Every now and again, this blog gets personal. Very personal.

Today is one of those days. Not because I feel particularly inspired to share how I am feeling, but as I am sitting here on a Sunday, enjoying the Spring breezes through my balcony opening, I thought I would share with you something that a former Monk shared with 800 people at a conference I attended in Istanbul.

There is a reason why this marketing blog has been neglected and it's not something that I particularly wanted to share.

And, to some extent, I won't.

However, today I received in the mail a book and it was a reminder that 'everything happens for a reason'.

I travelled around the world twice in six weeks for business and when you do such an exhaustive trip like that, twice, you immediately get a feeling that 'it had better be worth it'. Fortunately, it always is. Afterall, its a journey and when we embark on any journey with an open and honest mind, we move that step forward to realising whatever it is that we were meant to realise.

I cannot be sure whether it is because I have a whole heap of friends are reaching major milestones by turning 40 and 50 respectively, or that it really is a reflection of where I am in life, but there has been alot of discussion of late about the meaning of life. And to be honest, I really like it.

Sometimes, life doesn't go as planned. And that is ok.

As we continue to embark on the journey of life, we will experience it in it's enormity. Sometimes we will be so happy, we will literally want to pinch ourselves. Other times, we will be grateful and know that we are lucky to be in the position in life that we are in. There will be times where we will be sad and disheartened, but those, we hope will be few and far between. They will only help us build character and learn what we want out of life and what we do not.

About 10 years ago, I was in New York for a holiday and by chance, I happened to be in town when there was an entrepreneurs event with Jack Welch.

I sat down with my friends who were also in business and watched Jack Welch talk about his story of how he changed GE and his philosophies on business.

Easter is but a faded memory (too much chocolate, an abundance of hot cross buns and vino to wash it down) and most of us are already back in the grind of every day life (that means "work" for those of us who are not still in holiday la la land).

I have arrived safely at my desk at 11.30am after an early morning interstate flight and am a bit weary even though I have just spent 5 days away, in the most picturesque setting possible with loads of sunshine, great wines and good food. The company wasn't too bad either ;-)