Gina Gardiner is a No1 International Bestselling Author, Motivational Speaker, Empowerment and Relationship Coach, and Transformational Leadership Trainer with well over 30 years of experience helping people experience happiness, success and fulfillment. She’s the founder of the Thrive Together Tribe membership and personal and spiritual development program and The Enlightened Leadership Program.
Gina has learned to walk twice as an adult. For over 20 years, she ran her award-winning school, for the most part from a wheelchair. The gift of this experience was the development of a unique approach to life and the development of transformational leadership.
Gina's journey has not been an easy one. She became the youngest Deputy Head Teacher (Deputy Principal) of the largest school in the district, at age twenty-nine in September 1982. She had a serious ski accident in February 1983 when she fell between 150 and 200 feet down a black run when the mogul she was sitting on gave way. Gina then became the Head Teacher of the school 7 months later when the Head died suddenly in his sleep. Gina became the Head (Principal) and ran the school for twenty-one years --mostly from a wheelchair.
Necessity is the mother of invention. The greatest gift of her disability was the creation of a very different approach to helping people step into their genuine power. This facilitated a unique and highly effective leadership program, based on mutual respect and people taking radical responsibility for their performance and shared responsibility for the success of the school.
The strategies were successful, and the success was sustained was demonstrated as the school won several accolades including being on Her Majesties’ Inspectorate’s (HMI) ‘Best 100 Schools (In England,)’ list, twice during my leadership.
Work was great pain control, Gina became very good at switching her body off whilst she was working but it was taking its toll. Gina left Headship in 2004 because her health was deteriorating but, she was not ready to sit at home and be limited by her health.
Gina reinvented her professional life and published her first two books (Manage Your Staff More Effectively and Kick Start Your Career) to give herself credibility in the business world and expanded her coaching skills. She became an NLP Master Practitioner and coach.
Over the years it has become very clear when working with individuals, couples, teams or whole organizations that the vast majority of challenges or issues fall into one of five categories: beliefs, particularly self-belief, love and relationships, achieving and sustaining success, managing change and transition and finding a sense of purpose and fulfillment.
These are represented by the five secret pathways in her latest book, ‘Thriving Not Surviving – The Five Secret Pathways To Happiness, Success, and Fulfilment.’ In the book, Gina shares the principles and lots of practical strategies which have helped her and clients achieve greater happiness, success, and fulfilment. These act as an SAT NAV to help people navigate the challenges of life.
"I believe that disability is a metaphor for life. Limiting beliefs: I’m not worthy, not clever enough, too old, too poor, not beautiful enough, etc. keep people stuck. I may have challenges with my mobility but I have the capacity to wheel away (usually at high speed) in my wheelchair. I have learned that it is not the challenges that define us but what we do with them. Focussing on what I can do rather than what I can’t and challenging those beliefs which have the capacity to limit have made a tremendous difference to the quality of my life."
