Developing Your Own Changing Room!

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Change! The definition being to make or become different; alter; to replace with or exchange for another to change; to transform or convert or to be transformed or converted. Most of us resist change, particularly if we aren’t in control or part of that change process. There are some of us who embrace change and see change as being an opportunity rather than a nuisance. If we aren’t prepared for change then how can we embrace it with confidence? There’s a lot to be said about staying put, remaining in our little cocoon, our comfort zone, safe, or appearing safe. However, we aren’t standing-still are we? We are going backwards because most other people are changing and moving forward. You may feel we don’t really have a choice, change is inevitable and we have to think positively about change itself, how we might change and how this might affect us,

Be positive and great powers will come to your aid!

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Often, we are faced with challenges which derail us sending us into a downward spiral of negativity and hopelessness. When this happens, we can’t stop the feeling of impending gloom or doom. We find it hard to focus on any strands of positivity. I’m sure like me you come across people who always seem to be and remain positive despite the challenges they face. In fact, I would go as far as saying that those with the most challenges and dire circumstances seem to be the most determined and positive people I’ve ever met. But where do they get it from? Is it learned, is it inherent in us, were we always like this or did it materialise because of our circumstances? Alternatively, perhaps it’s a choice with positive people; they decide to choose the positive option or is it something they work on? I wonder how anyone with continued

The ‘F’ Word!

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The ‘F’ Word! What is it about the ‘F’ word that we hate? The word failure is seeped with emotions, stress, memories which can trigger so many responses from us – one of them is flee! Yes, we flee from potential failure, but why? Just the mere thought of failing can bring about so many feelings within us of our own inabilities, inadequacies, that we want to avoid at all costs. And yet failure whilst difficult, you could argue is a definite, a certainty isn’t it? Failure involves us stepping outside our comfort zone, doing things we don’t feel totally confident in doing, taking risks whether large or small. We avoid facing or taking these risks because we fear failure. And yet, we know that taking risks will by default, regardless of whether we succeed or fail, help us grow in confidence. With the ‘at least we tried’ mentality! As

Confidence – Are we Born With It or Is It Learned?

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Wow! Talk about a leading question, however, the reason I wanted to cover this today was because it has cropped up a couple of times with various people I’ve spoken to recently which led me to think there are a few ‘schools of thought’ out there and perhaps it was worth mentioning these to gauge your thoughts and to get you thinking about whether your confidence is where you want it to be and if not what you might be able to do about it from now on. It is commonly believed that confidence isn’t something that can be learned, like learning how to drive a car, but that it’s more of a state of mind. If we work on the basis that it’s based on our state of mind, then we know confidence comes more from how we feel about ourselves. Our own self-belief and how we feel about

Identifying the Bottleneck In Your Business!

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Do you have a bottleneck in your business? Can you identify exactly what that bottleneck is? Do you know how to reduce or remove the bottleneck? These are some of the questions I would like you to consider today particularly for those of you who are in a new, small or medium business. Sometimes we may be a single person enterprise or have a team of helpers who may be direct employees or partners. Either way it’s usually us who must deal with the strategic elements of our business. We need to be able to look ahead to determine what is coming up, however, the day to day running of our business can sometimes take over, preventing potential bottlenecks. This is fine of course if we can ‘see’ the bottleneck coming up! As we know things happen when we least expect, and with the best will in the world we

It’s Relationships That Get Us Through Isn’t It?

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After the tragic and traumatic events of last Friday imprinted images are embedded in all our minds. We all left reeling with waves of varying emotions within us, from anger, frustration, sadness, confusion and many more. Like any senseless act which takes innocent lives, it makes us wonder what in the world are we coming to when we all live in the same ‘place’ and should be living in harmony and peace and not war and hatred. Today, however, I wanted to focus more on how we manage dealing with ‘events’ that may affect us directly and indirectly, and how we might manage to work out how we process what has happened, move forward, working through our feelings, thoughts and memories of that day. We are a social animal, and as such need interaction with others, particularly in the aftermath of something that affects all of us in many ways.

Is Your Problem Child Your Business?

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As a business owner, I find it interesting hearing other business owner’s thoughts and views about being a business owner, what it’s like and how it feels, particularly compared to their previous ‘lives’ as an employee and the difference from being in a corporate world and being self-employed. We have this dream about being a business owner, conquering the world; being the best at what we do. We dream of being our own boss, no-one telling us what to do, choosing the hours we want and working the days we choose. Then of course reality kicks in and hits us just where it hurts! The business we set up and grew, isn’t growing as we want it to, or going in the direction we saw it going. Perhaps the clients we expected to come knocking at our door are looking elsewhere. The dream ‘child’ we imagined as a business owner,

Finding the RIGHT way – Do it YOUR way!

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You probably recall the song by Frank Sinatra ‘My Way’ which came out in 1969? I’m not going to talk about the song but about doing things the right way or your way! The song talks about the end being near, facing the final curtain, living life to the full, travelling each and every highway, having regrets, planning a chartered course, taking careful steps along the byways, biting off more than he could chew, facing up to things and standing tall, laughing and crying, and having his fair share of losing. Wow! That’s some list isn’t it? The song, and its lyrics made me think about how we spend our days often doing same or similar tasks, trying to find better, easier and more productive way of doing things so we can get more out of each day. I’m sure like me you’ve had family, friends or colleagues who have

How focused are you on your business?

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Are you in your business or on your business? Is what you’re doing right now going to lead to a sale or a new client? How much of your time on any given day is chargeable time? Intentions – Our aim and purpose might be to allocate a certain amount of time on our business but, what happens? The ‘day’ job takes over and we end up being pushed into operational tasks rather than focusing on the strategic elements of our business. Present and Future – We know that the past has gone, that we need to focus on the present, but to make the best of each day we need to think about how we see our future and plan what we are doing. This means starting with the long-term goals i.e. where do we see our business in years to come, and are we heading in the right

If You’re Happy and You Know It!

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I’m sure you remember the song “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”? I was reflecting on this and what really happiness means. We know this means contentment, gladness or joy, however, are we happy and do we know it? Have you thought what makes you happy and what do you do to make you happy? I try and work on being happy now, because working on being happy surely means I’m not happy now! Here are some of things you could actively do to help you feel happy: Gratitude – We need to start from a place of being grateful for what we have. If we’re not then we are discontented. Being grateful needs to be an action that we do and not just a thought. We default onto negative thoughts mostly focusing on what we don’t have rather than what we do have. Task 1