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Be Courageous!

How can I prioritise when I have so much on my plate?

This was a great question I heard on a recent podcast and loved the answer given. The answer was be courageous!

It’s easy to think it’s a question of overwhelm or time management or prioritisation (although they are subsets of the solution).

It’s an issue of courage – be courageous!

Have the courage to sort this out for yourself.

It is easier to be overwhelmed and a victim of the situation. Suffering is the easiest thing that human beings do, as was once said.

Ask questions like, ‘Am I bold enough to delegate?’, ‘Why are all these things on MY plate? They don’t need to be on my plate if I show trust in others’. ‘Do I have the courage to say no when people are being over-demanding of my time?’.

Be courageous!

Be in control of your time. Carve out the time that you want to do your priority tasks and schedule it, then let everything fall into place. Let those other things adjust rather than you thinking you have to accommodate everything and everyone.

Be Courageous!

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An Interview With Tom Kitchin

I think if anyone was to experience my cooking they would tell me to stick to my day job as a coach, which is what I’ll most definitely do! However, despite my limited talents in the kitchen I love watching cookery programmes and, in particular, I always remember watching a series on BBC2 called The Chef’s Protégé which I found to be hugely inspiring given my passion for helping young people to believe in themselves and their potential.

The Chef’s Protégé saw Michelin Star chef, Tom Kitchin, return to Perth College to select the cream of the college’s catering students in a competition with similarly celebrated cooks Theo Randall and Michel Roux Jr. In the show, each chef was looking for a young student to coach, mentor and inspire with a view to them eventually becoming their protégé. Tom’s protégé, Jamie McKinnon, went on to win the competition which speaks volumes for Jamie and Tom.

Given my interest in food and my passion for inspiring young people, I was delighted when Tom agreed to answer questions around youth coaching and mentoring in the hospitality industry. What added to the excitement is the fact that Tom’s renowned restaurant, The Kitchin, is only a stone’s throw away from where I used to live at The Shore, in Edinburgh! What shines through in Tom’s answers is his immense passion for cooking and his desire to support young chefs in becoming the best they can be. There are some great coaching themes throughout as well – being true to yourself, pursuing your goals and dreams, confidence, staying true to your core values, learning and growing, taking action to fulfil your potential and being the best you can be. To name but a few!

Who were your own coaches/mentor(s) both in life and in cooking and what were the most valuable lessons you learned from them?

I worked for Pierre Koffmann for 5 years and to this day he is still my mentor and one of the most respected chefs there is. From day one when I arrived in his kitchen at just 18, he has inspired me like no one else. Working for him was one of the hardest, most challenging things I’ve had to do, but it taught me how to be a chef – he taught me to cook from the heart, to appreciate fresh, quality produce and to truly respect that produce in my cooking, and above all he taught me to keep pushing to achieve your goals and dreams.

What did you particularly like about the way that they coached/mentored you?

Since he started cooking, he has never been swayed by fashion or trends in gastronomy. He cooks what he likes to eat and I admire him for it. He is strong and confident and has this incredible appreciation for food, flavours and how to combine them. His knowledge of food stretches beyond anyone I know and every day I strive to learn more, seek out new ingredients, continue to innovate in my cooking – never sitting still and always continuing to push to be better.

I’ve taken many of his qualities and developed them in a more modern kind of way, but the core values are still very much the same. I still think about the hard days during my times working for Koffmann, days I thought I might give up, but I’m always reminded of the time he took me aside and told me he saw my potential. He told me to keep going as he believed in me and that really drove me to keep pushing and working hard to succeed. I try to tell my young chefs to stick it out if I believe they have talent, the same way Koffmann encouraged me to keep going back in the early days.

What was it that made you want to be part of the The Chef’s Protégé series?

I do get approached to do a lot of TV projects, but unfortunately I’m not always able to commit, because it is so important for me to be in my kitchen for each and every service. The Chef’s Protégé felt like an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down though. From the beginning I thought the concept of the programme was incredibly inspiring. As soon as I was approached to get involved I knew I wanted to be part of it. I’m always looking out for ambitious youngsters who have the motivation, the drive, and that sparkle in their eyes to do well. It was great to work with Chef Koffmann again too – even though we still speak every few days, it’s great to get together and I still see him as my mentor to this day.

In terms of coaching/mentoring, what did you enjoy most about doing the series?

It was great to watch a younger generation of chefs learn and develop right in front of me. My protégé, Jamie MacKinnon, was in London for the first time in his life – that puts it all into perspective for me.

The thing I enjoyed most was taking these kids on a journey and bringing them into a world of cooking they just couldn’t have imagined. It was incredible to watch them grow throughout the processes – seeing their faces light up when they tried something new, or entering a professional kitchen and witnessing it in the heat of service. Watching those with potential push themselves to be the best they could be was a real privilege and very humbling.

What do you think were the most valuable lessons that the young chefs took from you?

As a chef you’re going to face so many ‘bridge’ moments in your life, by which I mean moments where you think you can’t continue, that it’s easier not to go to work, not to continue what you’re doing because you’re under so much pressure. You have to be very mentally strong to work in a Michelin star kitchen.  Many chefs in this country are very demanding people because that’s how we were trained, and that is what will make the next generation of chefs. You have to stay hungry, stay focussed and continually push yourself to be better every day.

How important is it to you to continue bringing young people into the industry through mentoring?

So important. They’re the future of the industry.

My wife Michaela and I both come from very strong, training focused backgrounds in the hospitality industry and put huge value on the importance of mentoring employees and developing each employee’s individual abilities to create a skilled and passionate work force with a shared vision for the business. We spend a lot of time with all of our staff, helping them grow and work towards being the best they can possibly be. Investment in training and skills is crucial for the continued success of our business, and indeed any business.

Thank you so much to Tom for taking the time out of an extremely busy schedule to answer my questions. His passion for food and desire to support young chefs is truly inspirational. I would also recommending visiting The Kitchin if you’re ever in Edinburgh!

As you may know from my recent blog posts, I am now down to the final 50 in the worldwide competition This Is Your Life Change whereby six successful participants will fly to Fiji to work with a team of coaches on their secret dream. My dream is to positively impact the lives of 10M young people worldwide with a particular focus on supporting those who are vulnerable and/or disadvantaged. I would hugely appreciate if you could vote for me before May 30th by clicking here and entering your name and email address. I’d also be very grateful if you would be open to sharing the link via email and social media – thank you!

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5 Great Strategies to Help You Achieve Your Goals

I daresay, like many, you will have started 2015 with big intentions to make positive changes in your life. We’re a few months into 2015 now and often this is a good time to revisit those goals and actions you decided you were going to take. So, what were they for you? How have you progressed? Do you still feel committed to them?

If you feel like you’ve lost focus here are some great tips to help you get back on track with passion and purpose.

1. Re-connect with your purpose

When you decided on what you wanted to change in your life and what you wanted to achieve, what was the purpose behind those intentions? Why were they important to you? By achieving those goals, how would your life change? How would it make you feel? What, if anything, would it mean for others around you?

Having worked through that, do you still feel as passionate and committed to making those positive changes? If the answer is yes, that’s great and some of the strategies outlined in the remainder of the article will help you to keep on track. If the answer is no, then take time to consider whether your goals are still relevant for you now. Perhaps you may just need to tweak them or you may feel that you want to completely re-focus on other areas of your life.

2. Be Persistent

If you have a goal that is really important to you then persistence will play a major part in you achieving it. I always encourage clients to have goals that mean so much to them that they won’t let anything stand in their way, irrespective of what obstacles they have to face. Thomas Edison, when talking of his numerous attempts to create the light bulb has a great quote, “I haven’t failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. When you think about it, if we weren’t persistent as babies then most of us would still be crawling rather than walking…now there’s a thought! Be persistent.

3. Believe in Yourself

Often the only thing that gets in the way of us achieving our goals is ourselves. That little voice in our heads that tells us we can’t do something when the reality is that we most definitely can. Recognise that it is just a thought that you can dismiss and let go. We don’t hold on to dreams and treat them as fact, and thoughts are exactly the same. It’s nothing more than a thought, a story we are telling ourselves. In addition, here are some steps that you can take to shift your thinking:

  • Be aware of negative thoughts
  • Write down what that limiting belief is and how it makes you feel
  • Write down what you would like to do and how you would like to feel
  • Write down an alternative way of thinking that will empower you to take positive steps forward

Here’s an example.

Negative thought: I don’t have the skills or knowledge to be successful in developing my own business

Empowering thought: If I go through the appropriate training, coaching and mentoring I can bridge the skills/knowledge gap and be successful in developing my own business

4. Be Around Positive Influences

There’s a saying ‘you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with’. Whether you agree with that or not, from personal experience I know how motivating it can be to spend time with people who are like-minded, positive, supportive and want to help you succeed. When you are fighting your way through difficult challenges in life, you also need to have the right people by your side.  Here’s a great video from Jim Rohn that sums this up perfectly. Be around people who motivate you. Read, watch or listen to something that will motivate you each day, even if it is only for 10 minutes. It will help you to focus on empowering thoughts that will, in turn, help you to move forward positively and take action towards achieving your goals.

5. Be Brave and Bold

When we create big goals there is usually an element of fear that comes into play. You then have a choice – allow that fear to stop you or feel that fear but don’t let it hold you back from achieving goals that are important to you. Recognise that fear is just part of the journey but boy is it a great feeling when you take action anyway and overcome those fears! Challenge yourself to be brave and bold, and have faith that you have what it takes to deal with the outcome. Take a leap of faith and take massive action. By being brave and bold you can completely change your life!

These are 5 great strategies to help you achieve your goals and keep making progress towards achieving the positive changes you want to make in your life.

Please do comment or ask questions below, I’d love to hear from you. If you think others may benefit from these tips then please share.

 

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No More Time Wasting – Here’s How to Get Things Done!

Keep Calm and Get Stuff Done

My wife often comments on how busy and productive I always am. I guess it comes with having various strands to my business and being committed to living a balanced life seeing family and friends, staying healthy and enjoying leisure time.

For some, time management and procrastination can really get in the way of being at your best so I thought I would share some of the strategies I use to get things done!

No1. Be Crystal Clear About What You Need To Do

Often when people set goals for themselves they set grand plans to do lots of different things but don’t always consider how much is actually possible and how they will realistically go about achieving everything. This tends to result in overwhelm, over-commitment and ridiculously long to-do lists!

Please believe me, I’m not mocking you here. I’ve been there myself and have learned from it.

It’s important that when you set goals, you break them down and consider what you would need to do to achieve it and how long it would take. Once you know this for each activity you’ll then have a much better idea of timescales and whether you can realistically achieve everything. If the answer is yes, then take out your calendar and schedule in time for each action. This will absolutely confirm whether you will have enough time to do everything you want or if you need to start again and prioritise your goals. Once scheduled, focus your attention on achieving that highest priority goal and park your remaining goals.

No2: Create a Daily Schedule and Review Progress

At this stage, you have scheduled time to complete actions. However, I would recommend taking it a stage further by creating a daily schedule. Detail the specific tasks you want to complete that day that will move you closer to achieving your goal and you designate the time needed to those.

Taking your planning even further, you can also review your progress against where you want to be on a weekly basis. That can include progress against long-term goals. Finally, plan for the next day before you finish up. That way you can start each morning in a more productive way rather than using up valuable time in the morning planning what you’re going to do that day.

No.3: Focus on Your Highest Priorities

There will still be times when you look at your daily schedule and think ‘there’s no way I’m going to get all that done!!!’. That’s the time to revisit your top priorities, your biggies – it’s good to have them written down somewhere. These may be the things that you want to get done that month or quarter so please do revisit them and ensure that you are spending your time on them. Other activities can then be removed or rescheduled.

No.4: Keep Track of Progress

At the end of every day review your progress against what you wanted to achieve. That means having your goals and schedule to hand so it’s easy to do a quick review. Some people like writing them down, some use spreadsheets, others like to keep track online through apps or websites. Whatever works best for you! Go through each action and check off each item completed – it’s amazing how powerful and motivating it can be when scoring off everything you’ve done.

No.5: Recognise and Celebrate Success

Acknowledging positive progress is really important as it helps you to stay motivated. Beyond that think of ways in which you can celebrate and reward your achievements. I encourage clients to compile a list of rewards and treats, from very small to very big, that you can give yourself when completing actions and milestones. It’s hard to stay motivated for a long period of time without building in smaller milestones and actions along the way, so make sure you do that and enjoy the rewards of achieving them!

No.6: Take Time Out to Relax and Revive

When you’re in the zone and completely hooked on achieving your goals, it’s very easy just to keep going flat out and not slow down to think about your well-being.

The problem with that is that the more you do without any down time or rest, the more tired you will become. The knock-on of that is that your performance dips, whether that be in terms of efficiency, decision-making or creativity. The end result is often burnout! That is why it is vitally important that you schedule in time to relax, refresh and revive yourself, so that you’re at your best and ready to focus on your goals again. Make sure you plan that free time into your schedule!

I hope that these tips will be helpful for you but the important thing is not to read and forget them. Unless you put them into action nothing will change. Your goals and your purpose are important and putting these strategies into action will help to ensure that you manage your time better leading to a happier, healthier and more successful 2015!

 

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Maybe New Year’s Resolutions Aren’t So Bad….

new year
It is almost habitual for most of us to set New Year’s resolutions in January only for the momentum to fall away by the end of the  month. That’s why some are cynical about the whole process of setting resolutions, which I can understand. However, if you set goals in the right way and develop the right mindset then you may find that you will be able to achieve amazing things in life! Here are some key steps to setting goals and achieving your ideal life.

1. Be True to Yourself. Think about the person that you are – the people, places, habits and things that are important to you. These are your foundations and your life, habits, decisions should be built around that – the person that you are.

2. Reflect and take stock of all areas of your life. Identify where you are not in alignment with the person that you are? Consider what you would need to do to resolve this.

3. Set your vision for the future. What does that look like for you? Go into as much detail as you can here. For example, if you want to move house where do you want to go? What will your house look like? What kind of area will you be in? How many rooms will the house have? etc. Do this for all areas of your life and get absolutely clear on what you want.

4. Ask yourself why your vision is important to you? If you ask yourself ‘why is this important?’ 5 times your answers will indicate how strong a sense of purpose you have. The stronger that ‘why’, the more likely it will be that you will take action and work to stay on track when things get more challenging.

5. Don’t lose sight of the present. This might sound strange given I’ve just asked you to set your vision for the future, but don’t obsess to the point of worry about the past or the future. Enjoy each present moment as it comes. Find gratitude every day for the positive things in your life as it is. This moment is really all that matters, when it comes down to it. All the while you can be working towards progressing your life.

6. Create your own success map. You don’t create the life you truly want by sitting back waiting for it to happen. It is, therefore, important that you believe you can achieve it and want to take action. Start with your end goals in mind and map out the big milestones to get there, then break those milestones down into very basic actions. Focus on the first action, schedule time to complete it and get going. Move on to the next action and start creating momentum, before long you will have developed the belief and confidence to accomplish all your actions!

7. Forgive yourself and others. Sometimes feelings of guilt or resentment can really hold us back. This can be either towards yourself or others. A common example being you telling yourself that you’ve failed before so will fail again. This is simply a limiting belief that you tell yourself, in fact, convince yourself of. The reality is that in many instances, failure is a great way to learn and grow. Forgive yourself, support yourself the way you would support others, learn from previous experiences and set out steps that will get you to where you want to be. None of us will live our lives without making any mistakes.

8. Create positive habits. This takes time, some say it ranges between 30-66 days to create and embed a new habit. What positive habits could you create that will help you to get closer to your goal? Do it every day, stay with it, keep scheduling and completing the habit and after 30 days it’ll start to get easier and will eventually become a habit. You can then consider other positive habits that would help you to make progress.

9. Start to create momentum… now! Make sure your big goal, your milestones and small steps are all visible. It is important that you have sight of them every day in order to keep your mind focused. Do what you can every day to move you closer and closer to that life that you want.

10. Celebrate success! Acknowledge and reward the progress you make from the first small step you take, to achieving each milestone and then ultimately achieving the big goal or dream you’ve been working towards.

Take the time to work through each of these steps and with commitment and self-discipline, you will develop the mindset required to set goals, stay on track and achieve great things. If you feel like you would benefit from the support of a coach I’d be delighted to hear from you.

You CAN do it!

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Goal-setting Strategies: Make 2015 A Wonderful Year!

Firstly, I would just like to say Happy New Year to you! I truly hope 2015 is a special year for you and that you experience happiness in your life. From a personal point of view, I’m not long back from a Christmas break in Egypt which was wonderfully relaxing and now I’m ready to make 2015 a year to remember with lots of positive experiences!

However, I know that’s not going to happen by sitting back and doing nothing but hope. It’s going to take action! I thought I’d share with you some of the goal-setting strategies that I’ve used to plan out my year, which you can use to do the same. They will help to keep you focused and on track throughout the year! They’ll also help you to avoid the pitfalls of setting New Year resolutions that barely last the month of January!

Strategies To Help You Create a Fanastic 2015!

These are steps that you can take to plan your entire life in 2015 – personal and professional. One thing is for sure, it won’t all go to plan. However, through following these effective goal-setting strategies and revisiting them regularly, you will be far more likely to stay on track and achieve everything you want to in 2015!

1. Reflect on the past year and, most importantly, turn those experiences into INSIGHT – what do those insights tell you about what you want to do in 2015?

2. Move forward POSITIVELY with MOMENTUM – don’t focus too strongly on the past, it’ll kill your drive!

3. Express GRATITUDE for the good things that happen in your life and ask yourself, ‘What do I most want to be thankful for one year from now?’

4. Eliminate EXCESS – ruthlessly eliminate the bottom 30% of projects, activities and commitments from the previous year. Focus then on the activities with the GREATEST PAY OFFS.

5. If you are setting goals, set goals that harness your emotional ENERGY. The power is in that word WHY. The stronger the sense of PURPOSE, the stronger your desire will be to achieve.

6. Break down those goals into bite-sized chunks – BELIEF is key to you achieving so you need to believe that you can achieve each step even if it is outwith your comfort zone. Your day is your week is your month is your year!

7. SCHEDULE those small steps – manage YOUR agenda! Seeing the big picture in advance will help you to work with more purpose throughout the year.

8. Take TIME OUT – spend time away from work relaxing, being with family and friends, enjoying leisure time etc. You’ll then be ready to go back to work refreshed, revived and renewed!

I hope this helps you to plan a wonderful 2015! I would love to hear about your plans for 2015 and if I can help you in any way then I’d be delighted to do so! Please also share this with anyone you think would find it helpful.

Be Your Best!

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The Benefits of Hiring a Business Coach

Business Coaching

As a small business owner you want to make progress and grow, you want to achieve, you want to be a success. However, that isn’t always easy and it can be difficult to get out of the rut when you’re feeling overwhelmed and the business is not developing. So what do you do when you’re feeling like your business isn’t going the way you had hoped or envisaged? Perhaps approaching the holiday season, now is a good time to reflect on and decide what steps you need and want to take to increase performance and achieve your goals for 2015?

It is usually those who struggle away on their own, doing the same thing but expecting different results, who will start to see their business slipping away. However, it doesn’t have to be like that and often the support of a business coach or mentor that can help you to get things back on track through helping to provide clarity and confidence around the best way forward for you and your business.

So What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Business Coach?

Many business coaches are able to provide support in a number of areas of a business including recruitment of talent, operations, sales and marketing, training and development, increasing performance and leadership skills.

Through listening and asking powerful questions they can also help to:

  • clearly define your vision, objectives and priorities
  • look at the business with a completely fresh pair of eyes
  • challenge you to see things in a new way and find new markets
  • improve customer retention
  • increase efficiency
  • increase your confidence and motivation
  • take positive action
  • improve results

So How Do You Find the Right Coach for You?

Often coaches are found through referral from a trusted source but that is not always the case. Whether you look for referrals, search online or pick up the phone to look for a coach it is important that both yourself and the coach are a good match. You should also check their credentials and, more importantly, their experience of coaching and consultancy which is essential. Membership of a coaching body and relevant insurance are also often requested of business coaches. However, what is key is that the initial conversations you have should be able to get a sense of whether or not you are going to be a good match and that they are going to be able to help you achieve your goals. If you find the right coach and are committed to taking action then it is possible to achieve a significant return on the investment made.

If you want to take your business to a new level in 2015 then please contact us to arrange a convenient time to talk. We would love to help you.

 

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Overcome the Overwhelm

Overcome Feelings Of Overwhelm

Are You Feeling Overwhelmed in Your Life?

Do you ever feel that you have too much going on? Your brain hurts, you’re cramming stuff into schedules, everything that you’re expecting to get done each day? Anything that then encroaches on that schedule becomes an inconvenience and possibly stressful or irritating? Inevitably, there comes a point where you need to figure how to get off the hamster wheel before you hit breaking point. The challenge then becomes how to untangle all of that without feeling like you’re failing, letting people down, losing income etc.

I understand the challenge, I’ve been there myself and worked through it. For many years I lived a life of working and commuting, not seeing enough of my family or doing the things that I really wanted to do. I’ve now escaped that hamster wheel having followed my passion for coaching and my life really has genuinely transformed beyond all recognition. I now want to share with you how I’ve done it in my life and how you can get to the point where you feel you have accomplished success.

Overcoming Overwhelm

My initial advice would be to start off by using a room that represents calm and what you want, rather than a room that you associate with negative emotions. Use a pen and paper, when you commit pen to paper things happen that don’t happen when you’re just watching, listening and thinking about it. Let’s define exactly what you want your life to look like. Don’t care if it is outlandish because even if you achieve 10% that would still be a great start on your journey.

Step 1 – Define Success. What Does Success Look Like to You?

Dream Day: Think about your perfect day, week or month. When it’s been fantastic what did that look and feel like? Dream about it. What time did you wake up? How much time did you spend working? How much time with other people? When did you eat? When did you sleep?
Schedule: What did your schedule look like specifically? When did you wake up, eat, see people, work, exercise etc.?
Environment: What does your utopian environment look like? Dream here. What space do you have, do you have an office, where do you live, what does your house look like, what car do you have. What would make you feel peaceful & breathe a sigh of calm?
Must Remove: What do you need to get rid of because they create unhappiness? What people, places and things drain you of energy? What can be eliminated or limited? This can be hard, particularly, if it involves people or if it’s things you’ve worked hard to create but will help you to free up the time and energy needed.
Emotions: What do you want to feel like? What emotions will be predominant for you?
Purpose: What do you feel like you’re contributing? Value and purpose? What are you doing when you feel that?
Relationships: What relationship(s) will be stronger? What relationship(s) will make you proud?

Step 2 – Blueprint for Success

Vision boards and such like are all well and good but you need to create a blueprint plan of how this is going to happen.

Mental Fortress: You must decide that your current reality isn’t an option anymore and that you need to work towards your ideal life. Set up the boundaries needed to protect yourself from falling back into bad habits.
Environment: List specifically what you would have to change in order to meet the criteria of your definition of success.
Must remove, delegate or limit: What in your plan do you know you have to remove, delegate or limit? E.g. Laundry and cleaning the house might be a worthwhile investment even if money is tight. It helps them and will certainly help you to focus on the things that are most important to you.
Reverse Engineer: Something you need to get out of or get into. If you shift that focus it can make a huge difference. Usually this needs to be very gradual. What do you have to do to make this happen? List the steps and start plugging away one step at a time.
Timeline:  It needs a timeline to keep you accountable.
Set Mini-Deadlines: Set fast approaching mini-deadlines – lots of them! E.g. in 4 weeks time I will be…., in 6 months time I will be……

Step 3 – Execution

You now need to take action – the how!

Delegate: Take action passing on the things that you don’t need to be doing…there will be a lot!
Circle of Influence: This is immediate. It has a greater impact on where you’re going and where you’re going to stay than anything else. The people you’re with are either making your excuses ok or are expecting more of you. Keep raising your standards and play to the level you’re surrounded by but be sure they are aligned to your ideal life.
Seasons: Define the seasons in which you’re going to get things accomplished as you can’t do everything at once. Give yourself permission to have one thing at a time as your primary focus, it’s ok to let other less important things wait or go.
Build Fortress: Around your focus, you can no longer fiddle about. Create rules around your focus and don’t get side-tracked by the first thing you see.
Single Subject: Single subject schedule, focusing on one thing at a time. You weren’t learning about English in a Maths class…our brain can’t handle multiple subjects at one time.

I’m not going to lie, in order to make these kind of changes it requires an element of bravery along with real commitment to work your plan. If you’re willing to go there then your life can change beyond all recognition. Break free of the hamster wheel and build the life that you truly want. I would love to hear from you – if you want to make changes but are finding it difficult or you may be making positive progress. Even better if you have successfully changed your life for the better I’d love to hear about what that has brought you. Please use the comments box below to tell me more.

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Strategies to Help You Focus

Strategies to Help You Focus

For many people, life seems to run in the fast lane which can make focus a real challenge. We all have so much to do on a daily basis after all!

However, let’s not give up. It is possible to strengthen your ability to concentrate and focus irrespective of whether you are a young person or adult, or at home, school or work.

What gets in the way of you focusing?

Emotional distractions can be a major obstacle. Things in our lives that prey on our mind, often relationships, can occupy our thoughts constantly. Conversely, another big distraction for most of us is a wandering mind. We have all been there when we completely lose focus and track of what we are doing and before you know it time has flown by and nothing has been achieved.

Ways to Increase Your Focus

There are various strategies that can help you to focus more effectively and perform at your best both in terms of physical and mental changes.

Environment

  • Make sure you’re comfortable by having your chair and desk at the right height for you. That way you can’t use discomfort as an excuse
  • Put up pictures that will help to motivate and focus you
  • Shut out distractions that will disturb you
  • Get up and move around as research has shown that this can increase your focus during the day

Nutrition

  • Drink water as dehydration can make us feel tired, irritable and slow. Being hydrated helps you to perform at your best
  • Eat breakfast as it’s much harder to concentrate when you’re hungry. Eat healthy snacks throughout the day to maintain concentration levels

Mindset

  • Prioritise as having too much to do can cause overwhelm and procrastination or cause you to jump from task to task without completing anything
  • Set aside time to deal with issues that are going to take up your focus, scheduling time will allow you to focus on your current to do items
  • Focus on one task at a time until it is complete. Don’t be tempted to check emails or social media. Just get your priority task done and then move on
  • Close emails and chat programs and let your voicemail do its job. Schedule in time to take care of emails, voicemails and catch up on social media
  • Alternate between high and low attention tasks to give your brain a rest after heavy periods of concentration
  • Reward yourself for focusing intensely on a specific task for some time, take a break and write down other small self-rewards

I would encourage you to take time and identify the key strategies for you that will make the biggest difference. Then be disciplined! It takes time getting used to a different way of working but stick with it and you’ll soon reap the rewards in terms of performance and results.

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Life Coaching

A Taste of Life Coaching

There is no doubt about it, the demands of business life can take its toll on all areas of your life, not just your working life. Demands at work can often be very intense and when you add pressure to participate in family life, keeping in touch with friends, contributing to the upkeep of the house etc. then it can all become completely overwhelming and eventually something has to give.

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar for you?

  • Work pressures are dictating your life – you’re up early, get home late and even then are constantly checking emails
  • Feel that you have neglected important relationships – your partner, children, other family and friends
  • Your diet isn’t as healthy as you would like and you’re doing very little exercise
  • You find you have very little time to enjoy leisure activities and hobbies
  • Home environment has been neglected, you are just doing enough to get by day to day
  • You started your career with such energy, dedication and commitment but now energy levels are always low and you are at the point where you don’t care nearly as much about work and home life
  • Don’t know where to start when it comes to changing your life, it almost feels like you are waiting for permission to make changes to your lifestyle

If you do recognise any of those scenarios, the good news is that by simply checking out the website you have taken small steps towards positive change and life coaching may help you.

How Can Life Coaching Help You?

As a transformative life coach, I will offer you a confidential and safe environment to explore and understand your situation and then start to move forward, at your pace and to your agenda.

I will help you to get to the route of the issues that have led you to your current life.

I will assist you in uncovering sustainable strategies and solutions that will lead to permanent change, increasing your confidence and self-esteem.

I will support you through the good times and the challenging times, providing positive challenge when appropriate and encouragement throughout.

The Results You Can Achieve

  • Acceptance of yourself and that we all feel stresses, anxieties and pressures throughout our life and that you should not feel guilty or to blame
  • Confidence to take stock of your life and have a clear vision for the lifestyle that you want
  • Ability to create time and have the freedom to focus on the areas of your life that are most important to you
  • Development of a short, medium and long-term success map that will lead to positive changes in all areas of your life…permanently
  • Feeling and performing at your best at work
  • Resilience to cope with challenges or obstacles that may get in your way so that you can maintain a happy, fulfilled life

If this resonates with you and you are ready to transform your life then please complete the contact us form below to arrange a no cost, no obligation coaching call.

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