New Year : New You

The New Year has passed by in a flash, you have made and broken all your resolution within the first fortnight, and now you are feeling like a failure.  The nights are dark and miserable and the anticlimax after the festive period is really settling in.  So what do you do to pull yourself back from the brink of failure and retrieve some dignity as you clamber back onto the wagon?

Changing the way you do things is an uncomfortable process and can often be unsettling for people, so local life coach, Becky Hall offers these 5 hot tips for you to make the best of your New Year and make it the best you have ever had!

1. Put aside some time: Create space and comfortable environment, so that you can focus on what you want to achieve.  Write down what you want, if this doesn’t inspire you, use pictures, draw, or print some out from the internet and make a poster for yourself.

2. Be realistic, let’s face it, you aren’t going to be an astronaut in 12 months, so think about SMART objectives, specific, measurable, realistic and time bound, for example, if you want to lose weigh it would be:

S:  I want to drop one clothing size.

M: I need to lose 8lbs

A: I can put things in place to achieve this

R: Is this realistic?  How much do I want to make this my priority?

T: When, in realistic time will I achieve this?  At a rate of 2lbs per week, in one month, so by the end of February, for example.

These objectives really help you focus on the HOW part of your resolutions.  It’s easy to say you are going to try to lose weight, for example, but unless you really nail it down as a tangible, measurable goal, you won’t ever know when you have achieved it.  By doing this you risk becoming disheartened and losing motivation.

3. Plan for failure:  Always have plan B ready!  Life has a cunning way of jumping up and changing things suddenly.  What will you do?  Using the diet example; your partner takes you out for a slap up meal.  What will you do?  Fall off the wagon and compensate for this afterwards, reviewing your target, or will you diligently choose the most healthy options from the menu and limit what you eat?  Or even warn your partner that you are really committed for a certain amount of time, and therefore would like to do things together that don’t threaten your endeavours. 

4. Break the goal into manageable chunks and create a rewards system.  Using the diet example again, perhaps you have more weight to lose and this will require a consistent commitment over a longer period of time.  You will keep focussed by monitoring your progress and having rewards, each time you make a significant advance.  Perhaps you put £2 in a jar for every pound you lose, and then pay for a massage, or treat yourself to a trip to the movies, or spending time with a person you care for.  It doesn’t really matter what you choose to do, so long as it is meaningful for you and you enjoy and relish it.

5. Buy in support.  Back to the trusty diet example, slimming groups are continually raving about the success in weight loss, due to attending groups and making a social commitment.  You may not think it applies to you, but to varying levels, we are all social animals.  When we keep something to ourselves, it’s much easier to forget it, or lose motivation.  When you say something out loud and show to the world that you are committed, something magical happens.  You will find that your commitment, determination and motivation are much higher.  Perhaps you hire a personal trainer or a coach, tell your partner, your kids, colleagues, family and friends.  Rave about it, and imagine yourself already having achieved it.  What does it feel like?  Take in the detail, what does it smell, taste and look like?  How do people respond to you now you have achieved your resolution?  This will get your mind focussing on your success at a subconscious level.

Want to know more about making changes and claiming the success that is rightfully yours?  Contact Becky Hall on 07977 132124 or email becky@focusfuture.co.uk to learn more about taking control of your life this year.  Becky is offering a discount of 15% on a course of four sessions for readers when you quote FFW1.

Local Firm Pioneers New Approach to Training for

Small Businesses

A Bristol-based company has developed an exciting new course, targeted at leaders of small businesses.  The programme will provide delegates with a vast range of skills and knowledge essential to compete in the modern business environment.

The majority of large corporations now recognise that the personal ability of their employees (sometimes called “soft skills”) is at least as important as factual knowledge.

Focus:Future, a training company based in North Bristol has developed its “Self Employed:Self Reliant”® programme to train small business leaders in the skills they require to be successful. These include motivation of themselves and their employees, how to network successfully with other businesses and how to manage time and stress pressures.

The course also includes more traditional aspects of business management including business planning, financial and legal aspects.  There will be a fantastic opportunity to interact with other local small business leaders.

Sessions are held weekly in the centre of Bristol and the whole programme is offered for only £300 per delegate. There is also an opportunity for delegates to participate in monthly motivational support sessions, following completion of the course, for a nominal fee.

Course founder and owner of Focus:Future, Becky Hall, said “This is an exciting opportunity for local small businesses to acquire the same quality training as is available to large corporations, at an affordable price. Many small business leaders struggle to find time for training and development as they are focusing exclusively on generating business. Our programme is designed to complement the daily work with sessions run in the early evenings”.

The next programme begins early February and a few places are still available. Look out for more courses to be held in the future.  For more information, or to register an interest in the course, please contact Becky on 07977 132 124 or e mail becky@focusfuture.co.uk.

Reactive to Proactive: Part 1

harnessing the benefits of stress.

The Reactive state is often a ‘fire-fighting’ state.  The stress of a situation has long kicked in and you are now just trying to defend yourself from further problems.  Things appear to be chaotic around you, the culture surrounding you may be of people WANTING IT NOW!  People are frustrated, angry, tense, and seeking to meet their own immediate needs.  In an organisation, teamwork will dissipate into bickering, ‘point scoring’ and back stabbing, as people clamber to the top of the pile, trampling others in the process.  You may well think that this is typical business life and that it is just ‘survival of the fittest’, but let me share a secret with you: it doesn’t have to be like this.

Stress is commonly attributed to massive financial losses in business.  It is true, excessive stress is a significant problem costing UK industry £3.7 billion each year as the most significant cause of sickness absence.  This occurs when people are simply overwhelmed by external factors, when they do not have the emotional and psychological tools in place to cope with such levels.  So it is hard to argue that stress is not a problem, however a stable lower level of stress can be an excellent motivator.  For example, people will not choose to lose weight until the waist band becomes uncomfortable.  They put up with it being a bit tight, a bit uncomfortable for some time, resolving they’ll do something, but only when it becomes significantly uncomfortable or the have a reason to dress up looming do they actually panic and try to do something about it.  This is all part of the process of discernment, there are other things we will want to focus on at any one time, so others get pushed to the back, until they become urgent.  Eventually the stress of a situation will highlight the importance of it to us, creating a compelling reason for us to take action.

So, low and stable levels of stress are good for us, however how on earth can anyone move from the fire-fighting, all out panic I described above into the more controlled proactive state?  How can we cope better in our lives?  Well, the first thing is to really identify the proactive state and what is means.  As it shines from the distance, in a ‘holy grail’ fashion it can be hard to determine actually what it is.  We know we want it, and should be doing it, and probably that it’s good for us, but until we know what it actually consists of we will never grasp it.

A proactive person is someone who can tackle their needs in a methodical way by prioritising tasks effectively.  To do this, it is important to distinguish important issues from urgent issues.  Urgent tasks or issues are usually driven by someone else.  They usually have a specific deadline.  As this approaches, the urgency increases.  An urgent task may not actually present any benefits to you, apart from reducing pressure on you.  An important task is rated on what you want to so, and the benefits you will get.  Often an important task is not time-bound, and therefore is prone to be pushed behind urgent tasks.  Important tasks are usually longer term and much more strategic.  For example, an urgent report is due in tomorrow.  However your long term career development is important, you have been meaning to complete the application to get chartered, but never seem to have the time to get it done. 

Other key traits of a proactive person are as follows:

þ     A positive and determined way of thinking

þ     Tend to act on something, rather than react, creating an emotional involvement

þ     Identifies many options as they go about their daily basis

þ     Invest time in self development

þ     Have a strong sense of being in control of the majority of their life

So, having identified the traits of proactivity, how on earth do you move from reactive to proactive?  It can appear to be a very daunting task, however it is possible. 

Dealing with the Backlog:

Initially book some time out of your daily schedule to identify all the ‘to do’ things which are vying for your attention, to make it easier, you may want to do it electronically, as it make the end product more user friendly.  Mark against each task a due date and whether it is urgent or important.  Given that the urgent tasks will need to be done, as you are not driving them, they will not provide you with a great deal of satisfaction.  Therefore, you will have a sense of being on a treadmill.  You will not feel like you are getting anywhere.  So review the list, focusing solely on the Important tasks.  Mark against them how long each one will take. If you want something more general, mark them as small, medium or large.  Now look at the small and medium tasks.  Think about how plausible it is for you to slip a few in between the urgent tasks.  Think about the benefits, the feel good factor, the chance to knock off one of your own tasks, that will benefit you directly.

Given that you are moving from one set of behaviours, to another, it is possible that you may initially find this feels like it is creating more work, however, continue with it and you will quickly reap the rewards. Good luck!

**Next time, you will read about how to adjust your thinking style and begin to foster a more positive outlook.**

As a term, 'holistic' is banded about but how does is apply to real life?

Holistic:Pronunciation: hO-'lis-tik
Function: adjective
1 : of or relating to holism
2 : relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts <holistic medicine attempts to treat both the mind and the body>