Eileen’s books are evoking new entreprenurial spirit
TO spend even a short time in the company of Eileen Forestal would leave you feeling motivated and inspired.
Just by listening to her own personal story of going after one’s goals and helping to inspire others would leave you with a strong need to put life into perspective.
And, that’s what Eileen has been doing now for eleven years with her Get Up and Go diaries and books.
“One of the motivational quotes we have used is if you asked a group of people in a room to write down their troubles on a piece of paper and shared them around you’d take back your own one,” she says.
Three years retired now from the HSE where were she was a consultant anaesthetist at Sligo University Hospital, Eileen, originally from Dublin and now living in Hazelwood, has seen her brand establish itself not only in Ireland but the UK market as well.
Apart from the Get Up and Go Diary 2018 there’s now a Get Up and Go diary for busy women, a travel journal and a diary for boys and girls.
There’s even been enquiries to establish her business in other countries such as Iceland while she’s already had a trial run with a diary in India.
The appetite for inspirational messages of support and motivation has no boundaries it seems.
A motivational conference has alsobeen added to the Get Up and Go brand and a date has been set for next year’s one in Sligo, September 21st.
The books are selling very well and no great marketing or advertising is needed.
“We get many calls and letters from people saying they had bought a book or were given one by a friend and how it had come into their lives at the right time and they thank us for that and that makes it all worthwhile,” she says. It’s not a hobby she stresses and the company behind the books is making a healthy profit.
To sum up her books, she says she isn’t saying anything that hasn’t been said before, essential wisdom which has been passed on from generation to generation.
“It’s just in a different context,” she says. Eileen says she’s not particularly religious or spiritual but seeks a balance in life where we can be both inspired and inspiring.
It’s good, she says to focus on the positive, the upside of life, adding features to give our life more quality such as getting into sport and fitness.
Eileen’s been living in Sligo since 1995 and feels the place has a positivity like nowhere else, putting it down in part to the good energy of the Garavogue River and mesmerising mountain that is Knocknarea.
In was in the early 1990s that Eileen first came across a motivational diary called the Irish Survivors Diary. She discovered it was ceasing in 2006 so went into partnership to keep it going, eventually making it her own and changing the title to Get Up and Go Diary.
Eileen’s partner, Brendan, a native of Newry came on board in 2008 and it has been a case of expansion ever since.
She’s also kept busy with invitations to conferences and various talks, a recent one in Limerick she learned her books were recommended for women suffering from post-natal depression.
The designer of her books is Mullaghmore based Nuala Redmond while her illustrator is based in he UK. Last week, she was putting the final touches to her 2019 diary.
She loves the fact that the North West will be the EU’s European Entrepreneurial Region 2018, a fantastic opportunity she says to show off what the region has to offer besides its beautiful landscape and music.
“A lot of focus will be on the region next year and it’s an ideal chance to show how creative we can be here and that it’s not all about tech either that we can bring health and creative arts into it as well,” she says, adding that she believed Ireland was bursting with innovation and creativity.
Eileen very much wants to see people to come forward with their ideas and not be afraid to do so.
With a background in the medical field, Eileen still keeps an interest and says it is a profession that is working under huge pressure. She feels that caring profession needs looking after too and its needs are now only being looked at.
“Doctors are supposed to be super human but they aren’t,” she says, adding that it is an area that should not be ignored.
And, she stresses, everyone is on this earth for a short time. She loves Ireland with a passion and everywhere she goes she projects a positive modern image of the country.
It’s a shining example to the World of how peace can be achieved and we should be able to push on even further she says, evoking a strong sense of entrepreneurship, that we’re up and going, not clinging to a past.
“This country has great energy and we need to embrace it. Don’t always take in the bad news, be aware of the good stuff to. We have to be able to balance it,” she says.
We should always be grateful for what we have. “Writing down each day three things we are grateful for is a very useful exercise,” says Eileen.