About
Hello. My name is Gareth and I live with my family in Perth, Western Australia.
My interest in personal development and helping people through change began back in the UK in the year 2000. One rainy morning in February while my first wife was around eight months pregnant, we went to a routine medical appointment. One week later I had a newborn son to look after and a wife who was recovering from an operation to remove a particularly malignant cancerous tumour. I had learnt that, in just one moment, your whole life can change.
Three months later I had worried and worked myself to a standstill. To me, that time is still a blur of changing nappies, pushing a pram and chemotherapy appointments. Recognizing that I couldn’t go on the way I was I reluctantly agreed to have some counselling with staff at the local Cancer Ward. I guess the reluctance came from a belief that only “mental cases” had counselling and I admit that I referred to these sessions as meetings with the “nutter nurse”! Anyway, these sessions were a great help in getting me back on my feet and although I thought that process was now finished with, the seeds had been sown.
Life went on and in 2002 we emigrated to Perth. The migration process was another huge, transformational one which included a lot of the difficulties that new migrants face such as financial pressures, finding work and living without family support close by. A deeper seated problem was beginning to emerge which was that my first wife and I found ourselves increasingly on different wavelengths and eventually we split up and divorced amicably. I moved into a rented house a couple of streets away.
During this time of separation and homesickness my employer arranged some sessions with a counsellor for me. So, three years on I was back in front of the “nutter nurse”! Once again, I got myself together and built up what I thought of as my “Single Dad” life. However, this new life eventually accommodated a new wife as I met my new partner and was married in a wonderful beach ceremony on the Gold Coast. I had gone from times of absolute desperation where I felt totally marooned in Australia to a totally unexpected happy ending.
Before all of this happened in 2000 I had a rather negative and pessimistic attitude towards life. I think I was thought of as a nice guy and was noted for having a good (if slightly dark) sense of humour but, curiously, I was quite negative when I had absolutely nothing to be negative about. It wasn’t until bad things happened to me that I started to develop a positive attitude! This realization that negativity was a luxury I could no longer afford really came home to me around the time I was moving into my own place. I knew then that if I surrendered to despair and resentment that I would have a terrible life and would not be able to be a good dad to my son and I wasn’t prepared to let that happen.
Quite by chance, I came across a book sale one lunchtime and I’m not really sure why but I bought a self help book (“Success Stories” by Rich Fettke). Normally I wouldn’t be at all interested in that kind of thing but I found that I couldn’t put it down. Later that week I turned up a couple more positive thinking books at the same place and I was off and running! At that time when I was desperate for some new thinking and some positive input into my life these books. My family and friends helped me enormously during this time but they were hampered by the seven hour time difference. Sometimes you might really want to talk to people abroad but its 3 am over there! Books and websites are no substitute for real people but they are always available to reinforce the positive messages you may need.
My interest in positive thinking and self development has continued to this day. This website is my way of thanking all of the people who have helped and supported me throughout my difficult times and I hope you find something here that helps you too. Woody Allen once said that “Eighty percent of success is showing up” – all I can say is that is that no matter how bad it got, I kept showing up until things got better and now I wouldn’t swap my life for the world!
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