Author Archive
I was celebrating Hump Day today and catching up on my Social Media when I came across a very sad post from my colleague Mary Corbett Coaching. Her mum had passed away, and she had the intuition to accept the thoughts and challenges that came up for her during that difficult week. She wrote an inspiring letter and mentioned it on Facebook. I clicked the link curious and compassionate and was wowed by her ability to challenge the reader during what was a very personal journey. I travelled this journey and share it with you here.
It got me thinking (again) about what we wish to be remembered by – how we would want our Eulogy to resonate, and I realised I am not living all my values for the past few weeks. I have recently discovered doodling for the sake of doodling, thanks to Roisin Markham during her fantastic workshop “Creativity in a Coaching Context” last month.
I immediately chose markers and pencils at random and wrote the headings as Mary challenged them. Hard WorkHere they are, what would you write for each? Take just 10 minutes now or later and write them down, using different colours, being at one with the visual as well as the text. For each heading, write how you want to be remembered. Keep it short and sweet. It’s amazing what perspective may come up for you…
Since this is such a personal experience I thought I could share with you how I managed to break the barrier of my comfort zone today.
As a woman who takes regular exercise, I begin to feel restless if I have missed a few days. This is simply because my body is used to being dragged out onto the street and pushed for anything from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Having been on holidays in March for 3 weeks, I was travelling light and knew there would not be much opportunity to find appropriate times and places in order to exercise. I had my husband to consider also, and as we would be travelling for 3 weeks, it would be unfair to have to focus on running in a safe place for over an hour. I made the Executive decision to take 3 weeks off running, knowing that it would be replaced with healthy daily hiking (or tramping as it is known in New Zealand) and a healthy diet. Read the rest of this entry »
Ah yes, Romance, synonymous with the month of February.
And another aspect that is connected directly with February and romance, is the “29th Proposal”. This will pass without a second thought for most, and some of us will recognise it for exactly what it is – an extra 24 hours that we can pile more activity into.
So before you fill that “extra” or “free” day with work, life or busyness, let’s just take a single step back and review the prospects:
Family day out
Self day off
Strategy Day On
or… The Absolute Romance
Ah yes, the ultimate of romance. Your ultimate may be heading to Rome for a romantic weekend away, or a lifetime adventure in Antarctica or the Atacama Desert. Whatever your thoughts around this very special day, here are a few pointers to whet your appetite:
Are you wondering what it’s all about?
Are you wondering exactly what “what” is all about?
For some, February 14th is a scary time. For others, they are oblivious, and for most, it means either a planned romantic weekend away or dinner, or a rushed job to the local fuel station on the way home. Whatever it means to you, it’s like one of the other 364 (or 365 this year) days that mark an occasion of some kind.
Something Different
I asked my husband over the weekend what would be a nice topic to write about for Valentines Day. He suggested writing about the things we love doing. I thought “what a great idea!” We get so worked up about the people we love, should love or don’t love around this time of year, it can be so disheartening for some, they would rather write an ode to their cat.
Imagine a world without stress. Imagine a world where no-one is demanding anything from you. Imagine you are the happiest you could possibly be. Can you imagine all that? I hope so, because if you cannot, that is a sure sign that you require some “ME” time.
If you can imagine all those things, then you are probably doing a lot of self-care already, as you appreciate the importance of looking after self. You appreciate and understand why it is imperative to look after your own safety on an aeroplane before your child, because if something were to happen to you first (like you do not get enough oxygen), then you are of no help to your child.
Now, just very quickly think of all the things that have been building up over the past year, and specifically those things that have spilled over into this year. Can you picture them? Has your mood changed? Is the weight of the world sharing its burden on you right now? It’s so easy to get caught up in the woes of the world, the media, our networks and indeed our own families. Is it over-burdening, over-whelming, too much to bear?
And my question to you is simply: Compared to what?
How do you know this is good for you? Are you coping with all the stress a new year can bring? On top of all the left over trauma of 2011?
Now, bear with me here and really think about the following. Write them down so you can check on them at the end of this post:
Think about the best thing that happened to you last year. Think about your greatest achievement of 2011. Think about your biggest learning for 2011. Think about the relationships you nurtured in 2011, new and old. Think about the single happiest thing that happened in 2011.
Now, pat yourself on the back, schedule some “Me” time for every day this year and plan for great things to happen, because then they will. If you write them down, and say them loudly to yourself, then you are setting the tone for your year to come.
And if you are overwhelmed just now, still reeling from the effects of 2011 and the holiday period, read this inspiring blogpost on starting your year in February, not January 
Happy New Year, and may 2012 bring you everything you plan for.
Hi there,
I just want to wish everyone a fantastic holiday and very best wishes for 2012, whatever you look forward to this year, make sure you write down at least ONE thing from your wish list, and really tell yourself you will achieve it this coming year!! Go on, it will work, I promise!
And my message to you… click here to see
To your best year yet!
Elaine
Yes, it’s that time of year again. And yes, it can be very stressful.
- Have you left your card sending until the last minute?
- Have you left your Santa buying until the last minute?
- Have you left your Christmas Shopping until the last minute?
- Have you left buying the tree until the last minute?
- Have you left everything until the last minute?
If you answer YES to any of the above questions, then read on to learn a few tips on managing your stress better this year.
“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday” ~ Don Marquis
Now, for a fact – we can only experience the present moment. YES, we can really only actually experience every moment once. Everything else is imagined, whether past or future.
So if you are stressing about past Christmases, or any past event, then you are relying on memory to provide the stress factors. Those stress factors can limit us in our everyday tasks. If you are stressing about the coming Christmas, or any future event, then you are just imagining it and creating your own stress factors. Based on what? Future event stress is normally based on previous events, so we are back in the past, which is imaginary, remember?
So how do we DO procrastination? How do we manage to NOT do the important things? How do we let stress effect our wishes and goals?
Here we go, a little exercise for you:
- Get into the role of Christmas shopping, decorating the house, planning the dinner, handling the in-Laws
- See yourself in that role, doing those things
- Now imagine the PERFECT day shopping, decorating or planning
- What happens in that day? What do you see, what do you hear? What do you notice? What do you smell? What are you feeling? (really, really get into the feeling of it, remember this is your PERFECT day)
- What exactly happens in that day? And when?
- Now simply, imagine how you can grasp as much of that as possible. What can you tap into, what can you access?
That’s it! The rest doesn’t matter, because it’s negative, and we want positive don’t we?
Do this exercise a few times and feel the difference about the situation now. How does it feel different? Keep those feelings in mind and remind yourself of your perfect day when it’s time to do that thing!
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task” ~ William James
*If you would like to learn more about tackling procrastination and the benefits of coaching, please contact Elaine through the Contact Page or by telephone at +353 (0)86 1955660. Be the CHANGE you want to be in 2012!*
Welcome to my world…
To follow is a copy of an email I sent to my close network. So rather than bombard everyone in my network, I am producing the mail below for you to read, if interested
Hi there, happy weekend!
I haven’t been in touch in a while now and wanted to let you know how the Mini Marathons went, the fundraising and of course, what the hell I am doing now.
Firstly, I am delighted to report I am pain free, unlike this time last year when I was crippled, and had to give up running altogether. My waistline was not happy!
So after intense self care and chiropractic treatments in Spring, I was promised I would be doing the 3 things I love again – gardening, driving my motorbike and running. At first it was a struggle, and my health seemed to be deteriorating rather than improving, but finally after about 2 months, I suddenly began to feel huge improvements.
So much so that I was back running with a great new podcast programme, building my distance, stamina and endurance over 9 weeks, ready for the Cork and Limerick Mini Marathons. Not only did I finish both without killing myself, I improved on last year’s times with little effort. I felt great
I decided to dedicate my efforts for charity – Age Action this time. In light of the bad weather we had last year, I felt the elderly were in dire need of vital funds, and it would give me a greater focus for my training. And it worked! I completed both runs successfully, and am delighted with the progress on last year, which was so difficult I really believed I wouldn’t run again. Read the rest of this entry »
As a small business owner, you ARE your business. If you have ever seen any of the worldwide “Dragon’s Den” type programmes on the TV, you will observe that the dragons invest in the person behind the business as much as the concept itself.
It is important for that business owner, to constantly watch trends, be familiar with their market, and adapt to the changes that invariably happen. We also need to keep an eagle eye on what the competition is up to, and notice what they are changing, and are those changes in line with consumer changes, or are they trying to influence the consumer / client.
This is where business owners can get “bogged down”. Constantly watching out for the enemy, copying their strategies, playing cat and mouse to try and gain ground.
Let’s say our business has been successful in the past, and now, inevitably things are tough. We batten down the hatches, cut costs, cut prices, downsize, and cut budgets. You are probably familiar with any one of these strategies.
But why do we do this? Because the strategists recommend it? Because your competition is doing it? Because of the proven facts from the past? Because historically, it works?
Think about this: where do we get the notion that repetition is the best tactic? What influences us to think that what worked before will work today, for our business?
Now think about this… is this the same type of recession as before? Will the next boom (there WILL be a next boom) be the same as the previous one? I would imagine NO, and NO!
So, why then, are we doing the same things now that we did before? Read the rest of this entry »
Once in a while, great things happen. In fact, great things happen every day. We move our business forward every day. We find out things that help us in our business every day.
It’s the time of year for workshops, events, seminars. So far, my October and November calendars are full with events and traditionally, this is quite common for entrepreneurs and business owners.
A little gem that I am heavily involved with is the Cork Women in Business Group, headed my Margaret Smith and Tori Hawthorne. What a great pair, and I have written about Margaret and her appearance on nationwide recently.
This support group provides a space for women in business to find out what they need to know to help them in their business and our monthly speaking events cover finance, law, networking, sales and other relevant areas.
