AS I WRITE this, there is a lot of social media attention on International Women’s Day, which is very focused and inspirational. However, I am a bit disconcerted as I think every day is an international women’s day.

I was asked to speak at a conference in London to celebrate the event. It was a very trendy IT cloud-based company with fantastic facilities, skateboards and rugby balls to stimulate clever ideas – paradoxically the audience was mainly male, half my age. One, 26, had just bought a new Porsche outright with his last month’s bonus – definitely not my comfort zone!

However, they were really interested in the topic of re-invention; they all felt they would not be in this type of work for many years and they still had another 30 years of employment.

It takes confidence, self-belief and courage to change course dramatically.

It takes the ability to reflect on who am I, what do I want to be, and how am I going to get there. These prompt individual ownership of the action required for the change to occur and to recognise that skills are interchangeable into diverse roles. Nobody is going to do it for you, you need to want this to happen. Perhaps becoming a parent is the most common life changing re-invention.

There can be different drivers for change – need for more money, personal happiness, culture or simply wellbeing. It doesn’t need to be a major change, sometimes the smallest can have the largest effect: losing a few kilos, starting to run short distances, new haircut or making the point of smiling and engaging with people, but it can make huge difference.

I found the audience engaged, positive, enquiring and challenging. Despite the strong difference in age demographics and work experience, we had much in common.

I came away re-energised, feeling very positive and enjoyed spending time with such nice people.