I recently posted a fun ‘winging it’ message on the Guilty Mother Facebook page and I was overwhelmed with the response. 1,489 likes, 24 comments and 542 shares. In fact the response was #mothermazing. Mothers (yes, that’s us) and when something is ‘amazing’. I know what you’re thinking. Genius.

So, when we think about our lives, are we just winging it most of the time? Yes, I can be a bit of a planner at times, but if the circumstances call for it, I’ve wandered, improvised, dreamed, schemed and created things off the cuff. I find myself winging it more and more these days. In fact, I’m embracing it and that’s why I think it’s a good idea to not plan things out all the time.

Going to a meeting, sometimes I have no idea what I’m going to talk about until I get into the room. On other occasions, I organise a meeting with my team, lose my draft notes and just wing it off the top of my head.

I’m sure everyone has plenty of examples, like having people over for dinner and quickly rustling something up (the entire cupboard contents), like you prepared it well in advance. Everyone is so impressed with the delicious food but you know, smugly, you just completely winged it and no one needs to know about it.

When I think about the Guilty Mother blog, my writing is inspired by general conversations I have with other women. It fuels most of my content. When I started Guilty Mother, people would ask me “How do you start blogging? Where do you get your ideas from?” I came up with a few wonderful, lengthy answers, but really is just as simple as, giving it a go.

This makes me think, perhaps everyone is just winging it, making it up as they go. Some just wing it better than others. So why would that be? Does it comes down to confidence?

In my work-life, I lead a team. I confidently lead a team and they believe in me, our objectives and our goals. I know and passionately understand that leadership really isn’t about me, it’s about the people around me and the results we achieve. That message also rings true for Guilty Mother. It’s not about me, it’s about how my followers get something from what I write. It’s driven by you. If you don’t enjoy it, I won’t write it.

As I get older, I am embracing more new opportunities and realise that life is too short not to. I could encourage more women to ‘give something a go’. I was talking over dinner with a lady last night. She said she was intrigued by my blog and loved the idea of writing her own blog. She said she wouldn’t know what to write about. I asked her one question. “What are you passionate about?” She said food. I told her that if she started an Instagram account with well photographed, vibrant images of her healthy meals, she’s likely to attract hundreds of followers in no time. I mean really, who doesn’t like food? She could then create a blog off the back of her Instagram following or vice versa. I am not a social media expert in any form, but she told me I had inspired her and she might give it a go. I hope she does. Either way, the fact that women empower each other couldn’t ring more true here.

Taylor Swift recently admitted that she just ‘wings it’ when celebs join her on stage during her tour. So if Taylor Swift is doing it, then surely that’s OK for us to do it too?

I mean, let’s be honest, I just completely ‘winged it’ writing this blog…