Category Archives: Building Self Belief


From accountant to green tourism: Kate’s story

By Sarah Cooper | Published April 4, 2011

One of the best pieces of being a coach is seeing the initial germ of an idea become something tangible.
Kate Rodde took part in one of my first Find Work You Love group coaching programmes. I’m so pleased to share with you here the story of how a passion for travel has translated into a [...]

Also posted in Defining Your Dream Work, Living The Dream, Managing The Transition, Reaching Your Potential, Setting Up Your Lifestyle Business | Tagged , , | 1 Comment
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What are your dreams for a life off the beaten path?

By Sarah Cooper | Published June 8, 2010

I’m so excited to have just finished recording the latest podcast in the 20×20 Your Money Or Your Life series.
I’m interviewing someone who nurtured a dream of an off-the-beaten path life for 12 years…and has finally made it happen.
I’ll be sharing it next week so do sign up to the series if [...]

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Also posted in Defining Your Dream Work | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments
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Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

By Sarah Cooper | Published May 23, 2010

…not too sure where I have been to not have watched this before now, but for those of you that have also not seen it, here is the powerful and touching Last Lecture - on Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams - by Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon.
Randy Pausch gave [...]

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Also posted in Defining Your Dream Work, Reaching Your Potential | Tagged , | 2 Comments
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Are you having fun?

By Sarah Cooper | Published May 10, 2010

One of my former bosses had a peculiar but endearing habit. I’d be working away at my computer one so-so afternoon, marooned in my depressing office-for-one at the very end of an interminably long corridor.
Suddenly I’d hear a rapid foot shuffle and a head would appear round the doorway:
“Are you having FUN?” the head [...]

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Also posted in Reaching Your Potential | Tagged , , | Leave a comment
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Childhood dreams…where do they go?

By Sarah Cooper | Published April 28, 2010

Over the last few weeks I’ve been mulling over how to take Cows to a different audience.
My clients, usually now halfway through their lives and careers, often recall their childhood dreams. For whatever reason - poor careers advice, absence of a suitable role model, lack of confidence, parental or societal pressure to do something [...]

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Also posted in Reaching Your Potential | Tagged , , | 9 Comments
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How To Be Brave When You’d Rather Hide Under the Duvet

By Sarah Cooper | Published January 18, 2010

“I’m very brave generally” he went on in a low voice,” only today I happen to have a headache.” So said Tweedledum in Alice Through a Looking Glass.
The key to successfully changing career isn’t understanding your values, identifying your favourite skills and passions, creating a killer action plan and gathering support and inspiration to keep [...]

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Also posted in Managing The Transition, Reaching Your Potential | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment
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Why you really don’t need to fear failure

By admin | Published October 18, 2009

Although we don’t always like to admit it, one of the biggest reasons we don’t always go for what we want in work - or life - is that we are afraid of failure.
Why does the idea of failure hold such power over us? Actually, we recover from failures all the time. Consider this:
How many [...]

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Also posted in Great Resources, News, Useful Tools and Techniques | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments
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Are you accommodating or bulldozing your career obstacles?

By Sarah Cooper | Published October 1, 2009

When it comes to changing career, no-one can deny that you’re likely to meet a lot of obstacles. But are these barriers set in stone?
Early this morning I was struck by an apt analogy. I live, as many of you know, in a Chinese courtyard house, full of charm but somewhat tatty around the edges.
Half [...]

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Also posted in Managing The Transition, Reaching Your Potential | Tagged , , | 1 Comment
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Identify Those Elusive Transferable Skills: The 3 Pronged Attack

By Sarah Cooper | Published July 24, 2009

Not long after starting my coaching practice I delivered a workshop to young Chinese professionals on creating the perfect CV.
I was shocked to discover that the majority of participants were simply incapable of naming something they were good at – despite them all being competent English speakers with better jobs than most of their peers.
Half-way [...]

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Also posted in Managing The Transition, Reaching Your Potential, Useful Tools and Techniques | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment
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How To Recapture The Optimism Of Youth

By Sarah Cooper | Published July 3, 2009

www.flickr.com/photos/zaqography/ /
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We all know that being positive is a Good Thing. But as we get older, it’s not that easy to break long-held habits of negative, self-defeating thinking.
I wonder if it’s because our thoughts are both so familiar and invisible that we don’t always appreciate their serious effect.
Imagine that every negative thought we [...]

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Also posted in Reaching Your Potential, Useful Tools and Techniques | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
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