A Date with Arianna Huffington

The beautiful Arianna Huffington.
Photo Credit: Dreams & Sparkle 2014

On Wednesday morning, 10 September 2014, I was treated to a very special breakfast hosted by Business Chicks at the floating Dockside Pavilion, Darling Harbour. Guest speaker Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post, spoke passionately with a fabulous humour about aiming to 'thrive' rather than 'survive'.

A question she asked the 1200 attendee's was something I have been asking many people "what does success mean to you?" I've always personally said that success should have its own personal meaning to you and it will be different for everyone. For me success means being able to enjoy a life that makes me happy; this includes having great friends and family around me, the ability to continue to travel the world, enjoying and sharing good food, the ability to volunteer more and just simply enjoying life to the fullest.

I was delighted to hear that Arianna also had a similar view on success. She said that it's definitely not working until you don't have a life and money doesn't define your success.  It holds truth that if you work 24/7 with the aim to make money then you'll lose out on the family, friends, relationships and living your life because you don't have time for anything else. I believe that working hard does pay off but I also believe in work-life balance and that you can have it all; it's a balancing act, which is life! Busy should not be worn as a badge of honour.

All the fabulous attendees settling in.  Photo Credit: Dreams & Sparkle 2014.

She discussed the four pillars to thriving and one of them really stayed with me. "Giving", it's a shortcut to happiness and one of the greatest ways to connect with other people. She emphasised that we should be moving away from being competitive with each other and start working collaboratively. Giving back to others create a cycle and the more we can turn this cycle around and around the happier we will be with life. Even giving something small, such as flowers, to someone can create a happy and positive change in that person.

Give someone some flowers.  Photo Credit: Dreams & Sparkle 2014

The entire talk resinated with me and I could keep writing but I think it would be best for you to attend one of her sessions if you do get a chance. What really resinated with me from Arianna's talk was to keep doing what I'm doing with my blog. She stated that "self expression is the new communication" and if you want to write then just write as you never know who is going to read it. To be honest, when I start my blogging journey, I really didn't and still don't have a end plan of an expectation; all I know is that I wanted to start a blogging journey of my life and share it and since starting I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. 

A few points made by Arianna that I want to live consciously by:

• Getting enough sleep - this will increase our productivity and happiness
• Setting your intentions for the day - big and/or small
• Bringing gratitude into everyday life - even at your toughest moment, you'll realise that you will always overcome them
• Meditation - learning to be in the present 
• Don't be at the mercy of technology - I love Instagram so this is a challenge for me!
• Life is shaped from the inside out
• Remove what isn't serving us.

Dear Arianna, your talk is one of the most inspiring talk that I have been to in a while. I walked away from your session feeling positive, confident and strong and wanting to get home to blog blog blog. I just want to write and even if only a few (thousand) read my posts I hope that I can inspire them to live life, enjoy every moment and hope to create change that makes people happy. 

I hope to meet you again one day and learn even more from you; thank you for being so inspiring!

Jo x