Annabel Candy, writer

Self Improvement, Improved

Thanks for visiting Get In the Hot Spot for inspiration, information and idiosyncrasies to help you live your dream.

This blog’s for people with goals, it’s for anyone who wants to live the best life they can and be surrounded by positive people.

It’s a practical guide to help you live your dream with:

• Sound advice for self improvement and personal development;
• Tips on how to get there by goal setting, overcoming your fears, and getting motivated;
• Support and understanding from like-minded, positive people.

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Round up of the best articles on self improvement, travel and blogging. Check out the funny ones too if you like a quirky sense of humor.

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About The Writer, Annabel Candy

I started Get In the Hot Spot to inspire and inform people on how to live their dream.

I’ve achieved many of my lifetime dreams including:

Living abroad: in the USA, France, Zimbabwe, Laos, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Australia.

Traveling widely: in Europe, South East Asia, North America, Africa, Central America, Australasia and the Pacific Islands.

Getting married and having kids: but not in that order. I have two boys and a girl, all at primary school.

Becoming fluent in another language: French, my Spanish gets me by, my Lao did too at one time.

Getting a tertiary degree: an MA in Design for Interactive Media even though at the time (1995) I knew nothing about computers. It was a steep learning curve and there were a lot of tears. I also have a BA in French and English.

Doing adventure sports: like white water rafting, bungee jumping and learning to surf aged 40.

Owning my own business and working from home: my husband and I set up our own business in 1998. We run a web design and Internet marketing company called Mucho and specialise in setting up effective websites for small businesses.

Being a writer: I overcame my fear of being read. I love writing web copy for my clients and am lucky to get paid for doing what I love. As well as writing my own blog I’ve written for some of the most popular blogs on the Internet including Problogger, Zen Habits, Dumb Little Man, Life Hack, Write to Done and Unclutterer and my travel article about Granada, Nicaragua was published in The Sunday Telegraph.

My current dream is simple: to live in a hot country, near a beautiful beach and divide my time between writing, family, surfing and soaking up the stunning natural beauty of my new home. I’m so lucky to be living it. I have a few outstanding dreams including more travel and a deep yearning to return to Africa. I know that that will happen in the fullness of time.

Where Are You From?

I was born in England, but I recently moved from New Zealand to Australia via Central America – not the most direct route but we had fun! I traveled extensively before having kids, and lately I’ve been on the move with my young family. I love travel writing and documenting the trials and tribulations of moving overseas.

I’m now living my dream in Queensland, Australia with my gorgeous husband and our three bright, good-looking and very well-traveled children. Read more about my adventures here.

Why Do You Write About Self Improvement?

I just want to share everything I know about it with other people and help them get the life they want. It makes me sad to see people who are unhappy with their lives and who end up regretting things they never did. All my life I’ve taken risks and worked hard to get the life I want. I don’t have all the answers but I have got heaps of ideas, suggestions, thoughts and questions that I know help people.

I love learning, striving to improve myself, encouraging other people and living life to the full.

I’ve read shelves of self improvement and personal development books, scoured the world in search of happiness, made a lot of mistakes along the way and learned from them.

I still have some outstanding dreams like traveling to places I’ve never been before, revisiting my favorite countries and getting a book published, but I’m pretty happy with where I’m at right now.

Have a laugh and read more about me and my adventures here.

What’s With The Toucan?

Another dream my family and I pulled off recently was moving to Central America. We sold everything and set off for the unknown with three kids, no spanish and no real idea where we were going, or what we were going to do when we got there. One of the things were were looking forward to seeing before we left was toucans, but we never dreamed that they’d visit out garden in Costa Rica daily. They did and we loved it.

To me the toucan symbolizes adventure, passion and the joy of being alive. We also loved a little phrase while we were away which helps instill a ‘can do’ attitude: I Can, You Can, Toucan.

Have You Written a Book?

I’ve got at least two books in me. One completed manuscript and one in progress. Literary agents, book publishers and editors can find out more here.

Is Annabel Candy Your Real Name?

Kind of! It’s not officially – I still use my maiden name (Annabel Moffatt) on my official documents and on my company website. But I am married to the lovely Rich Candy which is definitely his real name and use my married name Annabel Candy for my writing and just about everything else. I just don’t see the point in spending a lot of time and money changing it on my official documents when I don’t need to.

Contact Annabel

Please email me (annabelcandy at gmail dot com) or leave a comment in the replies box below. I’d love to hear from you and look forward to reading your comments or answering your questions.

Not Too Small Print

This website is written and maintained by Annabel Candy, although some credit should be given to the lovely Rich Candy. Okay, quite a lot of credit to Rich actually.

The stunning header was conceived and designed by Kate Harwood, probably one of the most talented graphic designers in the world, and definite proof that great things come in small packages. Many thanks to Rich and Kate for all their help and support.

All content is copyrighted by Annabel Candy but if you want to use it please do so ~ as long as you credit me and provide a link to this website it’s fine.

Disclosure

The main purpose of this blog is to help other people live their dream  and help me establish myself as a writer and get a book published. If I was planning to make big money from it, I’d probably have advertising and sell other peoples’ prooducts.

But since I spend a lot of time on my blog and like to be paid for my writing, I’ve joined Amazon affiliates and may even make enough money from that to buy my own book one day. Wouldn’t that be grand? I might try some other affiliates in the future too because I think this blog provides great information and I’d like to be paid for providing that service.

These days the FTC makes bloggers provide disclosures when there could be hidden interests or biases about recommendations so, because I like to do things by the book and don’t relish the idea of a life behind bars if I do ever earn money through this blog, here’s my disclosure policy.

Please assume that, for every recommendation, link, and product I mention, the following all hold true:

• I get paid for writing it;
• I get freebies;
• I’m in cahoots with the people who will profit;
• I have shares in the company.

Sounds good to me, not matter how unlikely it is.

Oh, and if you’d like to benefit from the superb web design, web marketing and web copy writing services offered by my company, Mucho, get in touch to request a quote. We do get paid for desiging websites, blogs and web hosting but we offer excellent results at even better rates so our clients love us. It’s mutual and I’d love to help you set up a website too.

Finally, if you’re a huge company have some pricey products you’d like me to endorse please send them my way. I can’t promise to write about them but I’ll be happy to try them out and, if I do think they might benefit my readers, I might even mention them on my blog. I know you probably won’t though and that you’ll keep sending freebies to the big name newspaper and magazines instead of me but still, it’s good to dream.

Thank You To My Wonderful Readers

Thank you for your involvement and comments. It’s a pleasure to connect with interesting, inspiring and diverse people from all around the world. I’m so pleased to interact with you here and thank you for your support and kind feedback.

Please know that we’re in this together. I want to be your personal cheer leader in your quest to improve your life and I promise to keep writing articles that are:

• Relevant to your goals
• Fast to read
• Actionable
• Uplifting and inspirational

If there’s anything special you’d like me to write about or something you want to hear more about just let me know.

In the meantime, good luck with all your plans.

Final Reminder – Don’t Delay, Subscribe Today

Most new readers spend a minute subscribing to Get In the Hot Spot because it’s a brilliant way to stay motivated and inspired, plus it’s totally free.

Don’t miss out. Please subscribe now by email or to choose RSS for updates in your feed reader.