A backpack is a metaphor for life. The lighter you travel, the happier you are, with less baggage to carry. It is understood to be seen as reducing the material objects that oppress us, weigh us down and make us sad or depressed. They represent our worries, issues, irritations and problems. We all carry a backpack, and it’s full of all our issues, priorities, baggage and lots more. Whilst we know we need to understand what is in our backpack, do we really understand what it looks like? As it’s behind us, often it can appear out of sight out of mind. We may or may know or realise that we can add to our backpack at any time, but do we, and do we add the right things at the right time? Are we happy with what is in our backpack, and have we identified what we are happy
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The only constant is change and never more so than now. Our emotions are up and down, our plans aren’t fitting, our goals aren’t working, and as for our actions – perhaps not getting done either. Before we can tackle all the things we know we should, we need to see to ourselves first. Bring back balance into our life as best we can. Consider what ONE thing you can do right now to give yourself, make yourself feel better, a reward or treat, time out to see someone or do something you haven’t for ages. Never mind thinking, I haven’t got time and I’ve other priorities. Consider this being an investment in YOU. Putting the oxygen mask on you so you can help others and do what you know you need to do the best way you can. How can we do this when our self-esteem is low, our
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The best things in life are free – aren’t they? Often the things that have the most value or quality cost nothing; the price of something does not always properly indicate its value. For example, experiencing the love of a baby is really life-changing. Seeing a loved one happy because of something nice you’ve done or given, gives us a huge adrenaline rush. It’s been said that money can't buy the most important things in life. We often take things for granted, don’t we? Our health, our freedom, our situation. However, when something happens, and this is taken away from us for whatever reason we feel the loss so bad and wish we had made the most of what we had when we had it. We often may appear ungrateful for what we have, perhaps wishing we had what others have, instead of feeling grateful for what we do have
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I’m sure like me you see quotes or mantras that totally resonate with how you’re feeling, or the way things are for you at the time. We can all take away great tips to make us feel better and to encourage us to have positive thoughts and keep motivated. In such changing, difficult and stressful times, we need to ensure we take care of ourselves, feeding us with as much positivity as we can despite all the things going on in the world. In business we have a responsibility to ensure our team is supported the best way we can. We want to support our family and friends too, however, we do need to start with us, don’t we? We can worry about things that don’t get us anywhere which doesn’t help. I recently came across this quote which fitted perfectly. “Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you
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We are all struggling right now and some more than othersWe are worried about the current situation and our futureWe may have mixed emotions with differing views, activities and situationsWe may be struggling with work, business, home, family, friends, finances Whatever the situation we are in or dealing with we need to recognise the emotional signs of stress and how we might be able to manage them as best we can. What are 5 emotional signs of stress? Psychological and emotional signs may show themselves through feeling depressed or anxious. We may feel angry, irritable or restless. Sleeping may be a problem along with a feeling of being overwhelmed, unfocussed, unmotivated with an inability to focus or concentrate on basic tasks. Worry starts to kick in making problems seem larger than they are causing us to make erratic, rushed and perhaps bad decisions. We may have a problem breathing and
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Recognising signs of stress We are all struggling right now and some more than othersWe are worried about the current situation and our futureWe may have mixed emotions with differing views, activities and situationsWe may be struggling with work, business, home, family, friends, finances Whatever the situation we are in or dealing with we need to recognise the emotional signs of stress and how we might be able to manage them as best we can. What are 5 emotional signs of stress? Psychological and emotional signs may show themselves through feeling depressed or anxious. We may feel angry, irritable or restless. Sleeping may be a problem along with a feeling of being overwhelmed, unfocussed, unmotivated with an inability to focus or concentrate on basic tasks. Worry starts to kick in making problems seem larger than they are causing us to make erratic, rushed and perhaps bad decisions. We may have
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To pay it forward means that instead of paying someone back for a good deed, you do a good deed for someone else. Paying it forward inspires generosity, empathy, concern and compassion. Whilst we are often chastised for thinking of others more than ourselves, or putting others first before ourselves, and encouraged to put ourselves first more, paying it forward is more about how we can help ourselves feel better by giving. We know it’s better to give than to receive. Focusing on others rather than ourselves, particularly when things aren’t so good can help our mental health and our emotional wellbeing. Paying it forward helps others and us! When we help others we get a euphoric feeling afterwards, giving us that ‘feel good factor’. This feeling generates loads of positive things in our brain making us feel so much better. Sometimes doing something for another person might just be
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What is it about habits? The ones we want to introduce (i.e. the good habits) into our lives we can’t seem to embed and find difficult to introduce, and the ones we don’t want to adopt (i.e. the bad habits), we seem to find no problem keeping them and which are unable to shake off!! Why? Murphy’s Law? Or is there a strategy we can use? You might find some of the tips below helpful to use to lose those bad habits and adopt those good habits. Firstly, let’s look at what a habit is. The meaning of the word is ‘a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up’. As I mentioned earlier, ‘hard to give up’, which explains why we are unable to drop our bad habits. ‘settled or regular tendency or practice’ explains why good habits are so hard to introduce,
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I hear you already! Goals! I have no time to write goals! I write them down but don’t look at them! I try to achieve them, but stuff gets in the way! I understand ALL of the reasons and have heard of them all over the years. However, if we don’t have a goal we don’t have a direction. Perhaps you could carry out the FIVE steps below and see if you can pass the test! Please do let me know how you get on! (adapted from coaching tools) STEP 1 - The Simple COMMITMENT Test How committed are you to achieving your goals?On a scale of 1 – 10 what do you score?If your score is less than 8, what is getting in your way?How can you address the obstacle?Then score again and repeat STEP 2 - The NOW Test! How much do you really want your goal?If you
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It can be really hard when you’re in business either as a soul trader or limited company, particularly when starting as a single-person enterprise or ‘one-person band’ to try and show your point of difference, unique selling point or niche. You might find the points below helpful in working through the steps to identify how you can stand out from your prospective, potential or current competitors. Even if you’re looking to set up a hobby business you might find these steps useful also. Something that you're interested inFirstly you need to identify where your passion lies and what you spend most of your time doing. What is it you totally obsess about and don’t stop talking about? What is it that gets you most excited that you talk to others the most about? Something that addresses a market needIt’s all very well having a passion for something but is what
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