Colette Heneghan

Director

I have always been passionate about food and natural approaches to health, however this wasn’t my first career path. I graduated from Manchester University with a First Class Honours in Business & Information Technology. I was ambitious, with a keen interest in technology (especially mobile phones – the bill alone at university was testament to the extent of my commitment to it) and my goal was to be a CEO for a technology-based company as quickly as possible.

I joined a large global mobile telecommunications company as a graduate and worked my way up the business, changing roles every year moving onwards and upwards.

I was the youngest in a high-performing team of Global Account Managers, managing a strategically important client, a huge revenue target and a dispersed virtual team.The role was interesting, challenging and I enjoyed the sense of competition, however I started to feel the consequences of being ‘hyper-connected’ ‘multi-tasking’ ‘information overload’ alongside ‘long-working weeks’. Sound familiar? I was feeling wired but tired at bedtime, yet unable to sleep restfully, followed by low energy mornings, I swapped meals for meetings and day-dreamed about the luxury of having enough time (and energy) for the gym. I went on a mission for answers to remedy this, surely there was a better way!? Right? So, I asked colleagues, professionals and people I admired, who I assumed were thriving in this climate – however what I found was quite surprising – they were overwhelmed, frustrated and without time to breathe too! Their answer: ‘let me know when you find an answer!’

The challenge had been set, so I decided that I would find the answers and went back to full-time studies. I studied for 5 years, fast-forward another undergraduate qualification and a Master’s of Science later (plus qualifications in a whole range of areas from Yoga to NLP). I have answers and a tested approach to inspire action, ensuring we move from knowing to actually doing. Combining corporate, busy, deadline, technology-driven world understanding with human physiology knowledge to ensure the results are relevant, practical and achievable.

My personal mission and that of Optimum Living, is to support organisations, teams and individuals, to create environments where people can be their best they can be and truly thrive – enabling professionals to do more, of what they do best!