margaretha Montagu
A Compass that works even when the Map has been destroyed In the landscape of our lives, some changes arrive like gentle breezes, while others crash through like seismic events, upending everything we thought was solid. These "life quakes"—major disruptions...
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Margaretha Montagu
Why Success Requires Accepting—Not Avoiding—These Uncomfortable Realities #LifeTransitions:Employee2EntrepreneurSeries Let’s start with a confession: You’re not here for a pep talk. You’ve earned your stripes in boardrooms, hit targets that would make Excel weep, and mastered the art of nodding politely...
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Margaretha Montagu
Thriving Through Life's Pivotal Moments You've climbed the ladder, navigated boardrooms, and likely aced a few metaphorical tightropes in your career. As accomplished professionals, you understand the art of strategic moves and the value of a well-honed skill set. But...
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Margaretha Montagu
The most important role models in people's lives, it seems, aren't superstars or household names. They're "everyday" people who quietly set examples for you-coaches, teachers, parents. People about whom you say to yourself, perhaps not even consciously, "I want to...
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Margaretha Montagu
(Part of the Post-Crisis ReConstruction Protocols series) INTRODUCTION: THE IDENTITY CRISIS NO ONE TALKS ABOUT Who am I? Not the Instagram bio version. Not the résumé bullet points. Not the person people politely applaud at a fundraiser. I mean the...
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Margaretha Montagu
Building a Business That Makes a Difference #LifeTransitions: Employee2Entrepreneur: Of the whole series, this is my favourite post. I hope it will inspire you too. Introduction Let’s be honest: the word “profit” has had a bit of a PR crisis....
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Margaretha Montagu
#LifeTransition:FromEmployee2Entrepreneur Introduction: The Strategic Value of Maintaining Corporate Connections Ah, the corporate world—a place of stability, predictable paychecks, and the occasional office birthday cake. It's a comfort zone that many successful professionals find hard to leave behind, even when the...
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Margaretha Montagu
Introduction Imagine standing at the edge of a cliff, the wind whipping around you, and the vast expanse of the unknown stretching out before your eyes. This is the exhilarating and often terrifying reality of entrepreneurship. The path is fraught...
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Margaretha Montagu
Reinventing Your "Retirement": Purpose-Driven Careers After 60, 70, 80 (and Beyond!) Introduction: the "Anti-Retirement" Revolution Does the notion of "retirement" conjure up images of beige cardigans and endless daytime television, a kind of elegant fade to invisibility? A gold watch,...
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