Let's Connect!

Achieve Your Best Life

Live your life your way

Archives for February 2017

Getting Out of Your Own Way

by

 

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Getting Out of Your Own Way

Getting out of your own way when you just can’t be bothered is really frustrating!  But try these quick and easy tips to trick yourself into action!

How often do you find yourself getting in your own way by saying or thinking any of these…

• I’m too tired
• I just don’t feel like it today
• I’ll do it tomorrow
• I can’t do that
• It’s just not worth it

…and so on, even though you know that you really should do whatever it is that’s bugging you because once it’s done, you know you will feel happier, or, even better, you’ll avoid storing up trouble for yourself in the future.

But somehow, we convince ourselves that it’s ok to ignore the call to action because not feeling like it just now, is, well, ok. It’s what everyone else does after all.

We then justify our lack of action by doing something else. Something that’s usually less challenging and probably just part of our daily routine, like making sure dinner is prepared or the clothes are clean. After all, these things need doing, don’t thay? Well, now you can use these mundane tasks for getting out of your own way…

5 Quick Tricks for Getting Out of Your Own Way

1 Working in 3s

Also known as the sandwich technique, I’ve heard that this is useful when you want to deliver some bad news and etiquette suggests that you should ‘sandwich’ the bad news between two good news items! [Read more…] about Getting Out of Your Own Way

Maximise Personal Productivity

by

 

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I’ve been in a bit of a how to maximise personal productivity frame of mind this week. Not in the way that might make you think that I’ve been super-productive, but more the opposite: I think I could’ve done more to maximise my personal productivity.  I’ve therefore been questioning my productivity methods. I’m definitely a productivity fan and feel great when I’ve had a really productive day but lousy when I’ve lost a day to procrastination or laziness.

Do You Maximise Personal Productivity?

Of course this is entirely subjective, and to some extent this is the problem with gauging productivity. How do you know you’ve been productive?

• Is it the number of tasks you’ve managed to cross off your to-do list today?
• Did you finally manage to move forward on a horribly large task that you’ve been putting off for-ev-er?
• Have you been productive because you’ve managed to fire-fight tasks all day and things now seem much calmer?
• Or maybe you’ve actually worked on the things that you really wanted to work on?

You see? Subjective!

Any and all of these are guaranteed to give you some semblance of productivity, but which one(s) leave you feeling most satisfied at the end of the day?

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before. Franz Kafka

[Read more…] about Maximise Personal Productivity

Challenge Yourself and Get 5 Great Results

by

challenge yourself

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Is it time to challenge yourself?

Think for a moment, is it time to challenge yourself?  Is there an unfinished or even un-started challenge that’s preying at the edges of your consciousness? It calls to you now and then, comes to mind when you can’t sleep accompanied by pangs of guilt or pops into your mind when you hear of others’ accomplishments?

There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet.
William Frederick Halsey Jr

You think about it and think that you can’t do it, or it’s too small to warrant the effort. You’re embarrassed, because you know it’s something you should address, but somehow, you just don’t!

• It’s that messy back bedroom that should be a guest room, if only you could make it presentable.
• It’s that nail-biting habit you want to eliminate.
• It’s that friend you need to contact.
• It’s that difficult conversation you’ve been putting off.
• It’s your neglected hobby, wasting away in the corner.

But the problem with all the things we want to do, or achieve or have is that we must put the effort in. We must rise to the challenge they present.

Whether it’s money, time, emotional or physical effort, the results will only come once we commit and take action. But the good news is that there are huge benefits to jumping in and getting on with it. Here are some of the reasons why you should challenge yourself. [Read more…] about Challenge Yourself and Get 5 Great Results

Personal Goals Progress Update January 2017

by

personal goals progressToday it’s all about my personal goals progress for January 2017!  You can check out my detailed list of 2017 Goals here.  Writing publicly about my progress is one of the most effective methods of accountability I’ve found. And for those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while will know, I had my greatest success in 2015 when I posted regularly about my progress (or lack of!). I’m hoping that 2017 will be at least equally successful, if not better!

Writing up my personal goals progress report is an important part of keeping me on track and accountable.  It’s also a really useful method to review what is and isn’t working.  Sometimes that will mean that some goals will change or be removed altogether.  But the great thing is that these are my goals, so I can change them as often as I like!  If you choose to write up or already have some personal goals then doing a regular review and write up is a great way to stay on track!

So here we go… 🙂 [Read more…] about Personal Goals Progress Update January 2017

Still Alice by Lisa Genova: Book Review

by

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Fiction

What is the Book About?

‘Still Alice’ tells the story of Alice who discovers that at just 50 years of age she has Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (EOAD). The story, told from Alice’s perspective, follows the progress of the disease and how it affects her life, how she copes (or not) and how it affects those around her.

What I particularly liked about the book

There was a natural flow to the book so that you are easily taken along for the journey with Alice, although it must be said that the journey whilst easy to read is challenging and sad. In particular, the first half of the book absorbed me to the extent that as I went about my day-to-day routines I kept wondering how Alice would deal with this or that. Or put another way, how these day to day activities would be affected if I suffered with this devastating progressive disease.

On at least two occasions I was brought to tears with the poignancy of the scenes. At other times I was confused by what I was reading, but then realised that I was seeing the world through Alice’s confused perspective. Whilst this was indeed confusing, it only added to my understanding of the difficulties Alice was attempting to negotiate.

Was there anything I disliked about the book?

It took me a little while to understand the pace of the book and at times I felt that Alice’s condition had jumped ahead and that I’d missed something. However, my understanding of Alzheimer’s is minimal so it’s difficult for me to say whether this was a realistic timescale for the progression of the disease or not.

Round Up

Overall I found this book compelling and read it over just two days, which is something I haven’t done in a long time! Alice and I share some similarities which might suggest why I found the book so enjoyable. For example, we are a similar age, we have children of broadly the same age and we have a similar career philosophy (although I’m not a professor!). Also, and importantly, I have a fear of succumbing to a degenerative disease of this nature, so maybe I was drawn to the content?

As you can see from the book cover, the book has also been made into a film ‘Still Alice‘ starring Julianne Moore. My next stop is therefore to watch the video!

Rating: 5 stars 🙂