Have you found your passion in Life?
If so, you are living your Big Life.

Would you like to help people find their big life by sharing your passion?

Abiglife.biz is the simple way to find or share your life’s passions. It’s free, easy and by joining abiglife.biz, you become part of our Big Life community of enthusiasts and experts who are connected by the passions they share.

Watch this space…. abiglife.biz is coming soon

McNab’s Energy Tabs is running a competition via its facebook group where you can win a month supply of McNab’s Energy Tabs.

The competition involves posting a photo of a McNab’s sachet, in an exotic location, on the McNab’s Energy Tabs Facebook group under the photos section. Click here to go straight to the group and enter your photo.

That’s it!
The picture that captures McNab’s in the most exotic location wins the prize.

Keep living the Big Life and Good Luck!

New release: “How to have a Big Life” by Rupert McKerron.

How to have a Big Life is a short, clear and cleverly illustrated book that could quite easily be enjoyed on a flight from Joburg to Cape Town. But don’t be fooled by its simplicity, How to have a Big Life contains a wealth of insight into techniques and methods that South African businessman Rupert McKerron has learnt and continues to use in his own life.

“There are many things that I was not taught in school that I have had to discover through trial ad error,” says McKerron, “but what I have realised is that following your passion and purpose in life is as important as good nutrition and physical health.”

How to have a Big Life brings together the basic skills and tools that McKerron has found most helpful in his quest to follow his own passion. “ I wanted to share what I have learnt with others in an accessible and easy to understand way.” explains McKerron, “I hope that this book can help inspire others to make changes in their own lives and follow their passion.

Rupert McKerron is founder of McNab’s Energy Tabs, a caffeine free energy supplement that has taken off in South Africa in recent years.

How to have a Big Life is available at leading South African bookstores, or online at Kalahari.

We talk to acclaimed wild life filmmaker, Kim Wolhunter about WildCast where he shares videos, photos and regular updates about his life in the bush.

What is Wildcast all about?
It’s about keeping up with world trends and using broadband as a broadcast system. Especially as people are moving away from traditional television and watching more and more on the internet/broadband

• It’s about using new technology to get images/videos out to the world on a daily basis.
• It’s about creating an awareness of my work.
• It’s about creating a community.
• It’s about generating additional revenue to help fund my productions.

What is your passion in life?
Wildlife. I just love to be out in the field all day experiencing what animals are up to.
Or even no animals, and just experiencing wilderness.

What is the best part of your work?
My work is my hobby! So I really don’t see it as work. No wonder I hardly take any holidays.
I love the challenge of getting great images and making great movies, which I think I’ve achieved, but for me my greatest achievements are gaining the respect and trust of my film subjects that they totally ignore my presence. So much so that I can walk with them and interact with them. Especially as I did with hyaenas. That sort of stuff puts me on a high. You can’t beat being accepted by a totally wild animal. It’s just so cool.

What is the worst part of your work?
Having to find ways to pay the bills. It’s an expensive hobby as camera equipment is so very expensive.
Negotiating contracts for film projects is a pain.

Ever thought about giving it all up?
No. But when I’ve battled to get finance on several occasions I’ve been on the verge of having to pack it up.

What do you consider a successful life?
I think success is having a life where you can combine your work and your hobby so that every day just melts into the next and life is never a chore. Basically living your dream. If you can achieve that and be financially sound then you must have been successful.

Go to www.wildcast.net to see his amazing videos…

Going green: we talk to the founders of www.urbansprout.co.za , which is all about organic food, climate change, ethical consumerism, sustainable lifestyles and environmental justice.

What is your passion in life?
wanda: following my heart, freedom to express myself, my son, my husband, open spaces, the sea, mountains, and singing.

glen: my son; my wife; gardening; enjoying the outdoors together whether walking, camping, staring at the ocean or on a road trip; travelling, the adventure of discovering special places; and of course the urban sprout website! These are all passions of mine.

What is urban sprout all about?
wanda: motivating and encouraging people to live in a greener more sustainable way. We chose a blog style, so that we can write informally, from the heart, and give a human perspective to our writing, and we’ve combined our almost daily updates with an awesome directory filled with organic and eco-friendly products, businesses and alternatives to the way we live today. We’re hoping people use our website as a way to make easy, mindful changes to the way they shop.

glen: Wanda summed this up perfectly. The original idea was for it to be a directory of green and eco-friendly products that would have the effect of connecting people with each other and spurring further interest in more aware living. The blog and news aspect evolved as we tinkered with setting up the site.

What made you start urban sprout?
wanda: we’d been trying to make something ‘fit’ for a while, and flirted with opening a healthshop cum deli, but fortunately for food fundis decided to do what we do best – write and design a website that would make a difference!

glen: doing something that could make a difference. I really believe that supporting local organic food is a start and as you go down that path, you begin to question a lot of other facets of modern living that need to change.

What has been the most satisfying part of writing this blog?
wanda: how naturally the material seems to flow, and the feedback. We thought that constantly finding ideas that were fresh and appealing would be arduous to say the least, but there is so much going on out there, and so many people eager to contribute, that writing has been a lot of fun. And when people stumble upon urban sprout and love it, as many of our readers do, then the feedback is always welcome!

glen: getting encouraging feedback and meeting cool people that have a common green interest. Seeing something that we created from scratch evolve and take shape from the original idea; hitting the Publish button on a post that I enjoyed writing.

Do you ever feel like giving up?
wanda: we’re doing all of this part-time, so things can get overwhelming and stressful, particularly as we both know the potential urban sprout has to really go places!

glen: in the beginning when we didn’t get many visitors to the site I did wonder what all the effort was for. Then I decided just to put in the time and see what happened.

Have you encountered resistance to urban sprout from society/friends/family?
wanda: no, there has been no resistance from our friends and family – although not everyone understands what it is we’re trying to do! I’ve already got a bit of a ‘reputation’ when it comes to eating organic and healthily, so they’re not all that fazed.

glen: I think some family and friends may have thought we were a little crazy in the beginning, but that was more to do with our recycling and growing efforts rather than urban sprout, the website. I suspect some still wonder why we’re doing it.

What are your dreams for the future?
wanda: to get more involved with other people doing similar things; it’s important that we feel part of a growing community.

glen: I would love to be able to devote all my work energy to urban sprout, whereas at the moment it is a part-time venture.

We talk to Steuart Pennington, co-founder of South Africa- the Good News project, which is all about celebrating positive side of this country.

What inspired you to start SA - the Good News?
I wish I could say I had some sort of epiphany moment, but in truth the idea behind starting the business was as result of an argument at the dinner party where I felt absolutely powerless to deal with many of the conventional wisdoms being thrown around the table. I had had experience before of compiling and publishing books using the inputs of a range of different contributors, it seemed like a logical thing to do in respect of our first book: South Africa - the Good News. We solicited views of some 70 prominent South Africans.

What has been one of the most difficult moments during the creation of SA -the good news?
I guess the most difficult moments have to do with the financial “risk” of a new venture, do we make a video or not, do we embark on industrial Theatre or not, do we write another book or not. I have never had difficulty with the message, or with the workload, or was making things happen. I really believe that passion for what you do carries you through even the most difficult times.

What advice would you give to those out there who are struggling to achieve their goals?

It is often said that a startup business takes a thousand days before you can truly decide whether it has traction or not. Passion, perseverance, conviction and just plain hard work make up 80% of what is required to succeed. Vision and a good idea makes up the balance!

What are your dreams for SA -the Good news in the future?
I want to expand the project into Africa, and I want to make a significant social contribution in South Africa particularly in the areas of volunteering, education and crime. Just so you know we are busy with four new books: volunteering, Africa, 2010 and crime. That should keep us busy!

Go to South Africa - the good news and see what it’s all about.

Hear what author of “Strange Nervous Laughter”, Bridget McNulty has to say about writing, success and all the rest…

In brief, what is your book all about?
Strange Nervous Laughter is a book about love. About being in love and out of love and on the brink, and about what love makes us do. I’m fascinated by why people act the way they do - the reasoning behind their actions, figuring people out, seeing how they’ve been changed by life and the living of it - so that’s kind of the fuel that drives the book.
But it’s also about Durban, and summer and food and sex and whales and the sea and green tea and garbagemen and undertakers and travelling around South Africa followed by a trail of honeysuckle. It’s unlike any other book (as far as I’m concerned!)

What inspired you to write “Strange Nervous Laughter”?
I’ve always written, but I only had ideas for short little excerpts, I hadn’t found the kernel to write a whole book around. And then I went to watch this play about what people say to each other in bed (strangers, lovers, old married couples); and while the play was quite bad, it got me thinking about that intense intimacy when there are just two people in bed with each other, and there’s so much going on in both people’s heads (or not) and it’s such an emotional space. So I wrote three little vignettes of that and then the book grew out from there.

Did you ever consider giving up and tossing your manuscript in the bin?
Not quite tossing it in the bin, but there were a good few months last year (while I was waiting to hear back from publishers) when I thought, “Oh well. You’re too young, you need to go out and do some living, then you can try this whole writing thing again.” I had been told by a lot of people that I was too young (I’ve just turned 25) and I shouldn’t get my hopes up, so there was a sense of it being me against ‘real life’. Luckily, ‘real life’ didn’t win!

What has been the most surprising part of writing “Strange Nervous Laughter”?
How much work it takes to write a novel! I naively thought that once you had the rough draft and had rewritten it once or twice you were pretty much good to go. But no! Not at all. It took many months of rewriting and re-imagining to get it to where it is today. I feel that in the process of it becoming the book it has become it’s forced me to become the person I wanted to be. Challenges can really put you through fire - and what comes out the other end is always so much stronger.

What do you think makes a successful life?
That’s an interesting question, and one that I think people don’t often think through a lot.
As far as I’m concerned, it boils down to love. You have to love your life, and in order to do that you have to be clear on who you are, and what you want, and where you’re going. And then, when you have that excitement about every day because you’re so engaged in what you’re doing, then everything works out for you, you’re in the flow. And in that state you’re overflowing with energy, so you can give it to other people, and new projects and new growth.
I think a lot of the time we’re stuck in feeling tired and unenthused about life because we’re not in love with our lives.

Want to find out more about Bridget McNulty and Strange Nervous Laughter? Check out her website or chat to her on her blog.

Tertia Albertyn is the voice behind the phenomenally successful blog: So Close -After being so close for so long, I have finally arrived. Life after infertility.

Why did you first start the So Close?

I started blogging in April 2004, three months after the death of my son and a month before starting my ninth IVF. I started blogging to connect with people who were going through a similar situation as me, ie infertility. And to journal my experience through the IVF.

My blog has since moved on from being an infertility blog after the birth of my twins and now I blog about my life, which means the things I talk about could be anything from babies, to boobs, to botox, to books, to whatever else I feel like talking about.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of writing your blog?
Well, besides the physical reward (I got a book deal through my blog), I get enormous value in connecting with the people who read and comment on my blog. I don’t just write blog posts; I engage in conversations with my readers.

Have you ever wanted to press ‘delete’?
All the time. Yesterday in fact. The risk for blogging so openly and putting yourself out there is that people feel they are entitled to judge and condemn at will. And of course the anonymity of the internet means that mean-spirited cowards have a field day. But most of the time, 99% of the time, I love blogging and I get huge reward from it

What would you suggest to people struggling to achieve their goals?
Never, ever accept ‘just because’. Nothing is ‘just because’. Take charge of your own destiny, create your own future. You can do, and be, whoever you want to be. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise

What do you consider a successful life?
Happiness. Quite honestly, if there is one thing I wish for for my children, it is happiness. Because if you are happy, you are rich beyond compare. Do what makes you happy.
Take a look here and see what all the buzz is about

To see what all the buzz is about go to So Close and follow her latest controversial saga…the boob job.

What makes a web developer tick?
Naufal Khan shares his views on life.

Can you give a brief description of what you do.
I am a web developer by career, a writer in my spare time and a globetrotting explorer. Most of my time is spent working on exciting projects to make a user’s web experience better. I also head a online lifestyle website which helps create dialogue and interaction amongst people.

What do you define as a Big Life?
A Big Life begins with a small thought and creative energy and with adding in some motivation you can achieve a Big Life. For some it may be the red carpet and for me its just waking up to another day knowing you are going to engage change and become Remarkable.

What is your passion in life?
My passion is live everyday better than the one before and share the same spirit and will to take on a challenge with another.

Have you always known what you wanted to do?
I learn more about myself everyday, everyday I do new stuff be it work related or not. I have never really liked the idea of having a masterplan for me its to just go with the flow.

If you were to have a motto for life, what would it be?
Remember your past, live in the present and prepare for tomorrow.

Naufal manages and designed www.indianspice.co.za, www.speakindian.net and you can see his portfolio at www.khan.co.za . He also is involved with hosting and marketing events and parties to get people together to just chill out and have fun.
(This is what was in Naufal’s drawer today!)

Lady Lea Kiss FM tour
One of South Africa’s top dj’s, Lady Lea, has paired up with another leading lady, DJ Shannon and for the last couple of weeks they have been roaring up and down the country holding party after party to launch their Kiss FM album.

And it looks like things are getting even better and bigger for Lady Lea - she is off to the Berlin Love Parade to represent South African house music to over a million people!

Lady Lea is leading the life… to find out more go to www.ladylea.co.za