Do you find you are busy rather than productive? It’s interesting that Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” There’s a lot to be said about being busy doing nothing, or nothing of value and feeling you’ve been unproductive at the end of the day! We know we should do the hard jobs first and the easy ones later but doing what we should and what we want are two different things! There’s a saying by Franz Kafka that says “Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.”, and pretty much this is true in that we can become more successful and productive if we keep learning and remaining focused on the task in hand as well as our long-term goals. We sometimes feel we should or need to do more, when
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Do you often have that feeling of ‘why’ do I do this and ‘what’ made me do that, or ‘how’ could I have reacted in that way? As a business coach and mentor probably one of the most common words I use is ‘why’! If we asked ourselves what stops us achieving, doing things we’ve dreamed off, taking ourselves outside our comfort zone, we would have to admit it’s nearly always us! We limit ourselves by telling ourselves we can’t do something, or good things never happen to us, always to others. This continued negative belief creates barriers to us even trying let alone achieving. I thought it might be helpful to share FOUR insightful questions you could ask yourselves to establish your habits for success. 1. Self-Sabotage – Do you? How often? Why? Instead, ask yourself what you could do instead to break the pattern, to create a different
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Imagine if I asked you right now, what your three biggest stresses are. I’m sure you would find it easy to identify these. Whilst, if I asked you to tell me what your three biggest strengths are you would struggle to answer the question easily, and almost need coerced into describing these in full. Why do we do that? How does that help us? When we do this how does it make us feel? What message are we giving ourselves? When we’re feeling pressured, unproductive, perhaps overwhelmed and generally frustrated about things not going the way we want, the last thing we’re going to be able to focus on are the positives, our strengths, what we might have done well. Instead, we focus on what we didn’t do well or what’s gone wrong instead and stress about it. We know that stress is a state of mental or emotional strain
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Could we have ever imagined things would be as they are and will be for the short, medium and perhaps long-term. Given all the changes that have taken place over the last three months or so have caused us all to reflect on our situations, what has happened and what might happen. What I’ve heard from some clients is that they haven’t felt as productive as they normally are, feeling more emotional and tired. For other clients, what would have seemed totally impossible or unworkable i.e. working from home, and been a struggle to start with, oddly has started to become more manageable and felt to be better than before, with some really enjoying less travel for example. We’ve moved from a solid platform to shifting sands which has caused us all, I’m sure, to reflect on ourselves, our relationships, highlight our weaknesses and strengths which have come to the
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There’s a great proverb that reads “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” which means that it is not enough to simply mean to do well, one must take action to do well. Easier said than done isn’t it? What do intentions and actions mean? Actions are activities we do or the acts we carry out that are measured by their completionIntentions are goals or plans to be carried out with a purpose and a reason or objectives Most of us are the same, in that we can have great intentions of what we want to do often procrastinating and not carrying out what we intended. Here are SIX steps to use to help you fulfil your goals and be accountable. Write down your intentions – If you just think about your intentions without writing them down, you’re less likely to action them. Writing them down documents are
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Your business with extra professional attentionSupport so you can strategically grow your businessHaving help building a vision for how your business can look now and after the pandemic Imagine having a qualified and experienced coach and mentor acting as an accountability buddy Imagine having a support person to help you reassess your situation to create new opportunities Imagine having someone providing you with the confidence to face new challenges ahead Imagine having someone to help you find solutions to problems to focus on the best way forward. It’s so hard to imagine the future of your business during these uncertain times, but we need to, don’t we? Doing nothing isn’t an option, but it’s hard to do something when we don’t know what the ‘something’ is that we should or need to do. There are a few ways in which we can imagine our business: Consider possibilities – what’s plausible
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How persistent are you with perseverance?How purposefully do you persevere? Did you know that with determined perseverance you will succeed?Did you know that if you persevere you will win in the end? Persistence is about doing something, anything, despite difficulty or complexity of the situation to achieve success or to achieve a goal. Perseverance means continually being determined and commitment to dedicate time and focus to finish the task. It’s a great way to get things done and done right! However, HOW can we persevere and be persistent when we aren’t fully energised or motivated, particularly now when things ‘out there’ are so unknown? Here’s some steps you might want to consider: Be clear about what you want and why - if you are clear where you are going you won’t stray off onto another track which becomes a dead-endHave a positive mindset - this is where spending time developing
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We know the most constant thing is change, and never more so than now during COVID-19! It seems that everything is different and may not ever be the same. Sometimes this can feel overwhelming and stressful, however, change whilst partly is unnerving, it can also be exciting and invigorating, almost enticing us to think differently and inviting us to be creative and consider doing things different and maybe better than we did before. Each business, industry and service and has, is and will be affected in some way or another. Everyone of us, and not just in business needs to change the way we do things. Having to do things differently impacts us on every level, emotionally, physically, mentally, practically, personally and professionally. The benefit we’ve also had and have, is that we’ve had and have time to execute that change and the change process of thinking different, providing our
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It sometimes seems hard to remember ‘life before COVID-19’. A time when we’d never heard of it; it wasn’t a frequent daily reminder on radio, TV and internet. We can’t escape it even in our bubble haven. These constant reminders can be draining. I see COVID-19 being like a Tsunami. A huge wave has crashed upon us, our lives, our family, our work, our business. It’s size is immeasurable. We have been picked up and carried against our will and without any control to a place unknown. Not knowing where we might land or what the world will look like when we do. When we do land, and we will, we have to make the best of our new circumstances, our world, our views and current practices. We have to consider how our work routine or business services will change as a result to fit in and suit the new
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COVID-19 has caused us to rethink everything. Our plans, our goals, mission, vision and purpose. It’s as if they were all a pack of playing cards which have been thrown up in the air lying randomly on the floor, scattered. This can cause us to feel overwhelmed, anxious and concerned about where to start and how to wade through a sea of uncertainty with what type of future lays ahead. However, we must start somewhere and now is the time to start! Step 1: We need to think about what our first goal is for right now. By right now I mean for the next one or two weeks. Focus on how you might action that goal, what you need to do and who might be able to help you. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help, support or advice, whether this is a friend, family, colleague or business
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