Tunnel vision! Blinkers! Sound familiar? This can be a state of affairs when going through our daily grind. Focusing on just one thing. Mostly this is helpful, as we search for Wally in a picture, not so helpful as we turn the house upside down looking for mis-laid car keys or glasses as we are racing out the door. We look and check and re-check in the obvious places.
We get frustrated. We give up. We ask someone else – “have you seen my glasses?” They reply – yes, they are where you left them last night – on the bedside table.
Tunnel vision is required and beneficial when drilling down to specifics. If it becomes habitual, it’s hard to step back and see the bigger picture. Or even harder to simply turn around.
I got up the other morning, looked out the window and Read the rest of this entry »
So we have been online now for 4 years. It’s been an amazing journey, and hard to believe this journey began 4 years ago, almost to the day.
As Seefin Coaching reaches 4, and I reach 40 something, it is a great feeling to have come this far with the blog.
Strategy-wise, I ALWAYS blogged about what was on my mind in the current moment – quite spontaneous really!! I have done my dues with tagging and categorizing and other than that, have pretty much blogged as I wanted to and not as I thought Google wanted me to.
Now don’t get me wrong, I share my blogs on my social networking platforms too, in order to increase exposure, among another bunch of stuff.
So what has been popular? Read the rest of this entry »
First of all I want to blow a myth – TIME MANAGEMENT
We cannot MANAGE time. We cannot MAKE time. We cannot SAVE time. The best that we can do, is manage what we do with the time that we have, to the best of our ability.
Now imagine that there are actually 25 hours in the day. We all would love more time. Do YOU really believe that with 7 extra hours a week, you would use that time to do new things?
Find the Time
Now consider giving up something that wastes time. Like smoking (in my humble opinion, as an ex-smoker). Aside from the other risks and reasons, if I smoke 20 cigarettes a day, and spend on average, a conservative 3 minutes to smoke a cigarette, that’s 60 minutes a day spent smoking. That’s exactly the 60 mins you would love extra in a day. Read the rest of this entry »
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 Work! Here 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!*
