Louise Gilbert is regarded as an innovator and has broadened the parameters of education with her cutting edge, holistic approach to teaching and learning. She asks big questions – ones that at this time in human history are critical. What is real education? What is it we really want for our children? For our educators? Ourselves? For our loved ones? And ultimately, for humanity?
She says, “It’s really very simple. Education is the business of human development, first and foremost. We must remember that we are developing human beings here. Helping them to discover themselves, their gifts, their passions, what they want to share with the world, who they truly are. Then everything else will fall into place. Students will be happier emotionally, they’ll do well academically, teachers will have less behavioral issues in class, less stress, and ultimately our future generations will be prepared – emotionally, intellectually, spiritually – for overcoming the great challenges of our time.”
Louise Gilbert’s professional development.
Louise holds a Bachelor of Arts/Law and a Graduate Diploma in Education. Louise has a strong interest in neuroscience and is a Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistics, Time-Line Therapy, and Hypnotherapy. She is also a Certified Professional mBIT Coach. As a teacher, Louise has wide experience, having taught in public, private, and international schools. She has also been Head of Year Level, a Youth Counselor and a is a former Founding Board member of the UK charity, India Street Kids, and Great Oak School in Houston, Texas.
If you have ever had a dream which seems to be eluding you at the moment, stay focused the road might be bumpy and at times feel like you are off course, but the best results often come from places we didn’t expect.
If you like this episode you may also enjoy Episode 23.
Transcription:
Intro 0:03
The transit lounge podcast moving you through life’s transit lounge and helping you go from where you are to where you’d rather be.
Bill 0:13
Hello, everybody and welcome to the transit lounge podcast. My guest today is Louise Gilbert. And Louise is passionate about education and its place in our world. She is the founder of Empower Kids Now. And over the last 17 years, she has worked internationally with thousands of educators, schools, parents, and students.
Bill 0:34
Louise is regarded as an innovator and has broadened the parameters of education with cutting edge holistic approach to teaching and learning. Louise holds a Bachelor of Arts law and a Graduate Diploma in education. Louise has a strong interest in neuroscience and is a certified master practitioner of neurolinguistics, timeline therapy, and he therapy.
Bill 1:00
She is also a certified professional NBA coach. As a teacher, Louise has wide experience having taught in public, private and international schools. She has also been a youth counselor and is a former founding board member of the UK charity India straight kids and great oak school in Houston, Texas.
Bill 1:22
The ways now resides in Melbourne, Australia, and is available around the country for professional development workshops for educators, and conference keynote, and breakout sessions and private coaching for individuals and families. Welcome, Louise.
Louise 1:41
Thank you, Bill. It’s an absolute pleasure to be here. Thank you for that lovely introduction.
Bill 1:46
My pleasure. Your introduction is pretty impressive. And because I know your age, and I won’t reveal that because I know your age. My first question is how did you squeeze Say many fabulous things into the short amount of time you’ve been on this planet.
Louise 2:08
Well, I think I’ve just always followed my passion. I’ve always followed where my heart has led me. And I have been fortunate enough to have lived a really blessed life and to have come in contact with some amazing people that are out in the world making a difference, and neither one of us have teamed up and done some wonderful things together.
Louise 2:33
So, and I think it took me quite a while to get around to having my children as well. I’m an older mother. That gave me a bit of extra time on my sleeve. I think stuff done,
Bill 2:46
Right. Fair enough. That was the trick. Okay. So note to self next life have kids later on.
Louise 2:54
Well, and I think the caveat I’d put on that is head cube when it feels right for you.
Bill 2:59
Fair enough. Awesome. So you did a law degree. Did you end up working in law? I did.
Louise 3:07
Well, I actually did a law degree. And it’s a funny story how I ended up doing the law degree. When I was about 12 years old. I was very passionate about debating and public speaking at school. And my dad actually made a throwaway comment. He said, you should pay a barrister and bring only 12. I was like, well, what’s the barrister? And he explained to me something online that you’ll get paid to argue.
Louise 3:39
And that sounded really bright to me. So I loved debating. And, you know, I loved public speaking. And I also really wanted to make a difference in the world. And so I went into my law degree, thinking that I’d be able to go out there and make a difference.
Louise 3:58
I specifically want to help battered women and work with women that were needing help in regards to violent relationships and so forth, that was a passion of mine back then. And so off, I went to uni. And I think I got to that third year of my law degree. And that was when I kind of started to have the realization that perhaps this wasn’t for me.
Louise 4:27
So I had to do some really deep thinking and I actually I did finish the law degree. So I did my five years. And when I got out at the end of that, I had to decide what am I going to do this article clerkship, which is the next step towards you know, becoming a fully-fledged practicing lawyer and I wasn’t sure if that was what I really wanted to do with my life.
Louise 4:50
So I had the really great experience of traveling with my mum around the UK, and I took a year off before I thought well Before I made this big decision about going and doing this article cork circle, go travel. The mom and I traveled around the UK, which was a wonderful experience. We had an awesome time. And during that time, I did a lot of soul searching.
Louise 5:13
And I remember having a conversation with my mom one day and I said to her, look, I don’t know if it’s for me, I don’t know if I really want to be stuck in an office all day. I was a little bit skeptical about the war and how it could be used by that point after five years of being immersed in it. And my mom said to me, just do whatever makes you happy.
Louise 5:41
And I think that was the turning point. I was like, You know what, I don’t think I’m gonna wake up every morning and feel my heart being a lawyer. So I ended up coming back and after a great deal of introspection, I thought, you know, one of the things that I’ve really really loved in my life has been helping other people.
Louise 5:59
Whether it was when I was a kid at school, I used to help a lot of my friends at school without having having trouble and I sit next to them in class or the teacher would ask me to help them.
Bill 6:11
Either Teacher’s pet water.
Louise 6:17
Well, maybe sometimes.
Louise 6:20
Maybe I was more like an assistant teacher because it was me from a really young age. And I think I was fortunate enough to have teachers that really they recognized that in me and so they supported that potential and they gave me opportunities to, I can remember being in grade six, and going up to my, my grade six teacher whose name I still remember and I’m sure many people listening out there can still remember the name of a great teacher that impacted their life.
Louise 6:52
So I remember going up to Mr. solloway and saying, could I go down to the Crips and teach a class? Well, I think was like, well, you’ll have to check the dictator. And if she says it’s okay, then it’s okay, we’ve made. So off I went one day one afternoon with my story book and my little mini lesson plan and my stamp to stamp was a little hands of the press. thought they might lie. And yeah, so that was great. So how does that like 1011 or something and there was so
Bill 7:22
So we we get sucked in to life, right? So I said that in the nicest possible way we get busy. You know, we get distracted, there’s things to do. We take advice from people that perhaps aren’t really advising us from our own view of the world.
Bill 7:39
They’re advising us from their own view of the world. And at some point, you’ve taken these instincts and you’ve moved away and ended up going down a path perhaps of law because of something that somebody that you looked up to said, you know, somebody said, right, we just call right still great. So The whole premise of my show this show is to talk about the transit lounge.
Bill 8:05
And yeah, and it’s kind of where what I want to help people do is help them go from where they currently are to where they would rather be. Yeah. And in the nicest possible way. So what I’m curious about is, you ended up potentially, as a young kid not following, you know, your dream initially of going into law.
Bill 8:27
How did you end up going down the path of where this six year old girl or great six year old girl sort of was originally, which was your passion? How did you turn the law degree into your passion?
Louise 8:41
Yeah, and it’s a it’s such a great question. It’s such a great point to make because I didn’t get off track. And I did get off tangent because someone said something to me. And I was probably at that point of my life distracted by the idea of making lots of money. by it, so that was it. beatiful Louis to going into the the law degree, what wasn’t really encouraged and discussed a lot, you know,
Louise 9:12
When I was in year 12, making my choices was, you know, what do you what are you really passionate about and what’s going to make you get up in the morning and make your heart sing for the rest of your life, what was discussed was, you know, you’re pretty clever you could get into you could get into law, and then you can go off and have a great job and make lots of money.
Louise 9:33
So I listened to that, you know, the teachers, the elders, the parents, yeah. And then as a as a young woman, you feel a lot of expectation. So I went to do that law degree. So how did that change? It was really taking that year off taking that year off at the end and not, you know, recognizing that something inside of me was saying what’s maybe this isn’t for you.
Louise 9:58
And so taking that year off taking that time to pause and reflect, and to really go inside and ask myself, what do I really enjoy in my life? What What do I really feel excited about doing? You know, what do I love doing? What do I naturally show up in the world as and that was one of the things that just kept coming back to me was was teaching I had I had to earn money throughout my law degree in various different ways.
Louise 10:30
One of those ways being you know, I actually cheated you know, I cheated high school kids and you seven kissing your right cheese to get myself for you know, to pay for my books and all that kind of stuff.
Louise 10:42
And I loved it. I love saying a cheetah to those kids and, and seeing them grow and blossom and in addition to that, what I really loved was, I loved books, and and reading and writing and I had a dream to be a writer as well and So when I put those two together, the thing that made sense was go back to uni and study education. So that’s, you know, very long into how I got there.
Bill 11:10
Right. So that’s awesome. So you went and studied education, you became a teacher. I did. But then at some point, the system or the method of teaching that you were taught to teach, or wasn’t really your thing was it kind of didn’t fulfill all your desires about how to get through to children to to raise great teenagers as a result to raise great adults?
Louise 11:38
Yes. And so what what actually happened was, I went, I went into being a teacher, as, you know, pretty young and naive, you know, coming out of union, most of the focus that you knew was on the academics, and it was on the lesson planning and learning outcomes and the curriculum.
Louise 11:58
And so off, I went excited and enthusiastic as a first year out teacher and you know basically dropped in at the deep end with no human being right real by people with with problems and challenges and knocking on my staff room door in tears and wanting to talk to me and I, what skills did I have I didn’t have any skills in in counseling all I had I was very young, you know, and
Louise 12:31
And all I was equipped with, even with my own life experience and so there was a part of me that felt quite ill equipped to deal with what I was very quickly learning was the reality and the real meat of to me what education is really about. I went into it thinking it was all about the curriculum and educating mind and are very quickly soon realized. But actually, it’s about educating human beings. It’s about developing human beings, you know, as teachers were in the business of human development.
Bill 13:12
Wow. So I’ve got a feeling that pretty soon after that, or somewhere, shortly after that empower kids now came to be correct.
Louise 13:22
Yes. Yes. So I, I had an opportunity to move overseas and decided that this would be great. My adventurous spirit wanted to follow the calling of traveling the world and so my husband and I decided to move overseas and it was quite a heart wrenching decision because I loved teaching and I loved my students and I was really, really connected to my students and it was really quite a pivotal.
Louise 14:00
Moment of moving from being in the education system as a classroom teacher, to starting my own business empower kids now and how it came about was on my last day at this particular school before I left to move overseas, I it was quite a surprising day.
Louise 14:20
I had lots and lots and lots of students coming to me and knocking on my door and giving me cards and flowers and teddy bears. And it was just like the stream of students coming all day long from the minute I arrived at 830 in the morning until you know, the end of the day and by the end of the day, my desk was just you know, overflowing
Bill 14:44
with love.
Louise 14:45
Yeah, with love. It was just so beautiful and, and my my year right, I was headed the right at that time, and they actually called me up to the classroom and I went up there and it was all quite silent enough that the door was closed.
Louise 14:59
Well going on, hey, something happened oh dia. Anyway, I’ve opened the door. And much to my surprise, every single one of my year students was standing and the year I teachers and one of the girls was a front with a guitar and then they all kind of burst into song and I had written this song for me. And of course, I’ve just burst into tears because it was so emotional.
Louise 15:25
And then they presented me with a book. So this is the point of my, my story. They gave me this book. And on every single page, each student had written me a letter or a poem or just a couple of words, one of them had even put a little tissue in and said, No, this is in case you cry, which of course I did.
Louise 15:48
So that was what was beautiful about this book was the stories and the scenes that they were talking about. There was nothing in there at all about academics and what we’ve been doing now, obviously, the academics are important and we’ve been learning and you know, teaching and learning all the years that we’ve been together and educating the mind is extremely important. However, what I would suggest is even more important is the lessons that these students taught me from what they had written in the book.
Louise 16:23
And it was simple things like thank you for smiling at us. Thank you for being there when I needed someone to talk to Well, thank you for listening to me, thank you for taking an interest in May. Thank you for making our classes fun, you know, things like that.
Louise 16:46
And so I came away from from that experience knowing that I was so shocked and surprised I’d been going about my daily business as a teacher doing the job and feeling at times pretty stressed out as a lot of teachers are. It’s, it’s a very full on job for teachers that I do.
Louise 17:09
And I, you know, I was quite surprised and taken aback because I had really forgotten or not realized the impact that a teacher has on children’s lives. And I think that was the turning point. And I thought, wow, whatever it is that I’m doing, or I’ve been doing, I want to encapsulate it into workshops and I want to go and help even more kids to, to grow and develop as a human being. And I want to be able to teach parents how to do this.
Louise 17:43
And I want to also teach other teachers how to really make meaningful connections with the students in their classes, and nourish and develop the whole child. And that was the turning point for me. So off I went and I moved overseas and I was still teaching I taught in the International School over there and I part-time started out creating a couple of different workshops for children to begin with. And that was how empower kids now
Bill 18:12
Came to be one of your current roles, which is teaching teachers how to teach, is that right?
Louise 18:22
I won’t even say how to create I think teachers know how to teach. And there are many, many fantastic teachers out there. So what I do is I run professional development workshops for teachers. And as I was saying before, in my in my little story in the head crack that I had,
Louise 18:48
let’s, let’s talk a little bit about that. Because a lot of the challenges that children are facing these days, anxiety, depression, and some serious things that if left untreated, could end up in adulthood causing a whole bunch of other, you know, massive challenges, so
Louise 21:51
And so just let me say on that, yeah, I’m one in four children. This is the statistic one in four children report. thing either sad, very sad or unhappy? Yeah, one in 16 report as being not poor one in 16 children suffer depression. And suicide has now become the greatest killer of our youth far exceeding car accidents. So that’s the dire situation that you face.
Bill 22:26
Yeah, so that’s okay scary stats, but there’s something we can do about it. Okay, which is what I love. This is what I love about this whole thing is we can do stuff about it. And as a parent, myself, I’ve teenagers, I’ve always sort of lived by the mantra that my kids are entitled to be messed up, but not because of me.
Bill 22:45
And, and I was always out for tools about how do I go about supporting my children to avoid the deep depressions until the avoid the mess of anxieties, knowing that they’re going to experience a little bit of a depressed state and a little bit of an anxious state.
Bill 23:03
But what I didn’t want to do was make it worse, right? I didn’t want to be the guy who was oblivious to their kids, I wanted to be the parent that was able to help them overcome these challenges so that then they could teach their kids the same things of how to overcome their challenges. So How can parents I know this is a loaded question, and it’s pretty massive.
Bill 23:23
But how can some, How can parents go about being aware that their children are experiencing potentially anxiety and depression? And then what can we do to help them out of that?
Louise 23:39
Great question. And as you said, it is a massive question. And the wonderful news is that there are many, many, many things that we can do as parents and teachers. So
Bill 23:52
How would we recognize that first, I suppose?
Louise 23:55
Yeah, how would you recognize it? Well, I think when we’re if we’re talking about Parents, specifically, parents, usually not. Usually, they will, they will notice changes in their own child. Things will be different.
Louise 24:14
It might be something as simple as the child going to their room more often than just spending more time alone in their room. It could be that their child is no longer talking with them or sharing with them what’s going on in their life, right. So it could be as simple as that.
Louise 24:41
One great thing to do as a parent as well is to is to check in with the teacher as well check in with the teachers check in with the educators stay connected, because, you know, bringing up a child it’s a team effort, and now our kids are in school. They are in class. Lot of times more times than they actually we thought, but a lot of hours spent in class. So teachers often notice no changes as well, that can be indicators for when children are feeling anxious or depressed.
Bill 25:18
And as a parent, kind of our intuition, I think, could give us a bit of a hint. And it’s really about listening to that, right. It’s paying attention to some something that we feel uneasy about and perhaps not necessarily ask direct questions, but start an indirect conversation.
Louise 25:39
Yes, yes. And that’s a great point. And ultimately, I will always say to parents that I’m working with is listen to your gut. Now, what is your gut telling you because as a parent, you know your child better than anyone else out there?
Louise 26:00
There is an instinct there is an intuition inside So, so listen to that. And make that your priority to talk to your child to sit down and make some time to actually connect. Yeah, first and foremost.
Louise 26:21
And to really let them know, one of the most important things that we can do for our kids is to just be present and to listen, not to come with our agenda, not to bring our agenda to them, but to actually just be present and sit down and it can be as simple as an opening conversation of I’ve noticed lately that you’ll feign quieter than normal Is there anything that I can help with?
Bill 26:56
Well, if if the kids are anything like my kids, they probably You’re gonna say no, right? Because my kids, as much as they love me, and I love them. I know that sometimes, you know, they’re interested in telling dad all their problems, because you know, it could be embarrassing or whatever.
Bill 27:12
And at the beginning, I used to get cut up by that, like it used to really bother me. Yeah. But I realized that if I was, my dad asked me that question, there’s no way I’d be answering him and telling him anything. Yeah, and I’m not sure why.
Louise 27:27
Yeah. And a lot of times, this is what happens in the adolescent years as well. And in the teenage years that it is normal, it’s normal anyway, for kids do become more introspective and not necessarily coming to mom and dad and telling them everything but I think your, your intuition as a parent can tell the difference between you know if it’s just the normal, you know, I’m becoming a teenager Now keeping more to myself and finding my own identity.
Louise 27:52
This is, you know, it’s to do with anxiety or depression. And so it’s true, you know, a lot of times You can open that conversation and, you know, your child may, in fact, say nothing, I’m fine, I’m fine. And so the important thing then becomes to just let them know, well, I’m here for you, I hear you, but I’m here for you. If you need me, I’m here for you.
Louise 28:16
And to make it a regular thing that you check-in and let your child is secure in the knowledge that they can come to you and talk to you without judgment. And that, that you’re there for them no matter what, no matter what.
Bill 28:35
Yeah. So there is a situation there was a situation that came up with me in the past with my kids, and that I knew that they didn’t want to discuss things, right. They didn’t want to tell me certain things. They wanted to keep certain things confidential.
Bill 28:49
And it took a while, but I had to come to the realization that are that that’s something I should respect and also, still nonetheless, get them Have somebody to talk to, that they can vent to or get things off their chest Tell, tell that person you know there’s a fruit loop or whatever, and not be judged.
Bill 29:11
How How would we go about finding the right kind of person to have our children’s our children speak to or, you know, vent or get counseled by going to how do we go about that? Who do we send them to, so to speak?
Louise 29:25
Yes, and that’s really important because you want to make sure that if you are sending your children to say someone that you know that it is the right the right person so, you know, our would be talking to people first and foremost, that maybe have connections, you know, with psychologists or with life coaches, speaking to other parents who possibly have youth counselors or psychologists or life coaches in getting that word of mouth recommendation.
Louise 30:00
Obviously checking their credentials, making sure that they know what they’re doing. I particularly when it comes to working with kids, and then I would be going along with my child. And in fact, I would probably go along first at least have a conversation with the potential counselor, potential psychologist or a life coach, whoever it is, yeah.
Louise 30:22
And I’d be having that conversation first with them without my child and saying, you know, checking in asking them, you know, the kinds of questions that you need to know the answers for in terms of your child’s specific challenges, and are they experienced in that particular area, you know, and how would they actually work with your child and checking in if, if that feels like the right solution for you and then I would go with your child together for that first session.
Louise 30:54
And obviously, it’s got to be a good match, to be a good match between you and your child because if your child comes relate to them. And there’s no sense of connection and trust, then it’s really a failed exercise. So yeah, it really does become about the relationship.
Bill 31:13
Right. So, so we there’s no sort of harm in going and trying out a particular counselor or, or coach or psychologist and it not working out and then just moving on to the next person, I suppose. Then the good thing about it is we realized what kind of person our child will connect with rather than sort of just forcing them to go and say somebody that there’s no way they’re going to get any help from right.
Louise 31:38
Yes, yes. Yeah, forcing them to do it is yeah, that’s probably going to provide more challenges and then you need which is why word of mouth recommendations are always great. And then you having the initial conversation, and then, you know, maybe meet with two people and see which one your child resonates with.
Louise 31:59
My friend, then pick that person, we don’t want to fall into the trap of jumping from one person to the next and sending the message to our child that, you know, that’s the answer as well going from person to person, but maybe just offering that choice, you know, going to two people and saying which person resonates the most with your child and then moving forward with that person.
Bill 32:25
So, Louise, I know that for a little while now, you’ve been writing the book. Are you able to tell us a little bit about that book?
Louise 32:35
I certainly am being updated a little bit about that book. Yeah, so I’m writing a book. It’s for educators. And it’s really about my passion around educating the whole child. And that, yes, education is about developing the mind, but it’s so much more than that.
Louise 32:59
It is about nourishing the hearts and souls of our kids. It’s about developing the whole child so that they can grow and flourish into wonderful human beings that are tapped into their innate wisdom, that they discover their gifts that they have come here into the world to give, and that they can really develop a life that,
Louise 33:28
That they love and go out and become happy, successful, confident citizens and future leaders of our world, you know, citizens that are, you know, connected to who they truly are, as human beings, that one of the things that are talked about in the book is, you know, the difference between intelligence versus wisdom. And, you know, to me, you know, intelligence is that part of developing the Mind and you know, yes, there is a certain amount of that’s needed.
Louise 34:04
We need to teach maths and writing and literature and all those wonderful things. And there is also the development of wisdom, which is so much more and, you know, there’s so many amazing great leaders, you know, well that have come before us that have really made a massive impact on our planet. And to me when I look at people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa and you know, these wonderful people, they really operated from a place of wisdom, which is more than just mere intelligence.
Louise 34:47
And they have the ability to, to really connect with other people know that they really had the ability to have compassion for other people and and this is this is what I’m talking about in the book that I’ve like to see us as educators and, you know, people who really care about young people develop ways in schools, that we can, on a daily basis, help our children to become karma, become more compassionate, to become more connected to themselves more connected to others around them.
Louise 35:27
And from this place, this is where we can really allow our kids to develop leadership skills and, you know, to to go out into the world and face the challenges that our planet is facing and some of the things are significant.
Louise 35:48
You know, we’re living in a world where, you know, we’ve got climate change, we’ve got extremely high levels of poverty, terror reason, you know, born In schools, you know, we all know that there are significant challenges that are facing our planet.
Louise 36:06
And so we need to equip our children, which are our future citizens, our future leaders of the world, we need to equip them with the skills and the strategies for them to go out and solve some of the challenges.
Bill 36:23
Now, I’m not an educator, but I still get the feeling that this book is something that I could even sort of get a lot out of, because I’m a parent and part of our job right is to contribute in the educating our children, right. It’s not just the teachers role.
Louise 36:39
Right, exactly. It’s a it is it’s a it’s a relationship between teacher and parent. Absolutely. Even. You know, they say that as a parent, you are your child’s first teacher. You know, we are friends, teacher, and
Bill 36:55
Yes. Well, that’s awesome. It’s so great to hear You chat about the things that you do. And the passion in your voice is evident. And the dedication into your job over the last 20 or 17 ideas, shows, you know he’s really coming through.
Bill 37:17
And it’s really amazing that there are people out there that are interested in our children and that are interested in the way that children learn and how they can become better versions of themselves as a child, and as somebody going through the system, being educated here in Australia. I didn’t feel that. And perhaps there was people in the background that were like you that I wasn’t aware of. But I didn’t feel that I was supported by my teachers.
Bill 37:45
And it was something that I I think, caused me to miss out on some of the best learnings of my life, which I’m learning now in my 40s, which I wish I had learned in my 20s Cuz it’s such a long time to get to that place, you know. And part of this podcast is about getting people to where they’d rather be sooner and not wait until they’re 40.
Bill 38:12
Okay, Louise, so we’ve had a really awesome conversation. And we’re coming to that time where we’ve got to wrap up this particular chat and as much as I would rather we continue talking. I’d love it if you could help me, leave the listeners with a little bit of your wisdom. And what I want to understand is in the context of this podcast, is you started off your life or your working life doing things that perhaps really weren’t.
Bill 38:46
When you were passionate about at the beginning, and then you ended up doing a whole other bunch of stuff in between and now you seem to be doing the stuff that really gets you going and really gets you motivated. So How did you go from where you were, that wasn’t particularly ideal to where you would rather be, which is where you are now?
Bill 39:09
And I know that’s a loaded question. But if you could give us a bit of a summary of what happened in between to get you to where you were because I got a feeling that it wasn’t really written out in a plan and all the things were ticked off.
Louise 39:26
Exactly. It wasn’t a straight trajectory and you know, talking to a lot of people that have come from where they were to where they want to be, it seems like it actually never ease a straight trajectory, which is the great part of it, because looking back now, everything that I did, you know, all of the different skills and jobs and whether it was you know,
Louise 39:54
Telemarketing or freelance writing or you know, being a teacher or a In, you know, one of the things I did was running a little antique business, all of these things along the way, I developed skills and I developed knowledge that now has become the way I look at it is like they’re all the pieces of the jigsaw that fit into place that were, as Dr. JOHN Demartini says, not in the way but actually on the way.
Louise 40:25
And so, you know, there was a period of my life where I thought that I was a failure, you know, that I was doing all these bits and pieces of all different things at one point running free businesses, you know, all at one time and, but none of them like really taking off.
Louise 40:43
And so you’re telling myself the story that you know, I was failing, when in fact now in retrospect, I can see and as I work with my clients and parents and teachers and students, there is no such thing as a failure every time thing really is on the way, it’s all a part of our journey.
Louise 41:04
It’s all a part of our learning and gaining the skills and the wisdom and the experience and the knowledge and everything we need for fulfilling our ultimate purpose when that comes to light at the perfect right time, so so there’s a little bit of, you know, my, my kind of sense around all of that.
Louise 41:27
And so just to make it valuable for your listeners, I think what I would say to them is, if you’re somewhere in your life right now, that feels like there’s something more for you, you know that perhaps you feel like you’re searching for what is your purpose or you know, already what it is that you want to do? I would say, you know, find that place inside of you, which I refer to as your heart intelligence.
Louise 41:59
It’s that place Where your values reside where your emotions and your feelings and when you connect to that in with, with your mind when you connect it in and this is a whole other story for another day, when you connect that in with you know your solar plexus with your data and what your gap knows about you and your life and your experiences.
Louise 42:23
There is a wisdom that emerges from there that when you’re really tuned into that, and you get really quiet with that, whether it’s by taking five or 10 minutes to just be present, and just breathe and close your eyes and relax into that place of pace and then listen.
Louise 42:49
Because what you want is you want to be able to follow the voice with inside you write because it’s that voice that will give you the next step. It’s That voice that has the clue of, you know, what’s the next action that you should take? And that’s an important part, right?
Louise 43:08
You might not know the whole plan and the whole steps from here to 100. But all you need to know is what is the next step? What is the next step? So get quiet, connecting with that innate intelligence that resides inside of you. And allow the voices from the outside to just disappear and listen to what comes up inside for you.
Louise 43:35
And that will tell you what is your next step what it will connect you to your inner compass and follow that guidance, you know, follow that guidance. And if it’s not clear, straight away, it will become clear if you spend daily attention and time with this intelligence inside of you because I can give Do you like 150 strategies of a whole bunch of things that, you know, I could do with people and clients and coaching and so on and so forth.
Louise 44:07
But ultimately, it’s you and your own innate wisdom that knows the exact next steps and the exact next action that you need to take.
Bill 44:22
And I’m curious, since you said what you said, it’s really beautiful. I’m curious about so sometimes, though, we make the wrong decision. So what about that like, okay, so I thought I knew what was the next thing, but I made a decision and it was a disaster. Whatever I did didn’t work out. Well, what about that?
Louise 44:42
Yeah. So the next question I would ask you is, is there any such thing as a wrong decision? Right, is there is there ever a wrong decision or is it always about learning and I think that’s the difference. That’s how I would look at it.
Louise 44:57
You know, once upon a time in my life, would have looked at it as failure, wrong decision. But I’ve come to learn that actually, my experience is that there are no wrong decisions, there is only learning. There’s only feedback. And as long as I look at it like that, and I take the learnings and I use that, and I apply that in my life, and I grow from that, there are no wrong decisions.
Bill 45:21
Yeah. Well, that’s good to know. Because I think we’ve all made decisions that have been perhaps not the best over the years. But I suppose it’s making those wrong decisions on a regular basis that really makes it potentially a fail.
Bill 45:39
But if you can sort of learn from those mistakes, and then not do that thing again, or not take that path again. Then you’re sort of really on the way to discovering what the actual next milestone is or how to get there or how to achieve it, right?
Louise 45:55
Yes, yes. And it’s interesting how life will count He needs to, to provide the opportunities for us to make those so called areas in judgment until we get the learning. And miraculously once we get the learning, it’s things unfolding in different wonderful ways.
Bill 46:16
Yes. Speaking purely from my own experience, some of us have a thicker head and take a longer beating up against the brick wall. But until they learn what it is I needed to learn, but I’m discovering that my head is not as able to copy those beatings and now I’ve let go of this constant need to continuously go down a path that doesn’t work out for me,
Louise 46:46
Learning to adapt more quickly.
Bill 46:50
Now, on that note, I really, really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for giving me some of your time and making yourself available. Thank you for the beautiful Wisdom and the things that you’ve shared with us. Just before we go the way is this somewhere where people can find you, if they wanted to get in touch with you
Louise 47:09
sure, they can visit my website at www.louisegilbert.com or they could shoot me an email, which would be always at empower kids now.com. And I’ll be more than happy to, to hear from any of your listeners and support them and answer any questions they might have.
Bill 47:34
Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for your time, and all the best with all the things that you do.
Louise 47:39
Thank you, Bill. I so appreciate it. I’ve really enjoyed chatting with you. It’s been an absolute pleasure. So thank you.
Bill 47:46
I know I do. Bye now.
Louise 47:47
Okay, bye.
Intro 47:51
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Intro 48:17
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