SOS – Setbacks or Speed-bumps

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SOS - Setbacks or Speed-bumps We probably all know what SOS stands for don’t we? Help! Save Our Souls! An acronym, abbreviation or slang word; an international code signal of extreme distress, used mainly by ships at sea. However, this isn’t the SOS that I’m referring to, but setbacks or speed-bumps. Setbacks! How do you deal with them? How do you recover from them? How do you regain control afterwards? If we’re honest with ourselves, we all have setbacks; we might not shout them from the rooftops, but we may share them with close friends or family. It’s because we don’t share them and ask for help, we need to find our own strategies and have a comprehensive toolbox to help us manage them. Here’s some tips: Take time out – so what, something went wrong, or you made a mistake; but you are not perfect and so take some

It’s That Time of Year!

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It’s that time of year isn’t it when we aim to set our New Year’s Resolutions! But what’s that all about? How many of us set them let alone achieve them? Aren’t they just the same as goals? And if we look at how many of us set goals and not achieve them, or at least find they were unachievable in the first place! We know our goals need to be SMART – specific; measurable; achievable; realistic; timescale, but do we focus on outcome of where we are going to be and how we are going to feel at the end? Most of us don’t achieve our goals because there is no emotional benefit for us; it’s just too hard; we often just set goals for things we know we should be doing rather than what we want to do, no wonder we don’t achieve. You may be reading this

The Bars of Life, would you have a Bar of it?

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You’ve likely heard the saying “I wouldn’t have a bar of it?” The origin or meaning apparently stems from USA with bar being short for barrow, i.e. “I wouldn’t take a barrow of him even if they or he was giving it or him away for free”! Or it could be referring to a bar of chocolate i.e. “I wouldn’t want anything to do with him even if it came in a bar of chocolate or he or it was neatly packaged up like a tasty bar of chocolate”. How about imaging it’s neither of these, but more an acronym – BAR. Let’s look at what this acronym is and means and how we can integrate BAR into our lives. B – Believe – We need to believe in ourselves, in what we do, our abilities, our goals, our desires and more importantly our abilities. We can be our worst

Shudder the Thought!

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Shudder the Thought! I recently revisited Napier, the last time being 10 years ago. One of the return visits was to the earthquake museum. The video talked about ‘The Day that Hit the Bay’ and it also referred to Napier as being ‘The town where time stood still’. This got me thinking about how an event such as an earthquake or other major event in our lives can change us forever and affect us in ways that we don’t even realise until much later. These events in our lives leave scars, emotional, mental and sometimes physical, which can be seen and felt by us and others. Napier’s event reduced a city to rubble, killing and hurting many, leaving pain and heartbreak for lots of people. However, in time a new beginning came about, a new city with an Art Deco theme incorporating many cultures across the world. When we have

We’re Going On a Bear Hunt!

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I was recently made aware of a children’s book called ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ by Michael Rossen, and this made me think about how this relates to us in our adult lives. The children’s book is portrayed as an exciting and thrilling adventure with a success of sorts at the end, which is scary and frightening but exhilarating at the same time. This made me think that this is what we do all the time in our personal or professional lives. In the book, the challenges are getting through long grass, a big river, thick mud, deep forest, cold snowstorm and a dark cave before the bear is seen! What I particularly loved about the challenges in the book, was how they were portrayed in overcoming such ‘obstacles’. There were 3 choices to go over it, under it or through it! And of course, none of the above

How Determined Are You?

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You might have your own business, or you might work for an organisation. You might be retired or just starting out in your career. You might be embarking on a new venture in your life. BUT! How determined are you to do it and how do you keep being determined? Are you determined? Let’s look at what determined means. The dictionary says it’s about being strong-minded, unwavering, untiring, firm and resolute. Would you say this is you, or is this you sometimes, or only with certain things in your life? I bet you are like most of us in that you might be determined some of the time with some of the things and not with others, or that determination wavers from time to time due to other factors in our lives. There are two sayings about determination that I really like: “You’ve got what it takes – but it

Life is 10% – Reaction 90%

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You’ve probably heard the saying “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it” by Charles R Swindoll? However, have you ever really thought about this in depth and how we can and do apply this in our everyday lives? I am sure you can all relate to the fact that we are made up of our experiences and those people who influenced us in our early and informative years; those people who were our role models, and those whom we thought were ‘right’! We all have good and bad days, and on the good days, if you’re like me then you might be more patient and understanding than on those real ‘bad’ days when you might feel everything has gone wrong, and you have that ‘can’t be bothered’ mindset. We might have something thing happen to us on a good day and react to