The seed was planted for GO! Smell the flowers during one couple’s experience of travel during a break from the rat race.

When Jim and Emma resigned from corporate to see the places they’d always wanted to see they took a gamble, a journey into the unknown and time out to ask what it’s all about. Having successfully scaled their corporate ladders they felt something was missing.

At Jim’s farewell lunch his boss said:

“We’d all love to get out of the rat race - We wish you luck on your travels. Enjoy it when you smell the flowers”

Meeting each other was only the start of something special and sharing their dreams and for the first time in their lives actually wrote them down. Asking each other what they wanted out of life, they scribbled down lists and let their imaginations run wild and list the places they hoped to see ‘one day’.

From their base in Dubai they headed to South Africa’s garden route and returned to the UK to catch up with friends and family before cycling around Provence . Climbing Peru’s Machu Picchu brought with it the unexpected as did R&R in the Bahamas , a Full Detox in Thailand and Shark diving in Bangkok.

After a proposal on Machu Picchu and a Thai beach wedding they returned to Dubai as Mr & Mrs with the makings of a book, large debts and a new outlook to put into practice back in the ‘real world’. They smelt the flowers, both kept journals along the way and are on track to publish their adventures in a truly unique way in 2009.

Back in the commercial world based in Dubai their primary objective was to inspire and be inspired. Qualifying as life coaches, Jim returned to the construction Industry to utilise his Masters degree in Civil Engineering and his skills learnt at the Chartered Institute of Marketing focusing on team building and vision setting. Meanwhile Emma started her own life coaching practice being commissioned by companies to inspire teams of employees.

Summer 2008 finds them on another flower smelling sabbatical - this time for 6 months covering a Thai Spa , a ranch in the Canadian Rockies , Cuba , France , England , Scotland and India . As they use the time to meet potential agents, publishers and media houses to find a suitable home for their first book, GO! Smell the flowers with 3 more books in the pipeline.

They have aligned themselves with other flower smellers around the world, connecting and learning from others along the way. Partnering with the team at Flora2000 based in New York & Mumbai GO! Smell the flowers is about to become a thriving online community focusing on health, inspiration, travel, food and books with content from 16 flower smelling founders plus guest writers that are experts in their field.

The GO! Smell the flowers tag line ‘One journey - many discoveries’ is something they’re striving for not only here on line but also in day to day life.

Their journey continues with plenty of discoveries along the way with major changes planned by the end of 2008. Whatever next? Well, that would be telling!

What they’ve learnt

Some of the highlights of what they learned along the way during their travels:

• Variety in life helps the clock tick slower
• When travelling - Eat where the locals eat
• BIG Spiders aren’t that scary
• No four wheel drive can beat the Peruvian horse or the Thai elephant
• Amazonian Mosquitoes are invincible
• In France, only four items are required for a fabulous picnic: A good bottle of wine, a freshly baked baguette, some ripe cheese and a farmer’s field
• Cubans make the best Mojitos
• Writing a book takes far longer than we anticipated
  
• Colonic irrigation in a Thai Spa is a weight off your mind
• South African ostriches are not easy to ride

The GO! Smell the flowers tag line ‘ One journey - many discoveries’ is something they’re striving for not only here on line but also in life! So, that’s their experience of smelling the flowers - they’d love to find out more about YOU so feel free to get involved and smell the flowers while you still can.

Life really is too short not to - discover what your flowers are, smell them while you can as life isn’t a dress rehearsal.