Origins
The seed was planted for GO! Smell the flowers during one couple’s experience of travel during a break from the rat race.
When Jim and Emma resigned from corporate to see the places they’d always wanted to see they took a gamble, a journey into the unknown and time out to ask what it’s all about. Having successfully scaled their corporate ladders they felt something was missing.
At Jim’s farewell lunch his boss said:
“We’d all love to get out of the rat race - We wish you luck on your travels. Enjoy it when you smell the flowers”
Meeting each other was only the start of something special and sharing their dreams and for the first time in their lives actually wrote them down. Asking each other what they wanted out of life, they scribbled down lists and let their imaginations run wild and list the places they hoped to see ‘one day’.
From their base in Dubai they headed to South Africa’s garden route and returned to the UK to catch up with friends and family before cycling around Provence . Climbing Peru’s Machu Picchu brought with it the unexpected as did R&R in the Bahamas , a Full Detox in Thailand and Shark diving in Bangkok.
After a proposal on Machu Picchu and a Thai beach wedding they returned to Dubai as Mr & Mrs with the makings of a book, large debts and a new outlook to put into practice back in the ‘real world’. They smelt the flowers, both kept journals along the way and are on track to publish their adventures in a truly unique way in 2009 / 2010.
Back in the commercial world based in Dubai their primary objective was to inspire and be inspired. Qualifying as life coaches, Jim returned to the construction Industry to utilise his Masters degree in Civil Engineering and his skills learnt at the Chartered Institute of Marketing focusing on team building and vision setting. Meanwhile Emma started her own life coaching practice being commissioned by companies to inspire teams of employees.
They have aligned themselves with other flower smellers around the world, connecting and learning from others along the way. Partnering with the team at Flora2000 based in New York & Mumbai GO! Smell the flowers is blossoming into a thriving alternative community focusing on:
- Health
- Inspiration
- Food
- Media
- People
- Places
With content from 16 flower smelling founders plus guest writers that are experts in their field the flowers are blossoming nicely. The GO! Smell the flowers tag line ‘One journey - many discoveries’ is something they’re striving for not only here on line but also in day to day life.
What they’ve learnt
Some of the highlights of what they learned along the way during their travels:
- Variety in life helps the clock tick slower
- When travelling - Eat where the locals eat
- BIG Spiders aren’t that scary
- No four wheel drive can beat the Peruvian horse or the Thai elephant
- Amazonian Mosquitoes are invincible
- In France, only four items are required for a fabulous picnic: A good bottle of wine, a freshly baked baguette, some ripe cheese and a farmer’s field
- Cubans make the best Mojitos
- Writing a book takes far longer than we anticipated
- Colonic irrigation in a Thai Spa is a weight off your mind
- South African ostriches are not easy to ride
From experiencing a Thai Spa , giving it a GO! on a ranch in the Canadian Rockies , salsa dancing in Cuba, golf in Scotland and staying at an Ashram in India the journey continues.
The GO! Smell the flowers tag line ‘ One journey - many discoveries’ is something they’re striving for not only here on line but also in life! So, that’s their experience of smelling the flowers - they’d love to find out more about YOU so feel free to get involved and smell the flowers while you still can. Life really is too short not to - discover what your flowers are, smell them while you can as life isn’t a dress rehearsal.
From the experience to the book
‘Embarking on writing a book is one thing but to do a ‘his n hers’ version of the same story is another. Jim & Emma have successfully managed this whilst combining a wonderful love story into a journey of self discovery and a fantastic example of the law of attraction.’ - ALLAN PEASE
GO! Smell the Flowers was born from combining Jim and Emma’s travel journals kept during their 10 months break from the rat race. It presents a his ‘n’ hers perspective of their journey of discovery and change.
At the start of writing up their journals they won a National competition that paired them up with their mentors Barbara and Allan Pease . After reading the finished manuscript, they agreed to foreword GO! Smell the flowers .
Here is Allan on Australian T.V revealing some of the secrets behind his success:
GO! Smell the Flowers is just the beginning as Jim & Em are busy working on another 3 books:
Book 2: The Flower Smellers
A compilation of stories from people who are smelling their flowers and have shared their experiences to inspire countless people around the world . Jim& Em are being contacted by flower smellers all over the world and are building up a library of flower smelling accounts with the best being invited to feature in the book.
They welcome more - get in touch with them at contact us if you are a flower smeller or know of others. You’ll be added to the flower smellers blogroll that you’ll find on the right hand column of the site so others know where to find YOU.
Help inspire others to GO! Smell the flowers all over the world. A world that needs more flower smellers!
Book 3 - The well travelled book of quotations
A record of inspirational quotes that summed up what Jim and Emma went through at the time. This is currently being edited as a coffee table book in the making for 2009.
Book 4 - The well travelled book of recipes
A collection of culinary delights sampled in the places Jim and Emma visited. From five star establishments to log cabins far away from ‘civilisation’ this is culinary journey of delights. From the vineyards of France and South Africa to the potatoes of Peru, the variety is intriguing!
Writing at GO! Smell the flowers online
The homepage of this community is a live blog scattered with various insights from around the world. Several of the writers here at GO! Smell the Flowers are published authors, about to be published or have a passion for writing and sharing their point of view and personal experiences. These well thought out blog posts and the comments that accompany them all contribute towards the craft of writing as monologue becomes dialogue.
It’s a great way to start and a place where other freelancers, writers and publishers can get involved, share knowledge and master their craft. Feel free to get involved by posting comments at our alternative community or starting your own discussions over at forums.
Who knows . . . . perhaps, the best of the discussions at the blog will become popular coffee table reading one day?
So, about starting that book you’ve always thought about writing…..
