YOU Are In Control

 

Genius, this has got to be my favorite quote.  The reason being, it shows the power of the mind.

Our daughter was born on Friday the 13^th this for me signifies an amazing day.  Apparently walking over a block of 3 drains on the pavement is bad luck, I was so over avoiding them, I decided that it was good luck so now I traipse over them with a smile on my face.

My point being, whatever you see in a situation it will be, if you think it’s shit then I’m pretty sure it will be if you see it as a positive challenge then that’s what it will be.

You are in control of your thoughts, if they are stopping you from doing something in your life that will ultimately benefit you, make you happier then it’s you and only you that can make that decision to face that fear and change it.

How about this week taking a negative thought or fear that you have and turning it on it’s head, go on give it a go and enjoy the feeling of freedom.

J x

Focus On What You HAVE Achieved

Recently we’ve become the parents of an amazing baby girl and what I’ve noticed is how we celebrate her achievements.  Now I’m not talking about missy winning her first skate comp (no pressure poppet) or doing her first windmill, she’s four and half months old that would be a bit odd.  What I am talking about is missy doing a great burp, making new sounds or grabbing a toy; these bring us endless hours of proud sighs and happiness, we get proper excited about her day to day achievements.

Now it got me thinking again about us as adults and do we recognise what we have achieved or are we too busy focusing on what else we want to do that we rarely celebrate our day-to-day achievements.

Lets take 2013, have you taken any time to look back and see what you achieved in the past twelve months, if not take a few minutes right now. Maybe you got that job or client you wanted, started your own business, did an amazing shoot, started exercising or ran a marathon.  Maybe you got out of the rut of a relationship you’re in or made the one you’re in even better, if so, nice one!

Often we focus on and are chasing the “bigger” and “better” things and miss out on the smaller things we achieve. Now I’m not saying you need to high five your bestie for breaking wind (I’m also not saying don’t), what I am saying is its important to acknowledge the small things that we achieve day to day rather than beating ourselves up about the things we haven’t done yet.

Why not make 2014 the year that you start giving yourself a break and recognising how much you actually do.  Use your past achievements as a motivator to move forward and achieve more, you’ve proved you can do it, now keep it up.

XJ

A Little You

I was in the park the other day with my mate and her little poppet and I was watching this group of kids on the round about.  There was one girl, no more than six and I was just mesmerized by her lack of fear.  She was flying around this thing, then she started climbing all over it whilst five other kids where pushing it as fast as possible.  She had that concentration tongue, you know when it sticks out she was totally focused and determined.

Then she starts hanging off the edge, head first absolutely loving it, not one bit concerned that her mini Barbour jacket was getting all sorts of crap all over it.  She then jumps off, runs over to the slide, climbs the stairs and runs down the slide really fast.  At this point I’m doing my nervous twitch that I do when I think kids are gonna fall flat on their face and really hurt themselves.  I think she had rubber soles on too, which made it worse as they were occasionally sticking to the slide.

It got me thinking,  for many people when we were young and we were trying new things we had no fear, we just wanted to discover. If you wanted to know about something you’d ask, if you wanted to do something new you’d totally get involved and try it out.  If you had an opinion on something, there was no softening the blow it was just said how you saw it.  It’s how we learn and grow.

As we get older we don’t always ask the questions in fear of looking silly, we don’t always chase our dreams and ambitions incase of failure.  Sometimes we even ignore the most amazing gift ever, our gut feeling, even when it’s bouncing with excitement and adrenalin telling us to go for it and to do what we really want to do, because deep down we know it’s what we’re meant to be doing.  Instead it’s easier to stick with the “safe” and sometimes negative voice that sits on our shoulder and we don’t move forward and achieve what deep down we know we can achieve.

If there’s something that you really want to do, a goal you want to achieve, what would a little you do?

J Xx

Spring Clean Your To Do List

If you’ve had something on your To Do List for one week or more, DELETE IT off your list, go on do it.  You will feel a lot better about it not being there every morning when you look at it and it will save you the time of shifting it to the next day, then the next day, then the next day in your diary whilst also feeling rubbish that you still haven’t done it.

I mean, if it is that important to you, you would have done it already right?

So if this little note has made you think s^*$ I really do need to do that, think about why it is you’re putting it off.  Then break the task down into small achievable goals with a date and a time to complete them, starting with the biggest and most challenging first.

If you need help, ask the right person, if you need more time, get up early tomorrow.  Whatever works for you than commit to it and do it.

And just keep remembering how good you’re gonna feel when you’ve done it and it’s off your To Do List for good.

Happy spring cleaning!

J x

Commit and Make It Happen

You know those daydreams that you have where you’re doing what you really want to do; your mind just runs free.

Those perfect fitting jeans that you designed are in all the best accounts, or you’ve finally opened that teahouse on the coast selling those cakes you’ve been practice baking for ages, maybe you’re doing that shoot you’ve always wanted to do or you see your graphics trotting down the catwalk at London fashion week or your window installation in Liberty’s is beaming proudly as thousands of people walk past everyday.  You know those ones right.

Remember those daydreams again, remember the feeling you have, you’re so in the moment you can feel it, you’re actually doing it.  That feeling is just ace isn’t it.   And that daydream comes and goes, might be a while since you’ve had it or maybe you see it each day, bigger and brighter than ever.

Well I’ve got some brilliant news for you, now you’ve visualised what you want, you’ve already created it, so deep down you know it’s possible and even more important deep down you know you are more than capable.  So, what’s holding you back.

I’m going to do what the *English supposedly don’t do, I’m going to talk about myself in a positive manner, gasp I know, it’s shocking isn’t it.  Me, me, me, erm did I tell you about me!?

For the past eight months I’ve been doing a lot of voluntary work, coaching people whom are unemployed.  We’ve been working on building their confidence, goal setting and working towards gaining employment.  The reason I’ve been doing this is because I believe in it 150%, I love it and there is a massive need for this support to local communities.  From this voluntary work my new business partner Andy Bater and I have set up a CIC (Community Interest Company, a not for profit organisation) www.seejobgroup.com.

We set this up with a lot of love, belief and enthusiasm for what we are doing, oh and £35 to register it.  We are meeting amazing people and building new relationships weekly, it’s been an organic growth and it is growing stronger day by day.

My point is, if you believe in what you want to do, commit to it, move towards it one step at a time and you will make it happen.

Take the first step, feed your passion and the rest will follow

Big love

J

*My parents are Irish so I can get away with it.

What will you do with your extra 24 hours?

I haven’t got the time; the days go so quick, where does the time go.  Sound familiar, well tomorrow you’ve got an extra day, yes a whole extra 24 hours to make the time.

It only comes once every four years and remember, time can never be taken back so do use it wisely.

Take that first step to trigger that change in your life that you’ve been talking about, for what seems like forever.

Happy leap year

x

WHY are you doing what you do?

WHY did you start your own company, take that job, go freelance.  Think back to WHY you made that move.  What was your WHY?

Was it because it was a great challenge, maybe you always wanted your own company, it would give you independence, you could show the world who you are creatively.

So now you’ve set up your own company, gone freelance or took that great job and it’s one, two maybe three years in and you’re well, a bit over it.  Yes I did just say that.

The original pride and rush of excitement when explaining to your team how important it is to be so meticulous and why that precision had to be so, has now turned into a “FFS I can’t believe they still don’t get it right”.

How your drive and determination of change when you first arrived at that company has now changed into “fine, put that s&^* graphic on that Tee”.

Seriously, are you excited anymore, are you driven (if so, brilliant keep it up).  Do you still bounce out of bed or is it a case of It’s my company I’ve got to get up or I’ve got a good salary, I best nod in agreement.  Or maybe its how Simon Sinek puts it, “its no longer a passionate pursuit, it’s just a business”

If so the question I have for you is, what are you going to do about it?

Have a think back to WHY you did it in the first place.  WHY did you start your company, WHY did you take that job, WHY did you go freelance.

What was your WHY?

Have a great weekend

Jane x

The 3 A’s of Awesome

I like this so I wanted to share it with you, it made me smile.  Neil Pasricha, what a nice bloke!

The 3 A’s of Awesome

Attitude

Awareness

Authenticity

Do you swirl and twirl in gloom and doom or grieve and then face the future with newly sober eyes?

You always have a choice.

Thanks for watching

Jane

 

A different approach to New Year Resolutions/Goals

In the past I’d write out my New Year resolutions at the start of every January, I usually commit to them around the 6^th, that’s more realistic for me.  If I’ve been out for NYE, I’m not going to be eating a super food lunch of sprouted beans and tofu on the  1^st; it’s just not going to happen.

So yesterday after listening and speaking to Neelam Meetcha a very dear friend and fellow coach, I put fingertips to keypad and took a different approach to my New Year resolutions/goals.  I wrote in letter form, I addressed it to my friend Jo dated January 1^st 2013 telling her all about what I and people closest to me had achieved in 2012.

I included everything from family member goals, countries B & myself visited, subjects I studied and passed (top marks of course), personal goals achieved, health changes, energy wasting thoughts I banished.  There were all sorts in the letter.  It felt amazing.

Just so I’m clear, I’ll give you an *example (keep it true to you, as you would write)

Hey love

I wanted to drop you a line about 2012 and what an awesome year it was.  

So in Jan we set up the new company, I cannot believe how much I’ve learnt in the past year, I’m absolutely loving it.  Come April B & me travelled the coast of Ireland on motorbikes it was amazing.  After wanting to do it for so long, I finally did it.  What an amazing place.

I also took up yoga and am still going three times a week.  I got my diploma in sports science, absolutely stoked; I’m now working on how I want to use that moving forward.

We also extended the kitchen, its super light and airy and I finally got that table made that I’ve wanted for years, it fits perfectly!  Etc, etc

Because I let my mind loose and wrote in the past tense, it just flowed.  There were so many things in the letter that I wouldn’t have thought of if I just had pen and pad in hand and listed my goals.  It takes you on a journey, you can visualise yourself doing all these things that you really want to happen this year.  I love it.

I mailed my letter to a friend; you can do the same or print it out, pop it in an envelope and put it away until January 1^st 2013.  Make sure you put a note in your diary to read it, I bet you’ll be chuffed to bits with what you’ve achieved by January of next year.

I found it really inspiring I hope you do too, and remember as I said on Wednesday, break each goal down in to achieveable, manageable tasks.

Have a great morning/afternoon/evening

Jane

*This is just an example, I don’t want to study sports science.

What will you do for you in 2012?

What did you have on your personal to do list in 2011 that was going to make you happier, more balanced, that bit more relaxed.  Do you remember?

Now, if you’re doing it, brilliant, keep it up.  If you didn’t get round to doing it, what were the reasons.

Were you too busy running after business, too busy doing that other project that just had to be done (when realistically someone else could have done it), too busy running the family home after work.  Generally too busy giving to everybody & everything else, aside from you?

Whatever the reason, the year is nearly done so we can’t change that, however what we can do is focus on 2012.  So let’s do just that.

Firstly, are you committed to making a change, if yes read on, if no still read on!

What are you going to do to give yourself a more balanced life, make yourself happier, ensure you have more you time in 2012.

Will you delegate to your team, leave work on time or focus on getting into shape, what’s your goal?

The brilliant news is, you just need to make one change and it will have a positive effect on other areas of your life.

Let’s take the examples I just mentioned, when you do delegate, you can leave work on time, which makes time for exercise.  Simple!

Write down what you want to achieve.  Go on.

Now, what do you need to do to ensure you can set about achieving your goals successfully.  For e.g. do you need to plan what to delegate the day before or even better (if it works for you) plan the whole week ahead, the delegation plan!

Whatever is going to make it easier for you to achieve your you time, write it down.  Now.

We need to be realistic about your goals, things will come up from time to time, that’s life, life does not run in a straight line. So, what are the possible obstacles or distractions that may arise.  Write them down and next to them write how you will overcome them.  For e.g. make sure you leave work an hour early the next day.

Now make a note in your diary when you will take your first action.  Tell somebody who will hold you accountable, that way they can keep an eye on you and ensure your doing what you set out to do.  If you want to mail me your start date, I’m more than happy to check that your keeping on track.

Congrats, you’re on your way to making more you time and having a healthier Work/Life balance!

If you have any questions on the above, drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you jane@janedringcoachingcreatives.com

Thanks for reading

Jane