Setting Yourself Up For Success

So this week I was interviewed by Deb Sturgess of Create Your Now virtual conference on the subject of ‘setting yourself up for success’ – it was fabulous! We had such a laugh, and I enjoyed converting another group of people to the virtues of treasuring yourself. Today’s article explores this a little more, but if you really want to get into it, get my free ebook “The First Step to a Joyful Life” by Joining my mailing list. If you are on my mailing list already, this will have been sent to you when you joined (if you’ve lost it, drop me an e-mail and I’ll resend it for you.

- Setting Yourself Up For Success -

I have noticed that for every one of my clients, if their self-care and energy is weak, their life is harder and their goals more difficult to achieve! If they feel cared for and energised, many of the seeming problems disappear! Life is easier, more fun, doors seem to open with greater regularity and ease…and they FEEL GOOD! This is what I think setting yourself up for success is about – taking the best care of yourself you can so you FEEL GOOD!

Some people object to this because it’s ‘selfish’, but keeping your one and only body, mind, heart and soul running efficiently is not selfish, it is necessary. Do you consider your car selfish for requiring petrol and oil and water to run efficiently? Do you ask your car to run on empty and consider it self-indulgent if it just stops running when it runs out of fuel? No, of course not. It’s ridiculous.

And when you are full up, when you are taken care of and energised, you have more to give. And when you are overflowing, you can overflow onto others, and you can give them more. Imagine this: you have kids, partners, parents, friends and colleagues who all need something from you. And you are only 50% full up. Your kids need 20% of that so you’re down to 30%. Your spouse needs 15%, you’re down to 15.

Your family needs you, and they take that last 15%…and they still want more. In the meantime your best friend is really sick and needs you…but you have nothing left to give. You are now feeling depleted and worn out yourself and you need help from those around you – who are in the same position as you, they have nothing to give! If you are full in the first place, you can give to your children, spouse, family and friends and still feel good.

Especially if you are refilling as you go along. So let’s look at another example. Let’s say you are overflowing, feeling wonderful – you’re at about 200%. As in the example before, you give 20% to your kids, 15% to your spouse, 15-20% to your family, 20% to your best friend…and even if you don’t fill up anymore, you still have 125% to give! The quality of the care and attention you can give is better – you’re not giving the people in your life the dregs of yourself.

And you feel good. So is that really selfish? I don’t think so. I personally think it is more selfish to do it the other way, because you are not able to give as much or as high quality. You are also teaching the people around you that you are worthy…and that they are worthy too. If you can take care of yourself, you give your loved ones permission to take care of themselves too. What could be less selfish?

- Something to Play With -

Are you setting yourself up for success by taking the best possible care of yourself you can? Are you feeling cared for right now? If the answer is no, what can you do right now to care for yourself? Go do it. Want to share your thoughts on this article? Leave me a comment below. Or pop over to my facebook page and leave a comment there.

Love

Donna.x

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Thinking Big, Dreaming Big

Here’s the last post from the Wire blog:

So, Carrie asked me to do a blog post for you guys on “Thinking Big” and “Keeping Moving Towards Your Big Dreams”. These two subjects are really close to my heart as they are the reason I am a coach! One of my favourite things in the world is getting to the centre of what drives people, what they are passionate about, what they love and where they want to go…and then helping them to get there. Delightful.

So let’s start with thinking big. You may have heard of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely), and although this is sensible and logical, it is also BORING! When I take my big ideas for my business and run them through this method of goal setting, I lose most of the OOMPH behind them. Business plans have the same effect. They take the inspiration out of your ideas and make them tedious. Thinking big won’t always get you to be Mistress of the Universe, but thinking small DEFINITELY won’t, and being realilstic, logical, sensible cuts your ‘big ideas’ down to a size that has no juice left for you! Bleurgh.

So let’s talk about SMILE goals instead (I just made this up by the way!) – does your vision for your business make you Smile? Does it have a touch of Magic about it? Is it Inspiring to you? Do you have Lots of enthusiasm for this? Does it give you Energy? If yes, Woohoo! Go get em Tiger! If not, what is your biggest vision for your business? To find that big vision, try these exercises:

Imagine that you have a time machine and you can go 5 years into the future – everything has gone better than you ever expected…what has happened in your business?

Sandy Grason of www.sandygrason.com suggests you set a timer and try the writing prompt “Your Perfect Day” – what would that be like? What would your perfect business day look like?

What is the best you can imagine for your business and your life? Don’t worry about the ‘how’ for a moment, just allow yourself to dream big.

Spend a bit of time thinking about what your big vision would be. Most of us only allow ourselves to think about modest goals…and most of us are capable of achieving far greater. Many people believe that if they don’t have big dreams, they can’t be disappointed. Unfortunately, when we keep ourselves small that disappoints us more than trying and failing ever could. And the joy is in the journey – it really is. If you have a big dream, a big vision, a big idea, you will grow and learn and develop so much you won’t be able to recognise yourself! Whether you reach that big goal or not. I was once told to set the goal of being a millionaire. Not for the money, but for what I’d learn along the way.

Get a vision that excites you! Get a vision that delights you…in fact, I say ‘get’…but you already have that big vision inside you. Let it out. You wouldn’t have it if you couldn’t do it. Ok, it is possible that you may not reach your ‘big vision’…but you just might! And you may well get a lot further than if you stay safe, stay small and stay sensible, realistic, timely, blah! And maybe the reason you don’t reach that big vision is because along the way the big vision changes – mine has changed beyond recognition in the last 5 years. I’m glad I never got my 2005 version ‘big vision’ because it sucked! My 2010 big vision however, ROCKS!

Now, once you’ve got your ‘big vision’, how do you achieve it? There are 3 vital parts to achieving a big goal: 1. Be flexible 2. Keep a sense of humour and 3. Keep moving. The first two are important – I can guarantee that there will be days you think you’re never going to get there, days when things go horribly wrong, days when every door seems to have shut in your face, days when you doubt yourself, days when you wonder how the beep you’re going to do this. On those days, you will need flexibility and a sense of humour!

Clients often feel there is something wrong with them or their big vision because it’s not as easy as they thought it would be. Unfortunately in my experience it never is “easy”! When we see people who have achieved great things, we almost always gloss over the fact that they have worked for 20 years to get where they are, or the sacrifices they had to make to get where they are, or the days they thought they couldn’t do it. And let me tell you that everyone who has achieved something great had doubts, bad days, crises of confidence and moments (sometimes thousands of them!) of failure. It is not ‘just you’.

The difference between those who get there and those who don’t is the 3rd vital part. Keep moving. Step by step by step by step by step by step. Breaking your next move down into baby steps and moving. For example, creating a website might be a next move…but it is more than one baby step!!!! To break it down, you might say step 1 is brainstorming what you want your website to be – a brochure, a lead-catcher, a force to be reckoned with? Step 2 might be writing the copy for the home page. Step 3 might be deciding on the names for the other pages. Steps 4-12 might be creating the copy for those pages. Step 13 might be to find a web designer (or this might be step 1, depending on what feels right to you).

50 steps later, you have a website. And you’re ready to take the next step. Most people get stuck because they try to take those 50 steps in one stride, then fall flat on their face. An absurd and unrealistic undertaking! This is one of my achilles’ heels (I have many!) – I try to get way ahead of myself, and then just end up falling behind. But when I remember to decide the next baby step and do that, then decide the next baby step and do that, I make progress. I stay flexible, I keep my sense of humour…and every now and again I remind myself of that vision that makes me smile, has a touch of magic, inspires me, gives me lots of enthusiasm and energy – and that big vision pulls me forward into the next steps.

You cannot climb a mountain in 2 leaps – it takes thousands of small steps. This may be disappointing to the impatient among you (like me!) but actually it should be encouraging – you keep putting those small steps together, keep flexible, keep a sense of humour and you will conquer that mountain!

Love

Donna.x
With thanks to Carrie of the Blonde Marketing Goddess and Wire for featuring me! xx

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The Tree That Bears the Most Fruit

I am busy preparing for my interview with Deb Sturgess as part of her Virtual Telesummit starting on Friday. Deb wanted to create something to help people in difficult circumstances…and she came up with a virtual conference with 20 speakers (including myself) for $25 dollars! Awesome! This is such a great price, it’s ridiculous! She has some really fantastic people speaking on all sorts of subjects. Why don’t you come and join us? Sign up at www.createyournow.com.

I’ll be being interviewed by Deb on Monday night (UK Time) on the subject of ‘Setting yourself up for success’ – I’m looking forward to it immensely. Let me know if you’re going to be there. And if you are interested in some one to one time creating your now, I have 2 coaching slots up for grabs in October – simply send me an e-mail to find out more and book a time for us to have a chat. (no hard sell – this is just a call to check we get on and I can help you!)

- The Tree That Bears Most Fruit -

I was watching a program at the weekend about the bumper apple crop here in the UK. Apparently the apple trees have gone bananas…as it were. Why? According to the expert, the trees have done so well this year because we had a proper winter. Because it was so cold, the trees had a month or two to be completely dormant, to hibernate if you like. They fully rested for a time, and because of that rest, they were ready to burst into fruit at harvest time. And this got me thinking.

When was the last time you were completely dormant? When was the last time you really rested? I was trying to think myself…and I couldn’t really remember! At weekends I am busily going from place to place, I often end up doing a little work, and although I usually have a lie in, I wouldn’t say I am completely dormant. Of course, I am not a tree. And it is not possible for me to just do nothing for months. I’d get bored for a start. But even when I’m not working, I’m not really resting – I’m walking the dog, mowing the lawn, cleaning, tidying, going out, doing, doing, doing. No wonder I am not having a spectacular harvest of fruit!

I haven’t been able to get this thought out of my head. This idea of being completely dormant, totally rested so that you can create sensational results. I can see it, can’t you? After a holiday, we are more able to cope with life. After we have rested, our minds are clearer, our bodies ready to go again, our enthusiasm restored, we are rejuvenated. But we don’t rest much. Life in 2010 doesn’t really lend itself to any rest time. Dogs, cats, kids, jobs, computers, social lives, friends and family all conspire to keep us busy doing non-stop. No wonder most of us are frazzled instead of dazzling.

My interview with Deb on Monday is going to be about taking care of ourselves so that we can give our best in any given situation. And this idea of proper, dormant, down-time is a big part of that. If the last time you really had some down-time is ‘I can’t remember’ ago, perhaps it’s time to take that time? I know it’s not easy…but it’s worthwhile. Everyone benefits when you are rested. When you are on the go constantly, you become sluggish, short- tempered, irritable, cantankerous and sniippy. Well, I do anyway! Often we do ‘just enough’ to bring us back on an even keel, just enough to stop us becoming homicidal psychotics through exhaustion.

But we don’t usually do enough to really recharge the batteries. And the consequence is that our batteries run out more quickly, more often, and we spend a lot of time in that fruitless, unproductive place of fogginess that comes from a lack of true rest. True rest is taking time to do nothing. No thinking. No doing. No racing from place to place. Nothing. I know it’s tough and who the hell has time to do nothing…but here’s the thing. 1 minute of doing nothing is a good start. Can you find a minute in your day? Just to sit and let your mind empty (some people call it meditation but don’t let that freak you out). To sit and watch the stars or the clouds or the leaves on the trees or the sunset or the world go by. If you want to be like the apple tree and have spectacular results then you have to make the time to be dormant so you can be fruitful and abundant.

- Something to Play With -

Take a minute today to do nothing. Just a minute. If you can, take a few minutes. And just do nothing. Allow yourself the luxury of being dormant. Let me know how you get on. Leave me a comment below. Or pop over to my facebook page and leave a comment there.

Love

Donna.x
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From the Wire blog 2: Price Setting

Here’s the second blog I featured in on Carrie Eddins WIRE blog:

Help for women in business..

It’s the start of the term, for many, and often the renewal of a business idea , and indeed start of a business for others in the lead up to Christmas. For me, I am about to launch the Blonde Marketing Goddess fully, and I must confess that I have been struggling rather a lot on what to charge.

I happened to chat to Donna recently about this and she came up with the following helpful tools below which I trust will help you ladies as much as it has helped me! I am sure there are some of you out there who are starting out and are having problems setting your rates and also some of you out there who are already established but have been considering raising your rates in line with your experience, if so here are a couple of marvelous tools to help to to gain crystal clarity on your fees, honouring your skill set and your clients and potential clients

First over to Donna who is going to tell you her story about charging, so that you can understand where she is coming from. Over to you Donna…

Donnaonthebeach:

I have felt the same way – I really struggled with charging for my services when I first started. In my case there were 3 things going on: my confidence in myself, my confidence in my service, and my belief that taking money for services was somehow wrong or slimy. As my confidence in me and what I did grew (partly from doing a great job for low/no cost) it got easier…but there was still that belief that taking money for services was a bit dirty. But when I pay for a coach, or a CD, or some clothes, I don’t feel that it’s dirty at all. I love spending money! I don’t expect other people to work for free. When they do I am so grateful…and then there comes a point where I feel uncomfortable not paying, so why wouldn’t they feel the same?

Unsurprisingly, when I was uncomfortable charging, I attracted people who were uncomfortable paying me! Lol. Now I rarely come across these people – and when I do, I don’t take it to mean I am not worth paying for, I give them what feels comfortable to me and I am clear that if they want more, they will have to pay for it. My experience has also been that when people don’t pay or underpay, they don’t get the same from it than if they make the financial commitment.

So, that’s my story! My first suggestion is to figure out what’s going on underneath – the whys behind the discomfort about charging. Then work on moving those whys forwards so you can feel great about charging for your service.

Pick a number, any number

Putting an actual figure on your services or products can be tough – there’s all the advice out there about “charging what you’re worth”, “Sell low, sell lots”, “Price it right”, “imagine the VALUE of what you are selling if they use it to it’s full advantage”…and as usual, all the advice is conflicting and ends up confusing us more! Lol. Don’t get me wrong, all these pieces of advice ARE useful to consider in your decision making BUT they are not critical. What is critical is what you KNOW inside. You know what price feels right for you. The only piece of advice I think is absolutely correct is “be able to stand behind your prices”. This does not mean charging a ridiculously low price and undervaluing your product or service. It means getting really comfortable with what you charge. And one last thing to consider: clients will pay more than you think when they really want something. Don’t fall into the trap women often fall into of patronising your client – if we women can pay £100 for a pair of shoes, we can pay for other products and services. This is not to fleece your customers dry, but to trust in their ability to pay for the things they want – a very empowering viewpoint. I once did a ‘pay what you want’ promotion for my coaching services – MOST people paid ‘just’ under my normal fees – no one really took advantage of the offer to pay a ridiculously low price!

Here’s a couple of exercises to try:

To find the “right price” for you. What is the maximum price you think you could charge for your product/service? What is the minimum price? Double your maximum and start playing with the figures. Try £1, £200, £46, £73, £102.50 – just play around with what you could charge. What figures are jumping out at you? (this is an intuitive ‘jump out’, not a logical one!) Take the 3 figures that are ‘jumping out’ and write them down on a piece of paper. Leave the piece of paper overnight, then look at it again in the morning. One of the figures will jump out at you as ‘the right price’ for YOU. (If it feels a little high, don’t worry, the next exercise will sort that out!) If no figure ‘jumps out’, play again with the figures and repeat the exercise. Let it be easy, let it be fun. You can always change the price later if it’s not working. Be willing to make a mistake…and be willing to trust your intuitive knowing!!!

Getting comfortable with your price. This is great fun! Take the price you have decided to charge and multiply it by 10. Now practice saying “My product/service costs £x10”. For example, if your product/service is £100, you would say “My product/service is £1000”. If you can get a friend to play along with you, get them to ask “How much?” and you reply “£1000”. When you are next talking to a “real” client, you will feel that your £100 product or service is fantastic value and this will come across!!! If you cannot stand behind your pricing, your customers will sense that and will assume it’s not worth what you’re charging. Many of my female clients undercharge outrageously and STILL feel they’re charging too much!

You can always change your pricing, so for me the most important piece of advice I can give anyone worrying about setting a price is: RELAX! Pick a number and run with it. If it doesn’t work, change it! Most of the time, your price revisions will be upwards which gives you a great marketing opportunity: “My prices are going up in January 2011 by 300% – get it now or pay more later!” (by the way, be authentic with this – do put your prices up!). If you feel the need to revise your prices down, have a ‘sale’! Again, a great marketing opportunity. Who doesn’t love a bargain?! Trust yourself. You know what price to charge. Get comfortable with it, and get that amazing product/service of yours out there for the people who need you to buy!

Ladies I trust that you found value in this post by Donna ( www.donnaonthebeach.com) who I met in person again yesterday, such a lovely lady who was every bit as inspiring and lovely in person as when I spoke to her last week, which is always reassuring isn’t it!

Wishing you every success with whatever you set your heart on in your business and life, you can do whatever it is you desire, you really can!

Namaste, giggles & light,

Carrie Eddinsxxx
Blonde Marketing Goddess

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What Did You Do Right Today?

If I asked you at the end of the day what you did wrong, or what you ‘should’ have done that you didn’t do, how many answers would you have for me? (just a rough guess, you don’t need to count exactly!)

My guess is that you could think of 10-20 things quite easily.

Now, what if I were to ask you what you did RIGHT today? What are you pleased with? What are you proud of? Can you get 10-20 again?

Again, my guess is that you would find this more difficult! Why is it so easy to criticise ourselves but so hard to praise ourselves? Which is more motivating? Constant criticism or constant praise? Which do you do to yourself?

Just for today, notice what you got RIGHT. Then, you could maybe do it again tomorrow…and the next day…and the next day.

I wonder how much happier you’d be if you did this every day?

Love

Donna.x

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Guest on WIRE: Women and Social Media

Over the past couple of weeks, I have featured in a couple of blog posts on the WIRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) blog, courtesy of the lovely Carrie Eddins of theblondemarketinggoddess.com. Carrie’s blog on WIRE is helping women market successfully to other women, and she asked for my thoughts on using social media for a blog post…this then led to another 2 blog posts for the ladies at Wire. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting these posts here so you can enjoy them too. Here’s the first:

Long time, no speak, well I must be completely honest with you, this is because…. I have been rather overwhelmed… with strageties…. .. and so I procrastinated and procrastinated and then did a LOT of clutter clearing realising that I have far too many files of information that no longer resonated with me from courses that I have attended both in person and virtually worldwide…

Then, one day, as if by magic I had quite an ‘aha moment,’ as I just realised that in essence relationships are built on how that other person or product makes u feel, and when you have a heart-felt connection with them and their service or product you find them irresistible! I know you all know this and so do I, especially as women this is instinctive for us but I had lost touch with this, as I had been very much in overdrive about social media, which resulted in overwhelm!

I felt that tweeting so much and facebooking was a bit too much like shouting when nobody was really listening, and I was getting annoyed with all the tweets and fb updates from others myself too!!Who really needs to know what everybody is doing ALL the time?! I certainly don’t not everyone, maybe a few people I would like to know some of the time, but not all of the time!!

Then… I just so happened to..re-connect with the lovely Donnaonthebeach who, for me, is the business discovery of the decade as she’s so much fun, and so talented in quite a humble way! She epitomised heart-felt connections, and her energy makes her positively irresitible, let alone her wonderful business insights ladies, I cannot recommend this lovely lady enough!

I truly understand about how to systemise and leverage my work! Really. And, I know that there are certain steps that would help me to bring in consistent income, ie a membership site, but much of the technical stuff ie structuring my work in autoresponders, building my visibility on facebook, twitter, blogging and linked in was becoming such a headache! Added to my own blonde reality that through learning about the technical bits of driving traffic to my site, with the lovely and talented Nicola Cairncross, ( she’s AMAAZING BTW, i whole-heartedly recommend her!) I managed to delete my own blog! At the time this was not funny as I did not back it up, at all though I thankfully have 90% of my blog posts printed out so I just need set it all up again!!!

So, ladies, I asked Donna if she would kindly share a few words of wisdom to help you feel less overwhelmed with your social media presence. I trust this helps you, it most certainly helped me!

Donna – what are your current feelings on the overwhelm, especially with Social Media that our members might feel?

“It is overwhelming when you try to become an overnight expert in something you have no experience with! So here’s my advice: when you’re feeling overwhelmed, stop, breathe, relax, go have some fun and come back to it when you feel better. If you still feel overwhelmed, break it down into a step by step process and just do one step at a time. I find when people are overwhelmed by social media, they are usually trying to do too much too quick, they don’t know what they are doing or they’re confused by the conflicting advice of the “experts”. So taking a step by step approach will help you reduce the overwhelm. Also, give yourself a chance! Women in particular have a tendency to be way too hard on themselves – don’t beat yourself up for being overwhelmed by social media!”

Donna – how do you cope with it?

“I cope with it by doing exactly as I recommend – I stop, breathe, relax and take a ‘time out’ to do something fun – 10 minutes playing with my dog, reading, connecting with friends, dancing round the office, whatever will get me out of the immediate stress. Then when I come back I figure out what the next step is and do that. Sometimes the next step is “figure out what I’m doing” or “make this more fun” – if you don’t know what you’re doing, how can you do it effectively?! And if it’s not fun, why do it?! I also make sure I set myself up for success – caring for myself, managing my energy, enjoying life and connected to my vision for my business and to the energy of life. Most of the time when I am overwhelmed, I notice that I am pushing myself too hard so it’s good to stop and re-connect.”

Donna – what strategies have helped you which you would wholeheartedly recommend?

“Here are my top five social media strategies:
1. HAVE FUN! Find a way to make your social media activities fun, then you’re more likely to do them in the first instance and keep them up in the second.
2. Experiment. Try things out. Don’t expect to become a social media expert in 2 days flat! Allow yourself to be a beginner for a while…and give the social media experiment time to work, rather than giving up without giving it a good chance. Also make your experiments one at a time – eg try Facebook for a few months, then add twitter. Trying to do everything at once puts too much pressure on you. Give your experiments some parameters that give you a good chance of success!
3. Trust your instincts. Some experts will tell you that you need to tweet 1000 times an hour…I don’t follow anyone who does this, even if I like their product or service. It’s annoying. And the only ‘followers’ you’ll get are ‘collect-a-friend’ marketing types! Trust yourself to know what your customers will appreciate. (tip: they’ll often be people like you, so what do you like in a Tweet?)
4. Set reasonable expectations and know why you have social media. For example, I tweet, facebook, linkedin and blog because it is a way for me to reach new people who can get to know me. My reason for doing it is to give some fun/useful/inspiring information and entice them to find out more! I don’t expect them to buy from me instantly – I’m still there to build a relationship.
5. Ask for help. Find people you like who are doing the Social Media you want to do well and ask them for advice. There is a lot of bull written about social media, but if you find someone who is using it effectively, their advice will be more realistic.”

Namaste, giggles & light,

Carrie Eddins xx
theblondemarketinggoddess.com

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The Ebbing Tide Wants to Flow

Can you imagine if the Tide decided that it didn’t want to ebb, it wanted to keep on flowing? Imagine the effort, the strain, the pressure, the struggle. Imagine the force of energy that would be required to stop the tide from ebbing. I’m guessing that it would be a losing battle. Eventually the tide would have to ebb, giving up exhausted. I’m also guessing it would extend the ebbing time. Instead of 6 hours 13 minutes flow, 6 hours 13 minutes ebb, the tide would waste a few hours of ebbing time trying to flow…but it would still have to ebb for 6 hours 13 minutes so the ebbing would take longer.

Now of course, this would not happen, the tide is influenced by the sun and moon, it does not have a contrary nature and for it to try to flow when the time comes to ebb would be absurd. But we humans on the other hand, are conflicting, contradictory, inconsistent, stubborn and wayward. When our time comes to ebb (when our energy is low and we ‘don’t feel like doing much’), we call ourselves lazy, idle, slow and unindustrious, and we try desperately to keep flowing. We want to be in that high energy, flowing, fast paced, creative state all the time.

Unfortunately, fighting the ebb tide exhausts us even more, drags down our energy and ensures the ebb tide will last even longer. I do this a lot. I know it’s an ebb time and there is no point heckling myself, flagellating myself, being mean to me and being contrary. BUT I wanna be flowing, I wanna be moving, I wanna be creating, I wanna be out there doing the do. So I fight the ebb. And it is a total waste of time. I am just coming to the end of an ebb now, it feels like I’ve been ebbing for ages and I’m getting frustrated…I want to flow! Is my frustration helping me flow or just extending the ebb time even longer? Yep, you guessed it…the latter. Note to self: allow self to ebb!

Modern lifestyles don’t really allow us the luxury of honouring ebb and flow, there is too much to be done, a job to be kept, family to take care of, friends to spend time with. Our society reveres industrious action, but the ebb times are just as productive – like winter, the low energy phases are times of great change underneath the surface. The more aware we can be of our natural states of ebb and flow, the more effective and productive we can be, we can use our energy more intelligently, and perhaps most importantly, we can enjoy both our ebb and our flow.

Love

Donna.x

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Rah Rah Rah!

Ever been of the opinion that enthusiastic people are quite irritating? You know, the sort who are always up and peppy – the jumpiest jumping bean of them all! I have made a startling and quite entertaining discovery over the past few years – it’s not so irritating when it is you that is the enthusiastic one! Hap Hap Hazah!

How’s your enthusiasm rating right now? Today? In general? I must admit that mine has fallen slightly flat over the last few weeks – I’m blaming female hormones – and I’ve been struggling to find the enthusiasm to get my admin done. I’d much rather be doing something else…only I haven’t had much enthusiasm for something else either. Sigh. And today, once TUT had reminded me of the fanfare that accompanies my every move, I could feel my enthusiasm returning.

Then I read something about doing what you do with enthusiasm and EUREKA! I am enthusiasm personified. Now apart from the fact that it is a GREAT word, what’s so good about enthusiasm? Well, several things – being enthusiastic feels great, you get more out of an experience you enthusiastically participate in, people notice enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is infectious.

Just in case you are wondering, the dictionary definition of enthusiasm is “ardent and lively interest or eagerness” – the definition alone is pepping me up even more. Get the pom-poms out! Ok, so maybe you are slightly less excitable than me about this, how do you summon this ardent and lively interest on a Wednesday afternoon? Well, firstly, think about what makes you enthusiastic – what is different when you are enthusiastic?

Do you clap excitedly, jump up and down, dance about the office (or is this all just me?!)? Are you a little more sedate in your enthusiasm? Do you look forward to things and enjoy being part of what you’re doing? Are you keen to get started and focused on what you’re doing? Do you smile and laugh more? Do you just feel a sense of ‘rightness’? Think of the enthusiasm of children and dogs – can you learn from them?

I’m not suggesting that you run around your office jumping up on people and licking their face (although if you did I would howl with laughter!). That might be a jump too far in enthusiasm for you. So what would bring it up just a notch? I encourage you this week to go about your business with as much enthusiasm as you can muster, and just see what fun it is to see the world through enthusiastic eyes.

Love

Donna.x

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