Every day I spot something in my life that I want to improve.

This week's Best Life Ever workshop was inspired by the pen container on my desk. I just got fed up when biro after biro I picked up to write with was 'dead'. I realised that in my ideal life, all my pens would work.

I know I can be a bit of a perfectionist, but luckily most of the things I want to improve are just tiny things and by doing something about them I feel happier.

This week:

I tidied up my very chaotic linen cupboard and felt calmer.
I was worrying about a workshop that I couldn't make work and by admitting defeat and just crossing it off my 'to do' list I felt relieved.
I phoned my mum and felt our relationship improving - as well as my conscience.
Creating your ideal life doesn't have to mean changing big things, it can start very, very small.

Is there something in your life that you could do to make yourself feel instantly happier?

Come to this week's Life Clubs to discover what would make your life ideal. It's exciting.

I don't know about you, but I can always see where others are talented - even when they can't. I admire their logical way of thinking or their determination or their creativity. I've been known to get really jealous of people (including my husband) for having known what they wanted to do since childhood and still be doing it. I, on the other hand, have floundered about for years wondering what on earth I was good at.

One of the wonderful things about this week's workshop is that you'll discover your talents - and not just those of others.

Photography, for example, is something I've always loved. I got my first camera at a time when I wanted to photograph animals at the zoo or the ponies I rode. The photography theme has continued through my life - I took photos throughout university - this time mainly of friends - and then, of course, I've had years of photographing my children. To this day if I feel low I can just bring out my camera and feel cheered up. I look at the world with a different perspective - the 'where's the good photo?' perspective and that gets me out of myself.

I'd call photography a talent of mine, primarily because it's so integral to my happiness and, if pushed, I'll admit that I'm actually quite good at it.

And, what's lovely about the photography theme is that both my mother and daughters are wonderful photographers too - and probably more serious about the craft even than I am. It's a theme that runs through generations.

What's integral to your happiness that runs as a theme through your life and maybe that of your family?

It took me ages to realise how to relax. In my twenties I used to think that lying by the sea in the sun was the answer, but that just made me hot, bothered and irritable. In my thirties I decided that visiting foreign cities would do it, but I came home feeling as exhausted as when I'd left and in my fourties I thought the familiar bucket and spade holidays with my family might be cosy and therapeutic, but all it did was make me feel frustrated and looking forward to getting back to work.

In my late forties I went on some Enneagram courses where I discover that I was, what they call, a 'head' type. In other words, most of my focus is in my brain and that is the key to my relaxing. All I need is a good book and I'm in Nirvana.


Of course, I knew that as a child when I spent most of my youth buried in literature, but I'd forgotten it in the intervening years and what a treat it's been to rediscover it. I don't have to go anywhere, I can just pick up a book and I'm calm, chilled and relaxed.

What is it that you have to do to relax you?