Here Lynne Franks, our new lifestyle guru at handbag.com, launches the first of her regular columns on how to live your life to its fullest potential. But first, get to know Lynne and why we think she's the perfect woman to partner handbag.com in helping you get the life you want...
“I’ve certainly learned to live my life to its fullest – with its ups and downs. I started my own business when I was 21 from my kitchen table, sold it after 20 years and became a single mother to my two children in the same week.
My life has been one adventure after another and I’m ready to share exclusively with handbag.com the secrets of my business success, my relationship disasters and what I’ve learnt about myself from appearing on TV programmes like I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and Celebrity Come Dine With Me as well as supposedly being the inspiration for Ab Fab.”
Lynne and the B.Hive
Lynne’s newest venture, B.Hive, the women’s business centres opened in collaboration with Regus, has become in just six months, an inspiration and a venue for many women running their own businesses, often as Lynne did, from their kitchen tables.
The Covent Garden B.Hive flagship is now being joined by new B.Hives in Manchester and Bristol and to celebrate, Lynne is launching the first of her B.Line Surveys, looking at what success really means to women entrepreneurs. Click here to fill in the survey 'What does success mean to you?' and you can win a free month’s membership to B.Hive, where women connect, grow and do business.
The theme of Lynne’s columns will be based on the affirmation cards from her successful Plant Seeds And Pick The Blooms deck, illustrated by Ann Field, which have inspired women all over the world.
Believe in myself so others will too
Do you, like so many of us, hold back from embracing the life of your dreams? Does the job, the man, the home, the holiday all seem out of your reach? And yet all the while the people in your life, your friends, your family and your colleagues, all tell you that you have the creativity, the gifts and the potential to achieve anything you want?
So many women hold back from living their lives to the fullest because we think we don’t deserve it on some level - too old, too young, too fat, too thin, too uneducated. It’s incredible the number of excuses we women can come up with. And so often it’s just our own self doubts and fears that stop us from achieving joy.
This March we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, started by a group of factory workers in New York who walked out to complain of the terrible conditions and unfair pay they were receiving then. In fact the situation for women has still a long way to go in many places in the world. Use the inspiration of those women factory workers to find the courage to live your life to its full potential. The truth is we all have the confidence inside us. It’s just a matter of acknowledging just what a powerful woman you truly are.
Firstly, it’s important to acknowledge the simple tasks you do every day that take an enormous amount of courage – and that you don’t give yourself credit for. It could be dealing with the traffic as you take the kids to school, standing up in front of colleagues to make a presentation or being truthful with a friend.
Take some quiet time, maybe a walk in the park, sitting in a special place in your house or just have a candle-lit bath. Visualise yourself living the life of your dreams – perhaps running your own business, in a loving relationship or having fun on the travel adventures you have always wanted.
Then take a piece of paper and firstly write down five things you have done in the last seven days that you know in your heart have taken a huge amount of courage. Then write five reasons why you deserve to step up to create the life of your dreams. And be clear, like it says in my survey, what success really means to you. Finally, remember that you aren’t the only woman who doesn’t always believe in yourself. Get together with three or four close girlfriends and talk about your dreams, what holds you back and how you are going to achieve them. Support each other in finding the happiness you seek.
Like the card says, “Believe in yourself and others will too.” Just try it and see how it works.
