Annual Review 2024

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The annual review allows us to see what worked well so we can celebrate & build on our success and what didn’t work well so we can adjust & change direction.  

Hansei which is Japanese for self reflection is an integral part of Lean. I have been using this Lean concept in my personal life for a long time and this is the 12th year I have published my annual review (annual hansei) online. 

I will be happy to see the end of 2024, it has been the hardest and most challenging year of my life.

I said exactly the same thing about 2023, my Dad passed away in August 2023 and it was a horrific year. 2024 was worse because my family and I have spent this entire year without my Dad – every family occasion, every happy event, every sad event, every birthday, every anniversary, every conversation – Dad was missing and dearly missed from it all.

Over the past few years my life was challenged in ways I had not planned for and certainly would not have asked for. Because of these challenges, I reached very few of the goals I set. 

I could have done without these challenges yet ironically I wouldn’t want to lose the lessons I learned or the work I have done to push through these challenges. 

It’s almost like I have been guided away from what I want towards what I don’t want. 

That is life – we make plans and sometimes they work out and sometimes they don’t. I have realised that no matter how much we plan, the path that is meant for us will always be the path we travel.

Whatever 2024 brought you, I hope you find time to reflect on your year, leave behind what doesn’t serve you and bring into 2025 everything that supports & nurtures you. 

I use the Wheel of Life (below) to categorise my life into Sense of Self, Relationships, Health, Work, Finance, Recreation, Environment & Contribution. When reflecting on your year, you can use these categories or create some of your own.

Here is my Annual Review for 2024

1. Relationships:

The loss of my Dad is something I carry every minute of every day. There are no words to describe the enormous loss Dad is from my family’s lives.

2024 was spent adjusting to this loss, I’ve never felt such deep, overwhelming, all consuming sadness. It’s like every cell in my body is full of sadness and there is no room for any other emotion.  

I do feel other emotions like joy and happiness yet these are fleeting, they come and go. The sadness is constant, it feels like a part of me, not something I can remove myself from, etched in my DNA, a part of my soul. 

My Dad’s passing has heightened my awareness of the fact that time is not finite, we don’t have a never ending supply of time.

One day our time with those we love will run out.

One day our own time will run out. 

This is a constant reminder to spend time with those we love.

Whilst I spent much time with Mike and my family in 2024, it seems that all of my relationships came second to the overwhelming sadness I felt. I didn’t bring anywhere near the best version of myself to anything and anyone in 2024, such is the nature grief, it’s all consuming. 

As with every year previous Mike, my family and friends the most important people in my life and I am dearly grateful for them. 

 2. Sense of Self: 

Over the past few years, personal development and personal strategy stopped working for me and weren’t improving my life anymore.

I knew I needed something more meaningful and so last year I added the category Sense of Self to the categories of my life. 

Sense of Self,

  • combines my relationship with myself, my story, my soul & spirituality including personal development and personal strategy
  • is all about who I am, who I want to be and how I feel about myself and the world around me
  • is where I work on the concepts of self love, self worth, self esteem, self belief, self trust, self confidence, self respect, self awareness and self observation

Over the past few years, my Sense of Self has been on very shaky ground, chipped away at with every new challenge. 

I’m a born optimist and so I will find something positive in every difficult situation. 

The positive of being challenged in the external world is that I turned into my inner world and focused on, learned about, got support with and built a more solid foundation for my Sense of Self.

Developing a strong Sense of Self is like building armour for the battles of the external world from the inside out. I’ll be writing more about Sense of Self in 2025 – a most fascinating subject. 

3. Health: 

There is no truer saying than health is wealth, the quality of every area of our lives is totally dependant on our health.

I have always been aware of the importance of physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health yet over the past few years, for many reasons, this awareness has been brought to a deeper level. 

I actually went backwards in terms of most of my health goals over the past few years. 2024 was slightly improved yet that wouldn’t be difficult as the baseline was at an all time low.  

Health is a fickle thing – one day you have it and the next you don’t, one day you don’t have it and the next day you do. Physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health ebbs and flows like the tides, it’s never one thing or another and improving health is never a straight line or a consistent forward motion. 

The important thing is to keep working on health, keep learning about it, keep focusing on it, keep prioritising it, don’t give it away for anyone or anything – it is our greatest wealth. 

4. Work:

Over the past 3 years I have spent the least amount of time in this category which is ironic as for the previous 25 years it was where I spent the most time! 

I left the corporate world in October 2021 and wanted to set up own business but life had other plans for me!  I took time off from the working world and 3 years later I am still enjoying this time off! 

No job or salary can compete with how precious this time has been, this time has been life changing.

This time away from the working world,

  • meant I had a precious time with my Dad during the last stage of his life – that time was the greatest gift of my entire life
  • allowed me to slow down and see my life more clearly without the fogged up glasses caused by racing around at a million miles an hour
  • gave me the space to realise what work filled my life yet no longer interests or serves me
  • gave me much clarity on what I want to do in terms of my work going forward

One constant that stayed with me over the past few years while everything else took a break was writing. 

Writing has been a constant my entire life, it’s always been there, in the background, part of my daily life, waiting patiently for me to slow down and give it the time and attention it deserves.

As challenging as the past few years have been I have consistently sent a weekly email to my community for over 4 years. This one single, solitary weekly email kept me sane and the replies I received from my readers kept me writing on some very hard days. 

This one single, solitary weekly email taught me,

  • much about writing and the discipline required for consistent writing
  • how to share more of myself and be more confident in my writing
  • that everyone goes through hard times and writing is a very powerful tool for connection during these hard times 

People may not speak about the challenges they face, we may not see it on their faces or on social media yet people will share it with you through their writing, in their own words. Anything that gets people to open up about their challenges is an incredibly important human connection tool – such is the power of writing. 

You can sign up to my weekly email here. 

I had three simple goals for my writing in 2024,

  • Write more 

In 2024 I wrote more than I have ever written in any previous year. I am for the first time in my life, writing more than I am sharing, this is a huge milestone and has been a dream of mine for a very long time. Now I have to figure out how to share more of my writing – this is a wonderful place to finally find myself in! 

I created an email course, the first course I have created in over 3 years. I loved creating it yet I was so nervous sharing it online. Marketing online is a whole new world and one I’m just learning about, it’s not easy but it is fascinating! My free email course is about reclaiming your time from social media. You can sign up here https://www.siobhaindanaher.com/social-course/

  • Learn more about writing 

Ask any accomplished writer how to learn more about writing and they will give you two pieces of advice,

  1. Write more 
  2. Read more

Writing more than I have done in previous years taught me a huge amount about writing and my own writing style. Reading taught me how other’s write, what flows well in writing, how to keep someone’s interest and how to use words to the best effect. 

I also learned about writing from other writers online. Through sharing my own writing I have connected with authors, journalists, copywriters, marketers and loads more people who use the power of their words for a living. This has been so enjoyable yet has also opened my eyes to how much I don’t know about writing and have to learn! 

  • Improve my writing 

Over the past few years I became unhappy and disillusioned with my writing. My writing didn’t accurately reflect how my life has changed. I wanted my writing to be richer, deeper, more meaningful, and more impactful. I wanted to write from a place of more transparency & openness to see where it takes me.

In 2024 my writing definitely became more aligned with who I am yet it is a journey to richer, deeper, more meaningful, more impactful, more transparent and open writing.

This journey will last as long as I continue to write which I want to be as long as I live. 

5. Finance: 

The more I learn about personal finance the more I wish it was a subject I learned in school, it certainly would have saved me much trial and error. Just like health – finance is a journey of which learning & understanding are constant companions. 

Being without a salary for 3+ years has decreased my overall financial value yet  ironically how I manage my finances has improved dramatically. While I watched my financial value decrease further in 2024, I improved many spending habits that were not serving me. 

In 2024 I completed two large financial projects and many smaller financial projects. All of these projects were aimed at streamlining my finances and moving me step by step closer towards financial freedom. 

My top 3 financial learnings over the past few years stood firm for 2024,

1.One of the most important elements of finance is mindset

There are 2 types of financial mindset, abundance and scarcity, both will dictate our relationship with money and how freely it flows in and out of our lives and also how much we enjoy earning and spending money. 

Someone with an abundance mindset can receive €100 and feel rich yet someone with a scarcity mindset can receive €1,000,000 and feel it’s not enough. 

Someone with an abundance mindset thinks that what they have enough and that money will flow freely to them even if they are struggling financially. Someone with a scarcity mindset thinks they don’t have enough and that money will not flow freely to them even if they have loads of money and have never struggled financially. 

The difference has nothing to do with numbers, it’s mindset. 

I truly believe that having a growth mindset is the first step to reaching financial goals. If you want to learn more about the power of mindset read Carol Dwecke’s brilliant book Mindset, it’s a game changer. 

2. Abundance is not just about money

When I left my day job over 3 years ago, my income dramatically reduced but I felt more abundant in so many other areas of my life. Abundance can be about money yet it’s also about love, time, health, freedom and everything else that money cannot buy. 

When we focus on the abundance of love, time, health, freedom and not just on the abundance of money, we can see how truly wealthy we really are. This wealth costs nothing and is also not for sale – it exists in all of our lives in immense abundance, if we just take the time to look. 

3. Time is more valuable than money

Jim Rohn’s quote about time and money is one of my all time favourites ‘Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time’. Every day I am learning the true essence of this quote. Now that I no longer trade my  time for money, I see the true value of time which is priceless – absolutely priceless. 

6. Recreation:

This category could be combined with relationships as it is with those I love that I have the most fun times – these people are food for my soul! 

I didn’t have much of a social life in 2024 which suited me fine as I didn’t feel very sociable. In saying that I did get out and about a bit more than I had in previous years.

 Maybe I’ll be a little more social in 2025 – who knows! 

I did travel more this year than recent previous years which is also food for my soul. I travelled with Mike, my family, my friends and for the first time in a very long time, on my own. Every trip reminded me of the love I have for the beautiful people iin my life and my love of travel.  

7. Environment:

In 2022 I started decluttering our home using the techniques in Marie Kondo’s brilliant book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up – I’m still decluttering and so I’m pretty sure I’m not doing in right! 

In saying that our home is much less cluttered, I have given away so much of what we no longer need which has created a great sense of space in our home. I’ve got a way to go to finish Marie Kondo’s advice yet I’m happy with progress so far even though it’s taken much longer than expected.  

I’m a minimalist in that I don’t need much stuff but I only realised how much stuff I actually had when I started to declutter it! 

8. Contribution: 

I continued to give to charities albeit not at the level I would have when I was working. Over the past few years I became more aware of the contribution I make to the world in terms of my time & skills and the contributions I make which aren’t monetary. \

We all contribute to the world in so many ways that we don’t even notice, this has been an unexpected education for me!  

That’s it, my 2024 review, it was a tough year and I’m happy to say goodbye to it.

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back on 2024 and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to 2025.

Thank you for reading and for your kind words in 2024, I really appreciate your support.

 Siobhain 

x x

If you want to carry out your own annual review, download your Annual Review Workbook below 😊

This is the 12th year I have shared my Annual Review online,

2013   2014   2015   2016   2017   2018   2019   2020  2021  2022 2023

 

 

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Waiting for UHL A&E to Improve….

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Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

As we prepare for a general election tomorrow, leadership has never been more important and critical to our nation.

There has been many debates and interviews with the party leaders over the past few weeks.

I listen tentatively when they discuss University Hospital Limerick as UHL directly impacts my loved ones and the loved ones of most people I know.

UHL is my local hospital, it’s my hometown and adopted hometown’s local hospital.

When asked, do the Mid West need another Accident and Emergency department, the reply is that government are waiting on the HIQA report (Health Information and Quality Authority).

This has been the reply from the Taoiseach, Tànaiste and Minister for Health – they literally use the same words.

The HIQA report is due in the summer of 2025 – 6 months away!

We were waiting for more beds and staff and now we are waiting for the HIQA report.

We seem to be always waiting for UHL Accident and Emergency to improve.

Here’s my suggestion to government on how they could make a quicker decision on whether the Mid West needs another Accident and Emergency department.

You could take your loved one in to University Hospital Limerick Accident and Emergency and see how long you wait for medical care.

Talk to the staff who are so caring and brilliant at their jobs yet cannot work to the best of their ability due to the incredibly challenging environment. I know many people working in UHL, they are all excellent at their jobs – respectful, immensely kind, caring and committed to their patients and to making UHL better.

Yet UHL doesn’t show the same respect, care and commitment to them.

See how your loved one is treated, how long they wait to be seen, to be triaged, to get bloods taken, to get blood results, to get x-rayed, to have other tests, to get a trolley.

Placing patients on trolleys in the corridors of University Hospital Limerick Accident and Emergency has become so normalised that there are markings on the floor for where the trolleys should be parked!

See how long you wait to be seen by a doctor – wait 10 hours, wait 12 hours, wait 24 hours.

These are not outliers – these times are the norm and you might be waiting much longer for the medical care you need.

Watch your loved one lie on a trolley in pain and discomfort (if they are lucky enough to get a trolley), watch their dignity diminish as their personal space is limited to the size of a trolley, watch their discomfort increase as their trolley is pushed back and forth when people need to get by, watch them wait to use unisex toilets that are unhygienic, watch them try to get something to eat and drink especially if they don’t have someone with them that can get food and drink for them.

When your loved one isn’t getting the medical attention they need, you could try asking the nurses and doctors to help you.

All of the medical staff are run off their feet and cannot get to your loved one.

You might get really frustrated out of worry and care for your loved one.

The nurses and doctors are so kind to you yet they cannot get to see your loved one as there are too many more serious cases that take priority.

You will reassure your loved one that they will get seen by a doctor soon yet you don’t know when.

You will wait.

Your loved one’s health will decline.

You will wait.

Your loved one’s health will further decline.

You will wait.

Your loved one’s health will continue to decline.

You will wait.

Some loved ones will get the medical care they need.
Some won’t.

This unfortunately is a fact in University Hospital Limerick Accident and Emergency.

Let me repeat that.

Some loved ones will get the medical care they need.
Some won’t.

I’ve been in University Hospital Limerick Accident and Emergency many times over the past few years and my humble opinion is that you need another Accident and Emergency department in the Mid West.

You needed another Accident and Emergency department in the Mid West the day you downgraded Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s (Limerick) hospitals in 2009 – 15 years ago.

You know this and we know this.

Yet you are all happy and united in waiting for a HIQA report – 6 months away.

This is insanity at it’s best.

I’ve never seen anything as poorly run as UHL Accident and Emergency.

It is the most chaotic and dangerous work environment for patients and medical staff that I have ever seen.

Yet we wait.

We wait for the HIQA report.

We wait for the government to make a decision.

We wait, just like the patients in UHL Accident and Emergency, who may or may not get the medical care they need.

We wait.

Simon Harris (Taoiseach), Micheàl Martin (Tànaiste) and Stephen Donnelly (Minister for Health) will never need to take their loved ones to UHL Accident and Emergency.

It’s not their local hospital.

Maybe their decisions would be treated with more urgency if they did!

 

 

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A Fellow Writer Made Me Cry

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Yesterday a fellow writer made me cry. 

Not sad tears – happy tears, tears of acceptance and recognition.

I’ve been called many things professionally – barmaid, waitress, cleaner, lab technician, analytical chemist, Lean practitioner, manager, leader, blogger, travel photographer and possibly a few less professional adjectives 🙈

Yet I’ve never been called a writer or if I have it hasn’t hit me as hard as it did yesterday.

It was a simple comment.

Eddie Shleyner (copywriter extraordinaire) thanked me for commenting on his post and said it meant a lot coming from a fellow writer.

Fellow writer.

Eddie views me as a fellow writer.

I am a writer, I’ve been writing all my life and writing online for over 12 years yet why did that comment literally bring tears to my eyes?

Because I’ve given up a lot to be a writer.

  • I’ve given up everything I’ve ever known professionally.
  • I’ve given up the financial stability of the corporate world – my salary, my bonus, my pension and all future earnings of same.
  • I’ve given up all sense of professional certainty.

All to focus on writing, the sheer joy of putting one word in front of another.

My writing was always on the side, never given the spotlight it deserved, it hid in the shadows behind a day job that kept me safe.

That safety net is gone now and I’m on a tight rope wondering what I am doing and how I even got here. I look around and there’s no equipment, it’s tricky and it’s a real balance but I must move forward, there’s no going back.

Yet I’m not alone – I’m with my fellow writers.

I am a fellow writer.

  • Steve Jobs taught us to find what we love and not to settle until we do
  • Seth Godin taught us to find our tribe

I’ve taken Steve and Seth’s advice, I’ve found what I love and I’ve found my tribe.

I am a fellow writer.

Gratitude to Eddie Schleyner for his acceptance and recognition

I write a weekly newsletter, if you want to join it just download your free ebook The A-Z of Effective Change below, see you there 😊

Thanks for reading 🙏

Siobhain

x x

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The Speed of Trust

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I’ve made the first hire for my new project – my connector!

I have immense trust and respect for my connector. Not just for their skills and decades of expertise but because I have known them for what seems like a lifetime and I have worked with them many times before.

A foundation for working together is rarely more solid than that.

When choosing a team, I’ll always look for trust and respect first. The right skills are very important yet trust and respect are more important to me.

The lack of trust and respect will do far more damage than the lack of skills ever will.

💎  If you have trust and respect every single interaction will be easier and more enjoyable.

Without trust and respect every interaction will be an uphill struggle and will become less and less enjoyable as time goes on.

💎 If you have trust and respect, you can trust what the person says – is there anything more important in every relationship?

Without trust and respect you will never know if what you are being told is the truth – about anything.

This causes all sorts of problems that escalate with every conversation. In the back of your mind you’ll always be thinking – is this the truth or not?

💎 If you have trust and respect, you can trust what the person does.

Without trust and respect you will never know if the work is done or not, if shortcuts have been taken, if the work is to the agreed standard or if anything to do with the work is the actual truth!

This causes all sorts of problems – the less trust and respect that exists, the less gets done and the more frustrating the entire journey will be.

💎 If you have trust and respect you know the people you work with have your back. They will do their very best and will go above and beyond for you.

You can then return the gifts of having their back, doing your best and going above and beyond for them.

Without trust and respect you’ll always be watching your back, the work will never be as good as it can be and the journey will be rocky and difficult.

💎 All of the above highlight why trust and respect are so important to me in terms of who I work with.

In his best-selling book The Speed of Trust,  Stephen M.R Covey outlines why trust speeds up everything and how the lack of trust slows everything down.

The Speed of Trust is a great read if you want to learn more about the benefits of trust and the exponential damage lack of trust creates.

The A-Z of Effective Change ebook contains 26 ways you can start creating (and embracing) effective change in your life today. 

Download your copy below 😊

Thanks for reading 🙏

Siobhain

x x

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The Importance of Connectors

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I’m starting a new project and I’ll be working with loads of new people in a field that I have no expertise in.

I’m excited for this as it means I will learn a huge amount. There is nothing like working in a field of expertise that you don’t know anything about to steepen the learning curve!

Currently I’m building my team – it’s a team of tradespeople, all highly skilled and immensely experienced in their chosen skillset.

I know a few of my team personally and a few of them I’ve never met yet they all come highly recommended which is good enough for me.

One of the most important people on my team and the one I have hired first is my connector.

The term connector comes from Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant book The Tipping Point.

Gladwell refers to connectors as those who know everybody; the networkers with large social circles; the social glue.

I love this quote I found online re connectors ‘they always know how to help or if they can’t help they know someone that can and will quickly put you in touch with them’.

Connectors have been defined as ‘confident, persuasive, and relationship-focused. You can always catch a connector mingling and introducing one friend to another. They know how to make those instant connections with others and are often helping others make those connections themselves.’

By being part of so many different worlds and by being a real people person, connectors have the gift of bringing the people in these different worlds all together – what an amazing gift.

My connector has advised me who he works with, who he trusts and respects and who he thinks would be the best team for me to work with.

These are all good enough reasons for me to hire the people he recommends.

My connector is central to the success of my project and I have no doubt that I will have as much trust and faith in those I hire next as I do in him.

  •  Who is the connector in your life?
  • Who is the connector in your business?
  •  Who is the connector on your project?
  • Are you the connector?

Connectors are very special people – they make the world a better place to live in and they have immense gifts to share with us all ❤️

The A-Z of Effective Change ebook contains 26 ways you can start creating (and embracing) effective change in your life today. 

Download your copy below 😊

Thanks for reading 🙏

Siobhain

x x 

 

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The Three Time Thieves

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Let’s talk about time thieves.

In The Currency Of Time I wrote about how important the currency of time is. 

In Defying the Aging Timeline I reiterated the importance of prioritising our time throughout the different stages of our lives.

Time has always been important to me and is one of the reasons I became a Lean practitioner. There is nothing worse than wasted time in the workplace as that’s where we spend much of our lives.

Recently I’ve been thinking about where my time goes and how I can proactively utilise my time better. It occurred to me that there are three time thieves stealing precious time from me.

 

Maybe these 3 time thieves are stealing your time from you also?

1. Phone

I have an on/off relationship with my phone.

I’m not a phone person meaning I don’t like being on my phone. I don’t like talking on the phone, I dislike getting notifications on my phone and I don’t like spending too much time on my phone in general, I find it all very overwhelming.

In saying that I do like what my phone allows me to do. I like that everything is accessible on my phone – my photos, my writing, emails, banking, podcasts, audiobooks, the knowledge of the internet – everything is available instantly.

The problem is all of the above means I spend way more time on my phone than I would like.

 

2. Email

Email has widely been labeled as a communication tool, I think email is actually really poor at communication. It’s great for information sharing but in terms of communication, I think it creates more communication problems than it solves.

Think about how effective email is compared to a phone call or a conversation in person – there’s absolutely no comparison. What could take 50 emails back and forth would be better communicated in a 10 minute phone call or a 2 minute face to face conversation.

For me email is more of a miscommunication tool!

For the 25 years I spent in the corporate world I really disliked email and found it overwhelming and most of the time, a massive waste of time. So many emails could have been avoided by quick phone calls or face to face conversations.

Even though I don’t work in the corporate world anymore I still find too much of my time goes on emails.

 

3. Social media

I also have an on/off relationship with social media.

Sometimes I like it and sometimes I dislike it.

I use social media to share my writing and I also use it for scrolling and can end up going down the social media rabbit hole which costs me way more time than I’d like.

Social media is addictive.

It’s addictive because it’s built to be addictive. There are literally teams of very skilled people behind every app we use pushing what they want us to view in terms of posts, videos, ads etc.

Recently I watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix and it was frightening. The social media apps we use literally make money from our attention. Of course we don’t think of our scrolling as making money for someone else but it does!

 

Do you find your phone, email and social media are time thieves?

Download your FREE EBOOK The A-Z of Effective Change below and you are all signed up to my weekly newsletter where I share thoughts and resources on all things effective change 😊

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x 

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Defying the Age Timeline

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Did you know the currencies of Money, Health, Time & Energy follow a timeline in our lives?

It’s not an exact science but it is a pattern that will hold true for most of us – unless we do something to change the pattern.

The timeline is as follows,

  • In youth we have lots of time & energy, our health is in peak shape but we have very little money
  • In middle age we have money, health & energy but we are time poor. The health & energy we have isn’t what it was in our youth and has started to decline
  • In old age we have money that has been accumulated over our lifetime and we have lots of spare time but our health & energy will be diminished

This timeline is explained further below,

YOUTH:

We have lots of spare time in our youth as we don’t have many responsibilities. This means we have the gift of a huge amount of time – what freedom!

We have optimum health & lots of energy just by the nature of being young.

We spend most of our youth in some form of education and when we start working we do so at the bottom of the salary scale, moving on up that scale throughout our working lives – this means in youth we have very little money.

I think this timeline is pretty accurate – in my youth I had excellent health, loads of energy and lots of free time but very little money. Most people’s youth is probably similar to this.

MIDDLE AGE:

The timeline suggests that in middle age we have money, energy and health but we are TIME POOR.

In middle age we are possibly earning and have accumulated a certain amount of money. More than likely we have less time and our health & energy will naturally start to decline.

In this stage of life earning more money may come at the cost of having less time.

As I moved into middle age where I am now I became TIME POOR – REALLY TIME POOR!

This absence of time didn’t suit me and so I left my day job, one of the reasons being to gain more time. The financial cost of leaving my day job was one I was more than willing to pay in exchange for the precious gift of time.

Moving through middle age my health isn’t what it was in my 20’s and 30’s. Yes I’m relatively fit and healthy but all sorts of ailments are starting to appear!

In terms of energy, I do not have the same energy I had in my youth. The energy I have now is different, I would call it more vitality than energy.

OLD AGE:

In old age we have money that has been accumulated over our lifetime and we have lots of spare time but our health & energy won’t be what it was in our youth or middle age.

We have lots of spare time as our work will have slowed down or we will have retired from work altogether.

Our health & energy, no matter how well we look after it, will have declined over the previous decades.

I have a few years to go before I reach old age but going by this timeline what is waiting for me is money & time but no health or energy to enjoy it!

IS THIS WHAT I WANT?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

So, how do I change the timeline that seems to ring true for every stage of life?

How do I create my own timeline?

I prioritise where I spend & how I improve the currencies of Time, Energy, Health & Money.

  • Here in middle age the priority is to gain more time and to have sufficient money, health and energy to enjoy this time
  • To avoid what is waiting for me in old age the priority is to improve my health & energy so that I can enjoy my time and money

The above will be a balancing act and a work in progress for the rest of my life but hopefully one that will pay dividends here in middle age and throughout the years ahead.

What do the currencies of money, health, time & energy mean to you?

Can you see the above timelines in your own life?

Do you want to defy the age timeline and create your own timeline?

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Siobhain

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The Currency of Energy

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The Currency of Energy

ENERGY is a currency I have only taken notice of over the past 2 years. When I left the working world, I was sure I would have sufficient time to do everything I wanted to do. The irony is I do have plenty of TIME but I don’t always have the ENERGY!

This has been a real learning curve for me and the more I learn about the currency of ENERGY the more it fascinates me.

In order to live our best lives and fulfil our dreams we need to understand how we conserve, spend, refuel and optimise our ENERGY. This is different for all of us and so it’s really important that we evaluate what works for us as individuals.

While we all have 24 hours in every day this doesn’t mean that we have 24 hours of HIGH ENERGY.

  • When we don’t have ENERGY its very difficult to optimise our money
  • When we don’t have ENERGY it’s very difficult to optimise our health
  • When we don’t have ENERGY it’s very difficult to optimise our time

​What increases our ENERGY and what depletes our ENERGY is different for all of us. What we eat, what we drink, how we sleep, what we think, where we spend our time and how we live our lives in general all have an impact on our ENERGY levels.

What we feed our minds affect our energy levels more than we realise. Self talk, our conversations & interactions with others, social media, books, podcasts all affect our ENERGY levels immensely.

​Two of the biggest factors influencing our energy levels are,

​1.Who we spend our time with

  • Some people will refuel our ENERGY levels and give us ENERGY
  • Some people will deplete our ENERGY levels and will take our ENERGY

2.Whether we are introverted or extroverted

  • Introverts replenish their ENERGY levels by being in solitude
  • Extroverts replenish their ENERGY levels by being in the company of others

​How important is the CURRENCY OF ENERGY to you?

How do you conserve, spend, refuel and optimise your ENERGY?

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Siobhain

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The Currency of Time

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The Currency of Time

What does the currency of time mean to you?

TIME is finite yet TIME is infinite.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year yet no one knows how many years we have in our lifetime.

This isn’t something most people think about on a daily basis but none of us have infinite TIME.

THERE IS A TIME LIMIT FOR US ALL.

One of my favourite quotes is from Jim Rohn,

‘Time is more valuable than money. You can always get more money, but you cannot get more time.’ ​

Prior to Covid I was working full-time, juggling many side hustles and living life at an unsustainable speed. This level of over working impacted the amount of time I had to spend on all other areas of my life.

I was absolutely TIME POOR!

In 2020, Covid slowed down all of our lives and I enjoyed not running & racing around trying to get everything done. I started to really enjoy the gift of time instead of always complaining about its absence and how I needed more.

I then left the working world in October 2021 and I received the most precious gift – THE GIFT OF TIME.

The GIFT OF TIME is truly one of the greatest gifts I have ever received and I want to ensure I get to enjoy this precious gift at this level for the rest of my life.

Whilst we can’t make more time we can absolutely utilise our time to ensure we are only spending it where we want to spend it.

  • We can’t create more time but we can certainly have more TIME FREEDOM by increasing our MONEY, HEALTH & ENERGY wealth
  • Having more HEALTH & ENERGY means you can enjoy your time more
  • Having more MONEY means you have more options in terms of where you spend your time

One of the most important elements of the currency of TIME is how much of your own TIME you give to yourself.

  • It’s very important to give yourself the precious GIFT OF TIME
  • Your TIME belongs to you and you decide how you spend it
  • How much TIME in your day is solely used for yourself?
  • How much TIME do you plan every day for yourself?

My favourite episode of the Diary of a CEO podcast is the one with Jimmy Carr titled ‘The Easiest Way To Live A Happier Life’. Jimmy is not only a genius comedian but also a deep philosophical thinker who is wise beyond his age and time. I’ve watched this interview on YouTube many times and my favourite part is where Steven asks Jimmy what he thought happiness was.

Jimmy simply said,

‘Happiness is enjoying the passage of time’

How fabulous is that? 

Imagine, the sheer simplicity of happiness being enjoying the passage of our precious resource of time. I absolutely love this philosophy and have infused this philosophy throughout every aspect of my life since I first heard it.

To enjoy the passage of time, we must first be aware of and have the precious resource of time.

How important is the CURRENCY OF TIME to you?

Do you give yourself enough of THE GIFT OF TIME?

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Siobhain

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The Currency of Health

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Health

Health is by far my most important currency.

Without health, nothing else in our lives will function optimally.

Without HEALTH, we cannot maximise, enjoy or spend the other currencies how we want to.

Without HEALTH,

  • We cannot maximise, enjoy or spend our MONEY how we want to
  • We cannot maximise, enjoy or use our TIME how we want to
  • We cannot maximise, enjoy or use our ENERGY how we want to

Health has always been important to me but recently it has become even more important. Our health declines naturally as we age, our metabolism slows down, our tolerance for unhealthy things reduces and it takes more work to stabilise and improve our health!

As I continue to age, I want to be fit, strong and healthy to live my best life every day and pursue my dreams.

It then makes sense to focus on the precious currency of HEALTH as much as we focus on the currency of MONEY.

Our HEALTH is impacted by everything we do – everything we eat, everything we drink, everything we listen to, everything we watch and everything we fill our minds with.

Our HEALTH is also impacted by how we treat ourselves, how we treat others and how we allow others to treat us.

For me there are 4 elements of health and all are important to function as best as we can in the world.

  • Mental health – this is about understanding our minds, thoughts, behaviours and the world that exists within each of us. Mental health is by far the most important element of my overall health as without mental health, nothing else will function optimally

 

  • Emotional health – this is about understanding our emotional world, what drives our emotions and how we manage them. Tony Robbins says ‘Emotions are the fuel for life’ which I agree with and so it’s very important to understand and improve our emotional world 

 

  • Physical health – this supports us to be the fittest and strongest we can be so we can continue to live our lives to the fullest. Much time and focus is given to physical health but it’s very important to ensure it is not at the expense of other elements of our health!

 

  • Spiritual health – this will be different for everyone, it’s about who or what you feel connected to. For some it may be a connection to God or for others it may be a connection to themselves, the Universe or whatever brings them peace & comfort

How important is the CURRENCY OF HEALTH to you?

What amount of MONEY, TIME & ENERGY do you trade for this HEALTH?

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Siobhain

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