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Archives for January 2017

Finish Strong and Make January Count

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finish strong quote

Finish Strong and Make January Count

As we approach the end of January are you confident that you will finish strong? It’s merely a few days before we conclude the first 12th of the year. Will you be able to look back over the preceding weeks and feel confident that you have given January a fair crack of the goal whip?

If, on reflection, you know you’re going to fall short, then all is not lost. Whilst there are just a few days of January left to make your mark, going all in for the next 48 hours could give you and your goal a huge boost. There’s nothing to stop you from using these hours to finish strong!

It’s Not About Results…at least not yet

This finish strong quote from Og Mandino, for me, is the epitome of why it’s so important to take a look back periodically (end of week, end of month and end of year, which is often too late) to assess whether we’ve progressed sufficiently that we will achieve our goals in the long term.

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.

Indeed, what you plant now, you will harvest later. It can sometimes seem that the small actions we take now are insignificant. And frankly, they probably are if taken in isolation, but, if your goals are big enough and important enough to you, then it’s in these small, consistent but often immeasurable actions that the harvest will be brought in.

It can be so easy to let the months slip by without checking in on ourselves. The problem is that we often start strong, but then lose enthusiasm as the size of the task becomes all-too-apparent. But, in taking action, no matter how small, we often find hacks, hints and tips which sometimes speed up our journey or maybe just give us a sign that we’re moving in the right direction. [Read more…] about Finish Strong and Make January Count

Be The Change and Improve Your Life

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change improveDo you ever feel like you’re being pulled every-which-way? There’s too much to do, too many demands on your time and the things you actually want to do hardly even make it to the bottom of your to-do list, let alone the top?

If this is you, then you’re not alone. Multiple surveys, covering subjects such as how much time you have to spend with your loved ones , on your hobbies or just chilling out have shown that we just feel overwhelmed with commitments and have little to no time to achieve our goals. The results are tiredness, lethargy, overwhelm, frustration, anxiety and lack of fulfilment to name but a few.

In today’s post I’m going to share with you three different changes I’ve made which has allowed me to think differently, to carve out time more effectively and to be more consistent in achieving my goals.  In other words, these are my attempts to ‘be the change’ I want to see in my world.

My Challenges

It’s been a number of years since I felt compelled to pursue my writing passion. Indeed, five years on and the compulsion to write is still as strong as ever. But in the intervening years, there have been many distractions, doubters and failures which could, and sometimes have taken me off course. But, whatever has come my way, nothing and no one have been able to persuade me to give up altogether! [Read more…] about Be The Change and Improve Your Life

5 Easy Tips to Stay on Track

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5 easy tips to stay on track tips on how to be successful in life

5 Easy Tips to Stay on Track

I’m not completely sure where the quote below comes from, although Gretchen Rubin has been associated with it (great source of inspiration, by the way!). But wherever it comes from, it’s true! And anyway, who doesn’t want 5 Easy Tips to Stay on Track?!

What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.

As I was mulling over my topic for today’s blog post, I considered writing about how, when we’re just a few weeks into a new year, our resolve to maintain our new year’s resolutions (goals!) begins to disappear into the ether. Most of us will have reluctantly reverted to our busy lives, returning to work or the school run (or both), and our resolutions have had to make way for reality. Hmmph!!

But, of course, we still want those extra savings and the peace-of-mind/holiday/car they will fund or that fitness goal and the confidence and extra energy which will arrive as a by-product of our efforts. So how can we maintain the momentum?  The answer is in looking for things that can easily be incorporated into our lives and these 5 easy tips are most definitely that!

This idea is also neatly summed up in Aristotle’s words:

We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act but a habit.

So how can we ensure we get the daily little things into our repertoire? Here are 5 easy tips to help you do just that.

Where Does It Fit?

It all seems so easy during the holiday periods. Time stretches out ahead of us like an open meadow, inviting us to run and frolic endlessly, but now that meadow has been fenced in with daily responsibilities and there’s no time for running and frolicking! [Read more…] about 5 Easy Tips to Stay on Track

7 Powerful Reasons YOU Should Be Setting Goals

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7 Powerful Reasons You Should Be Setting Goals

If you spend time on Achieve Your Best Life, then you can’t help but notice that set goals each year (click to read more about my goals for 2017  , also for 2018 and most recently my 2019 goals).  This is an exercise I enjoy doing each year and it gives me an outline or a roadmap to help me negotiate each year into the shape I want it to be. This is one of many powerful reasons why setting goals is so important. So today, I’m exploring what it can mean for our lives when we set goals.

Goals Give You A Roadmap

When you get up in the morning, other than going to work or getting the children off to school, do you have plans for the day? Or, will the day take you by the hand, or worse, the scruff of the neck and drag you along in whatever direction it sees fit?

Most people tend to fall into the latter group. They get up, drop into their usual routines and let the day take them on an impulsive journey of reacting to whatever comes their way. Of course, you will have prepared your ‘to do list’ of errands to run and places you need to be to meet your obligations, but this is probably the extent of your planning.

Contrast this to your parallel universe where you have set half a dozen goals which includes improving your fitness, learning a new language and planning a touring holiday.

So today when you jump out of bed, you feel you’ve awoken with purpose and as well as getting to work or getting the children off to school you’ve planned a lunchtime walk or run with a colleague. You’re also eagerly looking forward to the language class that’s starting later this week safe in the knowledge that when you head off into the unknown later in the year, you’ll be able to communicate with the locals…

Which takes me to my next powerful reason… [Read more…] about 7 Powerful Reasons YOU Should Be Setting Goals

My 2017 Goals

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My 2017 GoalsIn my last blog post I wrote about my 2016 goals review and promised that I would fully articulate my 2017 goals and also go public on them.  I’ve learned that if I don’t do this, then my progress can have more of a splatter-gun effect, with distractions easily taking me away from the important stuff.  So, with this in mind, I’ve spent a few hours looking at what I want to achieve in 2017 and have listed my goals below.

As in previous years, I’ve used the Wheel of Life template to get a visual representation of where I am now.  This helps me prioritise the areas that need most attention or that I’m most drawn to, after all, it’s pointless setting out to achieve goals that don’t really interest me!

My 2017 Goals

[Read more…] about My 2017 Goals

2016 A Year of Mixed Results

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2016 ReviewAs we approached the end of 2016, I was keen to spend some time reviewing the events, progress, and slippage that has occurred! It’s also an opportunity to see what lessons can be learned so that they are avoided in the future (not always successfully, I may add!).

In some ways though, reviewing 2016 isn’t an easy task, and this is my first and a major lesson learned! Because, for 2016, I didn’t publicly proclaim my goals in such a way that they could be monitored effectively. But more than that, I didn’t really articulate my goals, even to myself in a way that was useful until much later in the year.

I kind of got wise to myself around September when I realised that my progress was slow and disjointed. I recognise this as a character flaw that I need to work on, because without clear direction, I tend to hop from one thing to another without really bringing anything to a successful conclusion.

I’ve written in the past about being lured by the next shiny object to cross my path and in 2016 I took up that mantle too often and got well and truly overwhelmed.

So with this in mind, here’s a review of 2016. (You can also check out my 2015 review here as a comparison to 2016.)

Despite the lack of well-articulated goals, there were some overriding themes that were uppermost in my mind as things that I wanted to achieve, or, at the very least, progress in 2016. These were: [Read more…] about 2016 A Year of Mixed Results