Gail Lynne Goodwin

About two weeks ago we came sailing to the British Virgin Islands, to relax, play, enjoy being together, brainstorm InspireMeToday.com, and to give me time to percolate some ideas I’ve had, including writing a new book. Well, you know me, and know that I believe a lot of things in life are metaphors for your life. After this sailing trip, I think life is a lot like bananas. Let me explain. On our first day here, the 28th of July, I provisioned the boat from Bobby’s, the local grocery store in downtown Road Town, Tortola. I bought a stalk of…

Yesterday we arrived at the Bight, a cove off Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands. We took the dinghy into the beautiful beach just in front of Pirates Bar, which happened to be closed for the upcoming hurricane season. The beach was still beautiful and we were looking forward to enjoying some R&R in the sunshine and playing in the warm waters. The only thing that gives me concern in the waters of the BVI is jellyfish. This trip, it seems they decided to come to the BVI during the same time that we did. We saw them on…

I live a very blessed life. I’m still unplugged in the British Virgin Islands, relaxing, writing and getting perspective on my life. We come down here several times each year to think and just be. Funny thing is, I almost wrote that I come here to get away from the self-imposed busy-ness of life. But, how do you spell busy-ness? Would that be business? Interesting, isn’t it? The biggest change in my life when I’m down here is that I don’t use my cell phone. When I’m home it is attached to me. Here, it’s only used if we care…

Experience has shown me that everything in my life is a metaphor FOR my life. If I pay attention and just ask myself the question, “What is this trying to teach me”, I find myself learning from the situation. Yesterday I was walking on my favorite beach on the island of Anagada, in the British Virgin Islands. This particular beach is on the windward side of the island and therefore, gets many of the treasures of the sea washed upon it’s shores, from beautiful sea shells and sea fans, to sneakers and beer bottles. I went for a walk, in…

Maybe I’m just stuck on this title because I’m going on vacation in the morning. Maybe it’s because I’m going sailing in the Caribbean and I’m just getting into the attitude of the islands. Or, maybe it’s just what I need to hear right now too. Just a few days ago, I was walking on Pearl Street in downtown Boulder, CO. There’s a section of sidewalk in front of the courthouse with “jumping water”. This is where water jumps out of holes in the sidewalk and shoots into the air. The atmosphere was quite festive with a lot of little…

Often we have a special occasion coming up and want to look fabulous. Then the panic of “What do I wear?” begins. For my special occasion I want a new outfit that fits me perfectly and when I put it on, I feel beautiful! I went to Bonnie, a talented wardrobe consultant at Tres Bon, in Boulder, and hired her to help me find just the right thing. She asked questions about the look I was trying to create. She also asked what was already in my closet and I told her she didn’t want to know. Bonnie was trying…

I have a friend named Jamie who lives in a medium sized city where she doesn’t feel like she belongs, but she can’t relocate yet because of her husband’s work. For the last two years she’s tried to meet people but is convinced that there are no “cool people like her” in the entire city. My good friend Tom, who is really great, lives in the same area so yesterday I introduced them on the telephone and they set up a time to meet for coffee. Jamie agreed to meet with Tom because she really wants to meet new friends,…

What's in your someday basket? Today I talked with several different people who all talked about what they were going to do "someday". By the fourth person, it hit me. I know when today is. I know when yesterday was. I even know when tomorrow will be. But, when is someday? According to the dictionary, someday is "at an indefinite future time." For far too many, it is an elusive day that may never come. Could someday be the day after my funeral? Could someday be today? I have things that I want to do… someday. Someday I'm going to…

Did you ever watch a child put a jigsaw puzzle together? What’s the first thing that they do after dumping the pieces from the box? Come on, you remember don’t you? They’ll look at the picture on the front of the box so they know what the finished product will look like, right? We’ve all heard about the importance of focus and keeping our eye on the end goal in order to get there. But how many times do we focus on just the piece that we happened to pick up that day rather than focusing on the photo on…

Have you ever noticed that everything in life is a matter of perspective and eventually judgment? Imagine you arrive late to your office, complaining because your car broke down, only to find the person in the next cubicle had their car repossessed the previous day. It kind of makes your repair look minor because of perspective. You no longer judge your luck to be “bad”. Recently I was talking with a girlfriend who shared that she’d been raised on a farm in Ohio. Her parents were poor so her mother made homemade bread each day. Not wanting to be different,…

I’m sure you’ve heard how our thoughts become things? We’re taught we should not only think happy thoughts, but also FEEL the joy from our thoughts, and that’s how they manifest in our life. Since thoughts, in an untrained mind, can often appear random, sometimes it seems we don’t have any control over them. I’ve often thought how cool it would be to wear a “thought monitor” that would buzz when I’m thinking thoughts that are less than optimal, to gently remind me to change that thought and return to the greatness that I am. Why not? If we can…

What do you do when your mind is so full of stuff that you find it just zipping from one “to do” to another? Occasionally, I do something mindless, like play the game Bejeweled. In flying to my son’s college graduation on Friday, I had some time on the airplane and thought I’d get lost into a game. For those of you that don’t know the game, there are a series of 8 columns of colored gems, with about 8 gems in each column. You exchange the position of two different colored gems to make sets of 3 matching gems,…

Why do we resist change so very much? I just spent the last hour coaching my good friend, Bob, on how to handle a difficult situation. He founded a company about ten years ago and is now ready to take it to the next level. His entire identity has been based around this company- he IS the company. For the last several years Bob has been trying to figure out how to get out of the company and follow his dream, which is very different from the “job” he found himself in while running the company. He got his board…

What’s your dream? Are you living it? Take just a moment, close your eyes and bring that dream into your mind’s eye. See it. Feel it. Really look at the details. Notice how the completion of this dream makes you feel so full of joy and elation from your success. Feels pretty good, doesn’t it? And the best part about it is that compared to what you go through for “work” everyday, following your dream is easy. When you do what you love and love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life. As Martin Luther King…

Yesterday morning I woke up and within one minute of opening my eyes, I’d jumped into work. I spent the first 30 minutes of my day on my computer, paying bills and tweaking things on the site even before I brushed my teeth! I became stressed right at the start of my day. The day before was even worse. Most of that day I felt I was chasing my tail. My mood was quiet and a bit sad, without knowing why. That’s unusual for me… I wondered what was going on? This morning I got up early because I had…

A few days ago I had a very memorable experience. I was flying from Denver to Washington, DC for InspireMeToday.com business. I left my home around 4:30 am in order to make my early morning flight to the east coast. I am not a morning person by nature but I was excited about this trip and was up and ready early but still the morning seemed to slip away from me. We hurried to the airport and I got there with my carry-on luggage just as the place was about to board. My husband was boarding one plane, and I…

As I open my eyes this morning I am filled with gratitude. I usually start my day with all of the things that I’m grateful for in my life, and this morning is no different. This past week was an amazing milestone for InspireMeToday.com. In our 5th week after the launch we broke all of our old records for visitors to the site. We reached our greatest audience yet, received a lot of fan mail from folks that just love what we’re doing, (including a custom song written about our site from a new member in Indonesia!). We had more…

I’m writing this on Friday, April 18th, while packing for our honeymoon. On April 6th, my sweetheart, Darryl and I got married on the one-year anniversary of our first date. Many of you have asked for details and photos so I thought I’d make this easy and post this here for you. Darryl and I married outside on the deck of our home in Boulder, Colorado, surrounded by our family. It was a very small, intimate wedding. In the course of the 30-minute celebration we experienced sunshine, warm breezes, a light sprinkle, strong gusts of wind and yes, even snow. …

As you’ll notice, I’ve written so few blog posts so far and I want to explain why. I LOVE to write. However, I had this little voice in the back of my head telling me that I had an image to uphold, wanted to retain privacy, etc, and that I couldn’t write whatever I wanted to write. Well, you’ll be happy to know that I let go of that belief this past week. What you’ll now get in this blog is what I’m really going through, the ups, the downs, how the business is growing, in other words, the real…