Inspired Life Skills was created by Jo Bates in 2011. Jo had embarked upon a successful IT career straight out of college and soon found herself travelling the world as a consultant. In her late 20's she became a horse-owner for the first time and returned to the UK, where she met her future husband. A couple of years later they were getting married, she had 3 horses to care for, was starting a ne
w job as a full-time IT consultant, was a volunteer with St John Ambulance, and was moving house. On top of that, her Mum was ill with breast cancer, and her Dad had pre-senile dementia. Not surprisingly, she had a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with stress-related depression. It was then she decided that something had to change, and she embarked upon a journey of self-development and discovery. She read countless books, watched TED talks, attended courses, and invested in coaching, whilst at the same time studying natural horsemanship with her horses, which turned out to have a major impact on her too. A few years down the line, Jo had qualified as an instructor herself, teaching natural horsemanship to others, and her clients were asking her to also help them with goal setting. Then in September 2010, Jo's marriage suddenly ended and she found herself absolutely devastated, and yet also feeling very positive and upbeat, and surprised by the strength she found to move on. It was then she realised she had learned and grown, and that perhaps she did have something of benefit to share with others. And so the first Inspired Life Skills course was launched, in 2011, initially only offered to people she knew and who'd been asking for help. It was a great success, and she went on to run another course in 2013, after much persuasion from one of her horsemanship clients. This particular group continues to meet now, some 4 years later and the course has evolved such that there are now 3 courses available for those who want to explore the topics at a deeper level. The growth from these amazing women has been astounding and she feels very pleased for and proud of them all! Since starting the first course, Jo has continued to learn and grow, and work on her own goals. She went on to achieve her biggest dream and goal of having her own horsemanship facility and keeping her horses at home, as well as finally walking away from her full-time job in the City of London and spending more time teaching horsemanship as well as developing this course. She is still learning and growing and admits that she still gets it wrong and struggles sometimes - she just has some better tools and skills available to her so that she can move on sooner. So rest assured that Jo has been there too, and knows how hard it can be to change old patterns, and she's ideally placed to recommend tools to help you move on. Jo's objective now is to inspire and help people to learn some skills that will improve their lives, and to contribute to making the world a better, more positive place. Jo has come to realise that these life skills can be learned - we don't have to be born with them, and this knowledge can suddenly free us all to achieve things we didn't think possible.
