New Beginnings

When we’re little we have so many hopes and dreams 💭💭💭

As we grow, life throws so much at us that it can feel overbearing at times …

Don’t downgrade your hopes and dreams to match the current reality.

Instead, upgrade them and wish to your heart’s content. 🙏

Having a vision of how good life can be, helps to propel you forward.

It increases your resolve and determination.

Helps you to see the bigger picture.

Don’t let the doom peddlers get you down. 🤦‍♀️

Let’s champion those who succeed against the odds:

Sarah Townsend 
Linda Khalid 
Martha Van Dam, M.S., LMHC, NCC 
to name but a few.

Life hold no promises but a positive mindset does more than just help you maintain your resilience, it improves your immunity and gives you a fighting chance, going forward.

I wish you well in everything you do.

Thinking especially of all those who have children back at school / nursery this week (or last) and feel the anticipation and joy that the new season brings.

Who else relishes the fresh ...

Why simmer when you can sizzle?

Wait, so you're afraid to shine

because you're worried about

the opinion of people around you

... who are also afraid to shine?

Sounds like a severe case of needing new people around you!

You want to change but you're holding yourself back, and why?

WHY? Ask yourself.

Instead of others stealing your motivation, remember that the reason you're seeking change is your motivation!

Ask yourself, why might you be seeking change?

Look at the diagram above ... why not sketch your own mind map, similar to this one?

Add your own reasons.

See if you can identify just what it is that you are after, how you'd prefer to be. What is it that you're no longer satisfied with?

How would you feel if you made that change?

Why is it important to you?

I've created the 'Your Why' diagram as a prompt but go ahead and create your own.

Don't wait for the right time ... 

Only you can do this and if your stress response is triggered when you try to step out of ...

I decided to GIVE UP on Instagram...

I've loved creating Reels and having fun on the platform...

But... I realised I wasn't getting a return on investment of my time or my team's time.

When I studied the data (yep, that is SO important for your business)...

I realised that I was getting much better ROI elsewhere...

Nowadays, I share my weekly Blog on my website...

And post on Instagram if I feel like it...

And here's the thing, I'm also noticing a chunk of Insta influencers talking about other social media platforms...

As Instagram algorithm reach is spluttering to a stall, they're increasingly asking, where next?!

And here's why they're turning to other video hosting platforms:

>> Videos can become your evergreen content machine and LAST YEARS rather than days.
>> People are actively searching on Google for solutions ...

Type any question or search term into Google and see what suggestions it comes up with for example type the term Fire Fighting and you'll get both the actual action of Fire ...

Fight or Flight?

Gosh what a day!

Have you ran away from a Sabre-tooth Tiger lately? 

Maybe you haven't but the stress you feel when you're late to work or the growl your stomach makes when you haven't had anything but an energy bar or coffee in the morning, is the same stress response that we had when we were cave-men and cave women!

That stress response is called 'Fight or Flight'. Your body doesn't know the difference between running from a tiger or rushing your kids to school. Your body's stress response is triggered in both situations so your blood pressure, heart rate and food digestion is the same for both.

The difference between you and the caveman, is that he was able to relax in his cave soon after the chase but you, on the other hand, may have to deal with the stress of racing to school, traffic, work, relationships and everything else life throws at you. Plus, add in the stress from the chemical foods you may eat, and it's like running from the sabre-tooth all day lo...

What Three Words stand out for you?

For me it's:

Realistic, Helpful and Informative

This has become my measure for what a good social media post should be. If you tell yourself it needs to be  realistic, helpful and informative, then you're most likely to create engaging content that attracts attention ... or so they say! Further to this, if you use these as your hashtags they may steer people in the direction of your newest Blog, Insta post, TikTok or Facebook post.

Expectation

We're told, aren't we? ...

• Engage your audience
• Inform and Interact
• Make it relevant to add value
• Post at peak times
• Research your hashtags! (Hey?) 

Reality

Yet in reality, our approach is often a case of throwing something at the wall and hoping it sticks!

Do beware of posting social media content, however, that doesn't serve you well.

It's all very well having a social media post that gets attention ... we all love to be loved. We adore the 'likes' and 'loves' and 'applause' emojis and the a...

Have you heard the term Future Pacing?

Well 'Future Pacing" is a type of mental visualisation.

The suggestion is that setting a future target or destination, and anchoring or connecting changes and associating resources to this future situation, brings us clarity by helping us focus on the target ahead and then to think backwards from our end goal.

It is used a great deal in coaching and NLP, in fact I've created an entire course based around this theme but I simply call it 'Think Backwards' (to fast forwards your life)!

So let’s future pace what you need to do to reach that illusive goal ...

Well to start with I recommend proceeding with caution and that's because, if we set ourselves hard and fast goals, rather than looking to simply keep ourselves focussed on our target, we can set ourselves up to fail. 

So why not ask yourself, 'what's the bigger picture?'

If you can't think of what it is that you do want, then begin by noting the things that you absolutely don't want and...

Think About Your Future Self!

Let's be honest.

False Modesty!

Finding Balance

Healthy balance - where we’re mindful of our wellbeing.

For me, MESS = STRESS!

I've been clearing clutter from my house recently. A long overdue task and it amazes me how easy it is to collect, but for me, mess equals stress. I can't think straight when everything is just dropped and pushed into corners 'to be dealt with'.

I've come to realise that a chaotic physical space can equate to a chaotic mental space, so I've come up with some practical solutions, that help me overcome that sense of overwhelm that creeps in, when I don't feel I'm being organised. In turn, I feel as though I can achieve and succeed.

What is your physical space saying?

Well to begin with, each time you look at it, if it makes you think 'Ughh, look at the state of that', as you make a mental note that it needs dealing with, then you need to do something about it, as these small daily stressors can add up. In truth, you feel bad about it and the mental agitation that stirs within you, when ...

What makes a Happy Workplace?

 Yet again we hit upon a topic that is searched an infinite number of times world-wide! In fact Google Search throws up about 248,000,000 results! So if it's such a hot topic, why is it so hard to achieve? 

 I remember choosing this topic as the subject of my dissertation in 2012, when I undertook my MBA (Masters in Business Admin) at DeMontfort University, UK. I was keen to research Employee Engagement.

I'm in Spain on holiday as I write this, so don't have my dissertation to hand, believe it or not (haha), but for all the research and interrogation of results, the one thing that stood out, above all else, was that employees wanted to feel empowered. They also wanted to be appreciated. The two went hand-in-hand.

After all, the employee had secured their role, primarily because their essential and desirable skills were a close match to the Job Description. They could therefore be trusted to make that role their own, demonstrate their aptitude and...