My One Word For 2015

December 30, 2014 by 34 Comments

My one word for 2015 is…

We’ll come onto that in a minute, but firstly I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that you’re looking forward to a fabulous New Year.  If you don’t celebrate Christmas then I hope you had some well deserved time off.

We had a lovely time, lots of time to read and doodle, playing board games and just generally relaxing, something I find a bit of a challenge but seem to really enjoy at Christmas.

At this time of year I like to set myself a word for how I want to feel in the New Year.  I’m a coach and I’m all for setting goals but I also like to have a word to guide me.  A word I come back to time and time again is FABULOUS.  It sums up everything for me; happiness, fun, joy, glamour, relaxation, family time etc.  This year for some reason I want a different guiding word.  Fabulous will still very much be me but this new word will be my driver.

My one word for 2015 is going to be;

SIMPLICITY

To help me remember this I’m going to use my favourite motto of KISS – Keep It Simple Sweetie.

I can sometimes overcomplicate things in life so I want to bring in simplicity.  This is going to be across the board – in how I run my business by bringing in systems so that I can move it up to the next level, the services I offer and how I offer them, and in life I also want to keep things simple, to go with the flow of the day rather than keep ‘pushing’ in my normal style.

Simplicity #simplicity #goal #coaching

I plan to organise my day, my home, my life in a way that feels easy, in a way that enables me to be more present with my family and have time to spend with my friends. I can spend a lot of time in my head and find it hard to shift into relaxation mode, so being more organised will help me with this.

I plan to choose what things are right for me and what aren’t, to set the right boundaries in my personal and business life.   One of the big lessons I learnt this year is that I know when it’s the right decision because it brings me peace.  I am going to read ‘whole’ books, so that I feel like I’m completing them rather than dabbling and not finishing them.  I want to create more things, whether that’s in my card-making, crochet, doodling or creating things for my business – I love creating.  Part of that is co-writing some chapters for a book – exciting!  Simplicity for me also means I’m going to spend more time on my own self-care.

Focusing on how you want to feel what word would be right for you for 2015?  It doesn’t have to be just one, you can have more but having one is a great way to stay committed and focused.

How would life be different if you used your word to guide you throughout 2015?

Check out this fab website where you can start to explore one word that’s right for you.

I hope you enjoyed the mini series leading up to Christmas.  If you missed it you can find the links to each day here…

These steps are the steps I used to build my own coaching business and they also relate to each of the modules I teach on my live Coaching Rocks Bootcamp programme that’s starting up again on Monday 12th January.  I’m going to be running the bootcamp with LIVE weekly training so if you’ve been thinking of working with me then bite the bullet and grab my Early Bird Offer.

Due to the VAT guidelines I’m withdrawing the Self-Study programme tomorrow, 10pm GMT, 31st December.  If you want to build the foundations of your fabulous coaching business in 12 simple steps then now is the time.  After tomorrow the self study version is gone.  Here’s what one of my clients said about the programme;

Anna BC Testimonial

Let me know in the comments below what your word for 2015 will be.

Happy New Year!  Here’s to a fabulous 2015!

Until Next Time Blog Image No Logo

Filed Under: Boundaries, KISS, Simplicity Tagged With: ,

Clear your head

September 20, 2013 by 2 Comments

Do you have a clear head? We often declutter our homes but what about our minds?

Have you made a list?

This past few weeks have been really busy for me and I don’t know about you but when I get busy my mind gets busy too. I am one of those people that has to make a list, I need to get things out of my head and down on paper.  In fact, if I talk to my friend and she picks up that my mind is too busy she asks me, ‘Have you made a list?!’ She will literally nag me until I’ve written one as well! I love that girl!

Often people have different methods for keeping a clear head, whether it’s putting on some music, doing exercise, talking things through with someone.  For me the clarity comes with a notebook and pen.

New season, fresh start

At this time of year it’s nice to have a fresh start, it’s almost like the beginning of the new year as we go into a fresh season. So why not make that fresh start now and start clearing out all of those things, even if it’s just to get them on a list so that you can get some perspective.  Often the things we think are a priority aren’t a priority at all but we’ve made them enormous in our minds because of the clutter.

What difference would it make to you if you took the time to clear your head? Look at the checklist below and see if there’s something that’s bugging you that you could deal with.

  • Outstanding DIY jobs
  • Relationship issues (those conversations you know should happen but you don’t want to deal with)
  • Projects at work
  • Garden
  • Those million and one creative ideas for your business
  • Your goals and dreams
  • Your ‘I must do that’ jobs
  • Your daily household type job
  • Money matters
  • Health and wellness – starting to eat healthier, get fitter etc

It’s all white noise

Noise that we don’t need. When our minds are over busy it can be difficult to recognise all of the things we are achieving, we focus on what we are not getting done instead of what we are.  It can dent our confidence where we feel we aren’t in control.  I wrote an article here about ‘Letting Go’ that gives some useful strategies.

What impact is it having?

It can be useful to think about the impact that not clearing your head is having on you and on others.  Are you feeling agitated, overwhelmed, being a bit snappy or withdrawing because you feel you can’t take any more on?

Make the choice

What’s in your head causing your mind to be cluttered?  Make the choice to start working on it today, just take one small step towards sorting it out. You’ll be surprised at how much easier life is when you do.

How great will you feel at Christmas when you’ve worked on some of those things that are bugging you? You can be singing along happily to your favourite Christmas music, looking at your list and be proud of all you’ve achieved.  Oh by the way, don’t forget to add Christmas shopping to that list!

 

 

Filed Under: De-cluttering, Overwhelm, Procrastination, Simplicity Tagged With: , , ,

Work-Life Balance

May 17, 2013 by 1 Comment

How is your work-life balance?  Are you so chilled out you’re horizontal or are you running around like a headless chicken wishing there were more hours in your day?!

Image: Pinterest, Source: Unknown

It is easy to forget how fragile life is and burn ourselves out trying to prove something either to ourselves or to others, so  how do we get off that hamster wheel?  Firstly it’s about being aware that it’s happening in the first place.

You may know that I am happily married with a teenage daughter.  My husband and daughter are incredibly supportive of me and I absolutely enjoy spending every moment with them, but when I’m in work mode they have no chance of accessing me.  Physically I might be in the room with them but mentally I am working out solutions in my business or the next project.  I am a Coach, I know the importance of creating balance, yet I frequently find it impossible to switch off.  This image really got me thinking. I know I’m a workaholic, are you?

I’d like to ask you the following questions, dig deep to find the answers..

  1. What are you doing in your life that you really don’t enjoy?
  2. What 5 small things could you bring into your life each day, just for you?
  3. What impact is overworking having on other aspects of your life?
  4. What needs to happen for you to look after yourself?
  5. Do you actually want to achieve a better balance or are you happy with things as they are?
  6. What boundaries do you need to set yourself so that your work and life doesn’t blur into one?
  7. How could you manage your time more effectively?
  8. What does it take for you to switch off, I mean really switch off?
  9. What activity do you lose yourself in, where the time seems to fly by?
  10. What would be the worst that would happen if you delegated and not try to be all things to all people?
This area for me is a work in progress.  I have to be aware that I am not switching out of work mode and consciously decide to do so.  I LOVE what I do so find it hard to switch out of Coaching or learning mode.  I want to learn more and more about how to help people and while that’s great it also means I can become quite boring and burnt out!!  I recently decided I would start to read some other books aside from personal development and found myself in a bookshop with my husband having a conversation with the bookseller about what I could read instead of self-help books! Can it really get to that point?  Yes, in my case!  What has worked for me so far is the following;
 

  • Setting a specific time that I switch off all technology (I still fall back into iPaddict mode but I am getting a little better)
  • Choosing to focus on the moment, reminding myself that work can most often wait.  Family and friends are important and to be cherished
  • Setting time each day to focus on myself (want to check out your self care levels? Pop on over here to complete a self-care quiz)
  • I try not to take on other people’s problems.  I’m a fixer so can feel responsible for helping people too much.  By doing Coaching I now realise that actually I’m not helping them with this approach at all.  It’s so much more empowering to help people find their own answers to their problems

So f you don’t have the right work-life balance choose to work to live, not live to work.  I would absolutely love to hear any of your work-life balance strategies.  It’s an area I’m always looking to improve.

If you missed last week’s post it was all about facing your fears, find out more here.

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Filed Under: Self Care, Simplicity, Uncategorized, Work-Life Balance, Work/Life Balance Tagged With: , ,

Overwhelm

April 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Overwhelm is a horrible feeling.  I experience it from time to time and to be honest it’s mostly self-inflicted!  I over schedule myself and often underestimate the time it takes to do things (or get easily distracted by shiny things!)

Sometimes a great place to start with overwhelm is to do nothing.  When we stop just for a moment and look at that overwhelming list of things to do, places to go, people to see, we realise that actually there aren’t that many things that are going to be serious if we delay them or remove them from our list altogether.

It’s very easy, particularly in this digital age, to be on the go 24/7.  We neglect the important things in life.  A friend of mine challenged me last Saturday to an ‘unplugged’ day.  I found it really stressful!  I kept thinking I would be letting people down, missing out on important messages etc.  I couldn’t manage one whole day?  Seriously?!!!  I’m an iPaddict!

Most things we do in life come down to making choices.  We ‘choose’ to book ten meetings over two days, we ‘choose’ to take on too much work, we ‘choose’ to keep adding to our never-ending to-do list and to try and be all things to all people.  It’s uncomfortable to hear but often it’s our very own choices that bring on the overwhelm.

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Here are six simple strategies that I’m working on right now to make life a lot easier..

  1. Be realistic about how long things take – When booking appointments allow in some time between them, so you’re not running from one place to the next.  If you think a project will take 1 hour write down 2 hours to cover unexpected eventualities
  2. Prioritise & Keep It Simple – this is about identifying what your most important tasks are that day – I set 3 a day.  You can find out more about that & the KISS principle here.
  3. Say ‘no’ – don’t immediately commit yourself to something, tell the other person that you will check your diary and get back to them.  That way you can check it properly to see if it is realistic to schedule in that time.  You then won’t be letting either them or yourself down when you’ve overcommitted
  4. Get rid of the ‘I don’t want to do that’ tasks – you know… those tasks that you know you really need to do but you keep moving them to the next day in your diary.  Just do it!  Even if you only spend 15 minutes a day on it you will have made progress.  If procrastination is your issue read this article here.
  5. Let go of perfectionism – sometimes good enough is.. well, good enough!  (I may have to get your help with this one – it’s easy to say, not so easy to do!)
  6. Chunks of time – by allocating chunks of time you can group tasks together and be completely focused on what you need to get done

Remember most of this is about being disciplined and making the right choices.  Make sure you put some time in that diary for you too!

Liked this post then please feel free to share using the buttons below.  Want to get your life in order?  Then have some 121 Coaching sessions with me.

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Filed Under: Clarity, Coaching, KISS, Life Coaching, Overwhelm, Procrastination, Simplicity Tagged With: , , , , ,

Lovely Memory

April 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

What’s your memory like?  Do you often say to yourself, ‘I never remember anything’? or ‘I have a really poor memory’?

I’ve always been interested in how the mind works and memory in particular fascinates me.  Why is it that you can remember the tiniest of details sometimes, yet other times it’s as if you’ve had a memory wipe like they have in a sci-fi movie?

There are many facets to memory and I’m absolutely no expert in this field but I’d like to share a few things that have worked for me over the past…

  1. Exercise your brain - We exercise our bodies but forget our brains, it’s important to do both
  2. Pay attention – When you’re doing something, learning, speaking with someone give it your full attention.  If you aren’t fully focused then you may not store the information correctly
  3. Routine – Do you forget to brush your teeth?  Probably not because you’ve set a routine.   Try setting routines for things you need to remember.  Use reminders, alarms and planners to help you
  4. Use visualisation and association - This one is fun!  By visualising a crazy story line and associating it with certain location points you can remember heaps of information.  I’ve read some books on it over the past, but more recently I had a book recommendation, called ‘The Memory Palace‘.  In this book you can learn all 37 Shakespeare plays in chronological order both forwards and backwards within a few minutes.  Well that sounded like a challenge so I thought I’d give it a go.  It took 30 minutes but I can now recall all 37 plays.  Now, interestingly going back to my point about about paying attention, when recalling the information where I was distracted when I was reading I get it a bit muddled so focus, focus, focus!
  5. Learn it right first time – That way each time you do it right you will be making more progress
  6. Sort out your stress    – when you’re stressful or tired memory can be impacted
  7. Test yourself – Remember the Krypton Factor? (sorry if you’re too young to remember this one!) – Put your ‘K’ t-shirt on and practice your observation skills.  Watch the news and read articles/magazines.  When you’re finished test yourself on some of the smaller detail that you remembered.  Give your brain a workout
  8. Language – this one for me is a biggie.  If I forget just ONE thing I will then tell myself ‘I have a bad memory’ or ‘I never remember anything’ and that just makes me worse.  Now I replace it with ‘I have a great memory’ or ‘My memory is improving’.  This stops the berating and enables me to use my brain for more interesting facts and information that I am learning!
  9. Mind Mapping – A FABULOUS tool for helping you to store information.  In fact I absolutely know that it’s how I passed my HR qualifications many years ago.  When I work on any project, including my blog posts (see my one for this post below) I draw/create a mind map.  It helps you organise your thoughts and remember information.  Often I use this app to create one.  You can learn more about Mind Mapping here.

2013-04-12 08.44.15

Memory improvement takes time, but it’s really worth the effort.  Use a combination of methods, one method may work better in some scenarios for you than others.

Like this post?  Feel free to share using the buttons below.  I’d love to hear all about your hints and tips for improving memory.  What good books have you read about it?  Let’s get a conversation started in the comments section below.

 

Filed Under: Business, Clarity, Coaching, KISS, Life Coaching, Memory, Mind Maps, Positive Language, Simplicity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Letting Go

April 5, 2013 by 1 Comment

What is it about letting go of things that is SO challenging?  At this time of year our thoughts turn to the Summer that might be awaiting us (!) and we sometimes get a little burst of energy where we want to sort things out but it can be really tricky.  You pick up an item and say to yourself, ‘Yes I know it’s really old but it reminds me of….’, or ‘I might need that one day’.

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Click on image for source

 

De-cluttering our homes can be one part of letting go but it’s also about de-cluttering our lives.  What do we have in our lives that really drains our energy, steals our time and creates unnecessary tension?

Thinking about different areas of your home/life/business what do you need to de-clutter?

There are also mental and emotional effects to clutter, it’s not just the physical side.  Each time we walk into that office with the pile of paperwork, or see it sitting on top of the kitchen worktop, it can make us feel that we have failed, even in the smallest of tasks, by not dealing with it.  That’s not really the case, but why allow yourself these energy drainers if you don’t need them in your life? Having a good old clear out to wash away the literal and metaphorical cobwebs can be a great way to recharge us.  Letting things go gives us space to focus on those things that are important to us.

There are so many reasons for us not wanting to let things go, particularly if there has been a traumatic event in our lives and the item holds some sentimental value for us.

So what to do..

Think about each room in your house or area in your life and/or business that might need decluttering and create a list of every job that needs doing, whether it’s finishing that tax return, cleaning out your wardrobes, sorting out your bills, other paperwork, or kitchen cupboards. Pop it all down on the list.

Set aside a few minutes each day to do one or two jobs on that list.  Ideally do the jobs that you really despise first because that will give you an enormous sense of achievement and might even give you an added sprinkle of enthusiasm for carrying on with the job too.  Failing that do as many of the smaller tasks that you can to start creating some momentum.

Often we don’t achieve what we want to because we see an overwhelming project that’s just too big to even start, so break it down into smaller chunks.  If you know you need to do your tax return paperwork but find yourself sitting in the middle of a pile of receipts with your head in your hands then start with one small task.  Step one – Set aside an envelope labelled with each month on it and start to sort your receipts into month order.  Step two might be to sort the receipts into date order, step three to log them etc.  As you start to take small steps you will realise that holding onto these tasks just creates a lack of concentration, uses up mental energy and wastes your time.

Letting go can feel really good.  Remember that by releasing the old you’re allowing in the new, whether that’s new shoes, new clothes or new business.

Want to learn more?  I like the decluttering questions they ask here.  More inspiration?  Pop on over to my Pinterest board here for some ideas.

I have a lovely guest next week as part of my ‘Be My Guest interview’ series and not only is she going to share some business ideas with you she is also going to give you some cleaning tips!  Watch this space.  (Not sure what I mean?  Click on this post here and here to find out more)

Liked this post then please feel free to share using the buttons below.  Want to get your life in order?  Then have some 121 Coaching sessions with me.

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Filed Under: Coaching, De-cluttering, Letting Go, Simplicity Tagged With: , , , ,

KISS (not a lovey dovey post!)

February 15, 2013 by 5 Comments

* Edited to add a link to a fabulous resource from Leonie Dawson ..

So the focus has been mostly about love this week; whether it’s love of pancakes or the love of (or lack of love in) your life, but I’m not going to be talking about love today.

I want to talk about how you KISS

Wikipedia’s definition: ‘KISS is an acronym for “Keep it simple, stupid” as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960’.  Well I would never be so rude as to call you stupid, so you might want to change it to Keep It Short & Simple, Keep It Sweet & Simple, Keep it Seriously Simple?!

So what do I mean?  Life can be complicated, if we allow it to be.  We have to make so many decisions in a day and often we make things a whole lot harder than they need to be.  Even buying a coffee nowadays is a challenge; you get asked, ‘Would you like cream, marshmallows, skinny or whole milk, decaf or regular coffee, tall, skinny, to stay in/to go??’  Phew, decisions, decisions!

My most peaceful and calm days are when I keep things simple, so I now try and simplify life by making very small changes.  If I can create a habit or routine to make life easier then I’m going to give it a go.  I don’t know about you but I’m a big list maker.  I love having lists in little books that I can then work through and I hate to admit it but I get a great sense of satisfaction when I tick them off as completed!  The trouble was my lists were getting so long that at the end of the day I would be moving them over to the next day and feeling as though I’d achieved nothing.  One of the big changes I’ve made is to prioritise my top 3 tasks for the day.  By having to think of just 3 things you then have to prioritise what’s really important to you.  At the end of the day it’s likely that you will have achieved 1, if not all of them, which gives a great sense of satisfaction instead of feeling like a failure.  Leonie Dawson has created a really colourful poster here that can be a great help with daily to do’s.

So my questions to you are..

  • How can you simplify your life today/this week/this month?
  • What needs to happen to make your life a whole lot easier?

KISS

(I’ll leave you to decide what the two ‘S’s represent!)

I’d love you to comment below about how you KISS(!) and if you liked the post then please share it with others using the share buttons below.  If you want to learn more about goal planning then read my blog post here.  Sign up for my newsletter here and you will receive my goal planner so you can start setting some ‘FUNKY’ goals.

On a final note my launch offer has been really successful.  I only have a couple of places left now for my free coaching session when you book one of my packages.  Interested?  You can find out more here.

Filed Under: Clarity, Coaching, KISS, Life Coaching, Simplicity Tagged With: ,
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