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Full or Fulfilled?

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Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine around how fulfilled I am.

I left work last year (without another job) and so I have more time and thanks to this, my life is less full but more fulfilled.

I am less focused on the things that fill my life and more focused on the things that fulfill my life. 

There is a huge difference between what fills our lives and what fulfills our lives.

The definition of full is ‘Full (of something) containing or holding as much or as many as possible; having no empty space’ while the definition of fulfilled is ‘Fulfilled – feeling happy and satisfied that you are doing something useful with your life, satisfied or happy because of fully developing one’s abilities or character.

What definition do you prefer ‘full or fulfilled’?

Let’s go deeper into fulfillment, 

Fulfilling is defined as ‘causing somebody to feel satisfied and useful, making someone satisfied or happy through allowing their character or abilities to develop fully.

Unfulfilled is defined as  ‘(of a need, wish, etc.) that has not been satisfied or achieved. if a person feels unfulfilled, they feel that they could achieve more in their life or work, ​not causing somebody to feel satisfied and useful’

What definition do you prefer ‘fullfilling or unfulfilled’?

As a writer, I’m obsessed with words and there’s no better way to understand words than through synonyms. Synonyms are a word, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word. Sometimes we may not relate to a word but when we read the synonyms we can relate more easily to the meaning behind them.

How do the below synonyms for full/unfulfilled/unfulfilling make you feel? 

Would you like this to be a description of your life? 

Full: adequate, big, chock-full, complete, crowded, entire, intact, packed, stocked, sufficient, burdened, bursting, crammed, gorged, imbued, jammed, laden, lavish, loaded, overflowing, padded, replete, sated, satiated, satisfied, saturated, stuffed, choc a block, jam packed, plentiful, running over.  

Unfulfilled: Discontented, annoyed, begrudging, bothered, complaining, disaffected, disappointed, disgruntled, displeased, fretting, frustrated, grudging, grumbling, oended, unhappy, vexed, critical, envious, faultfinding, fed up, grumpy, insatiable, jealous, not happy, not satisfied,  

Unfulfilling: Depressing, disconcerting, discouraging, disheartening, distasteful, frustrating, mediocre, unpleasant, unsatisfying, bitter, displeasing, failing, lame, disagreeable, falling short, inadequate, ineffective, inferior, insufficient, unhappy

How do the below synonyms for fulfilling/fulfilled make you feel? 

Would you like this to be a description of your life? 

Fulfilling: Effective, accomplishing, achieving, adequate, binding, capable, conclusive, decisive, determinate, effecting, efficient, lawful, powerful, productive, qualified, sound, strong, successful, telling , useful

Fulfilled: Realised, satisfied, accomplished, achieved, actualised, attained, compassed, concluded, delighted, finished, gratified, matured, obtained, perfected, performed, pleased, reached, brought about.

How full is your life? 

How full do you want your life to be?

How fulfilled is your life?

How fulfilled do you want your life to be?

Do you want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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Your Greatest Mentor is YOU!

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Following on from my blog post ‘The Magic of Mentors’, there are things that we need to learn from others but there is much more to be learned from ourselves. 

People can give us advice and tell us their opinion but no-one knows more about us than we do ourselves. 

When people give us advice, it is mostly well meaning, however it is advice based on their knowledge, based on their experience, based on their perspective and mostly based on what they would do themselves.

This advice is not based on our knowledge, based on our experiences, based on our perspective and based on what we would do. The only person who can give us this advice is ourselves! 

This is why coaching is so powerful because it has nothing to do with the coach’s knowledge, experience, or perspective, coaching is focused solely on YOU! 

So how do you become your own greatest mentor?

Here are a few ideas,

  • Believe in yourself
  • Trust yourself
  • Understand yourself
  • Grow yourself
  • Know what you want
  • Know what you don’t want
  • Put yourself first
  • Listen to yourself especially your gut instinct

Our gut instinct is so important in terms of guiding us in the right direction. I love Karren Brady’s description of what gut instinct is in her interview with Steven Bartlett, 

‘it’s made up of all of the experiences you have had through your career and when you are faced with a problem, you’ve been in that movie before, you’ve had that movie before, different problem in a different moment about a different thing but very similar and you know the outcome. So your gut instinct goes, hang on a moment, I’ve somehow been here before and I know how this plays out’ Karren Brady

Karren goes on to say ‘I find that if I follow my gut instinct I tend to make the right decisions and if I ignore it (gut instinct), it tends to go bad’

I also feel the same in that when I make decisions aligned with my gut instinct I tend to make the right decisions and when I don’t listen to my gut instinct, these decisions usually turn out unhelpful to me. 

Are you your own greatest mentor?

Do you believe in yourself and trust yourself?

Do you listen to your gut instinct?

Do you want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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The Magic of Mentors

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I believe that if you want to grow in any area of your life & business, you need a mentor. 

First let’s define what a mentor is. Wikipedia says it is ‘A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. A mentor influences the personal and professional growth of a mentee. Most traditional mentorships involve having senior employees mentor more junior employees, but mentors do not necessarily have to be more senior than the people they mentor. What matters is that mentors have experience that others can learn from’.  

For me, a mentor is someone who has been there, done that. Someone who is doing what I want to do and is gracious & generous in sharing their gifts and their journey.

My life has been a journey of ever changing mentors, as my life has evolved, so too have my mentors.   

Since leaving my job (without another) last year I have had lots of time to focus on my passions in life which are Writing, Lean, Business, Psychology, Marketing and Travel Photography. This has led me to find brand new mentors to follow & learn from which has deepened my respect for and knowledge in these areas of interest.  

There is a popular saying that people come into our lives for a reason, season and lifetime, I believe the same applies to mentors.

Mentors that come into our lives for a reason help us through a specific time or until we have figured out something specific. When these mentors have guided and supported us through what we need to move through, we go our separate ways. The mentors that came into my life for a reason will always have a special place in my heart. 

Mentors that come into our lives for a season tend to be our mentors for a longer length of time. These seasons can span days or decades! 

I have many mentors who I have been following & learning from for many years and some for decades. These are people who continue to inspire me with all they do and whom I continue to learn a huge amount from. 

Some of these mentors I no longer follow closely. I’m still familiar with the great work they do but our paths no longer closely align as they once did. This is normal as mentors are meant to change, just as the seasons do. 

Mentors who come into our lives for a lifetime are those whose values and behaviours we deeply align with and who we have so much to learn from. For me, there are mentors whose wisdom is so deep that there is no end to it and no end to what I can learn from them. 

So where do you find a mentor? 

Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier to find people to learn from and to learn from them. 

Mentors we know through the online world can be found through their books, podcasts, videos, social media channels, newsletters (mailing lists) – basically everywhere! 

Mentors in the real world can be official mentors in that you have signed up to be their mentee or to be coached by them. Mentors in the real world can also be anyone you come into contact with. I learn from everyone, if our paths have crossed in the real world, then I have learned from you. 

Learning is everywhere if you want it to be! 

Do you have a mentor? 

Who do you learn from?

Who would you like to learn from?

Do you want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ and sign up to my Weekly Newsletter below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

 

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A Guide to Your Business Mid Year Review

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

When it comes to business strategy and the goals you have set, the Mid Year Review is the most important as there is way more progress in 6 months than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly or even quarterly which is highly motivating. 

Ideally you are reviewing progress of your business goals daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly which makes your Mid Year Review easier, more streamlined and more effective,

Your Mid Year Business Review is carried out as you approach the end of June so your action plan is in place for July or shortly after. 

Here are 6 simple steps to carry out your Business Mid Year Review:

Step 1 – Review your business goals, the metrics you use to measure progress and the progress itself

Are your goals still relevant? 

Ensuring the goals you set at the beginning of the year are still relevant is critical to the success of your business. Having irrelevant goals means you are traveling in the wrong direction which is almost worse than having no goals!

 Are the goals you set at the start of 2022 still relevant to you and your business?

Do your goals still align with your Business Vision, Mission, True North and Values? 

Your Vision is your direction. 

No Vision, no direction, no progress! 

Are you regularly communicating your Vision, Mission, True North & Values to your people?

Are you regularly making decisions aligned with your Vision, Mission, True North & Values?

If not, your direction exists only on paper which is not the best place to have it! 

Note: If you don’t have a Vision, Mission, True North & Values, now would be a good time to start thinking about creating these. No matter where you are in terms of your business, it is never too late to make positive change and that change starts with Vision, Mission, True North & Values. 

Do you have the correct metrics in place? 

Your metrics should highlight progress towards your goals and should also highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals.

Do your metrics highlight progress towards your goals?

Do your metrics highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals?

When do you review these metrics? 

Are your metrics at the right level?

Are you improving your processes?

If you are not improving your processes, chances are your metrics are standing still or going backwards!

Process improvements = metrics moving in the right direction = goals achieved

Step 2 – Evaluate what worked for you, how were you successful?

What worked for you in the past quarter?

 What did you do that enabled this success?

 What areas of your business were successful?

 What parts of your business did you enjoy?

What parts of your business brought you happiness and joy?

Step 3 – Evaluate what didn’t work for you, what got in the way of success?

 What didn’t work for you and got in the way of your goals?

 How did you deal with and overcome these obstacles?

 What areas of your business were unsuccessful?

 What parts of your business did you not enjoy?

What parts of your business did not bring you happiness and joy?

Step 4 – Make informed decisions about your key focus areas for the next quarter/6 months

Based on the answers to all of the above, what ACTION will you take for the next quarter/6 months? 

Strategy reviews are only as good as the ACTIONS that are taken as a result of those reviews.

  • Are your 2022 goals still achievable based on progress made in the last 6 months?
  • Do you need more goals to stretch yourself?
  • Do you need less goals to stop over stretching yourself?
  • Are there goals that no longer serve you?
  • What are your priority goals for the next quarter/6 months?
  • What are your non priority goals for the next quarter/6 months?
  • What will you do to continue progress in successful areas of your business?
  • What will you do to learn from and turn around unsuccessful areas of your business?
  • How will you measure progress of your goals in the next quarter/6 months?
  • What metrics will you update, add, remove?
  • How often will you update these metrics?
  • Where will you document your goals, metrics, progress?
  • How will you communicate your plans to your team?

Step 5 – Document and share your strategy, goals, metrics & progress

It’s really important to capture your goals, metrics & progress on your goals somewhere.  

It doesn’t really matter what you use from once you write your goals down and track progress daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly that will, at the end of the year, result in your Annual Review.

Whether you prefer physically putting pen to paper or to use something electronic there are so many options. The science behind why writing things down to enable success is outlined in the amazing book ‘Write It Down, Make It Happen’. 

My favourite tools for documenting are,

Physical – I love Moleskine journals for tracking progress of goals & journalling. Moleskine journals are colourful, hard wearing, long lasting journals of the highest quality. 

Online – My tools of choice online are Google Docs & Google Sheets and Google Slides. These are almost identical to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. 

I use Asana for Project Management and absolutely love it. Asana has an app which is super simple to use and keeps everything in the one place and all super organised. 

These tools are all ABSOLUTELY FREE, are very easy to use and are all you need to set and track progress in your business. 

When you have completed your Business Mid Year Review it’s critical that you share the outcome of your review and your plans for the next quarter/6 months with your team. 

There is no greater way to show respect to your people than sharing the progress they have made and the plans you have for them in the future. 

Step 6 – Learn more about Lean Business Strategy

The longer I work in Lean Business Strategy the more I learn.

There is always another level of Lean Business Strategy to move into and learn about.

If you are looking for a book on Lean Business Strategy, I highly recommend ‘Getting The Right Things Done’ by Pascal Dennis and really any other books by Pascal Dennis. 

Getting The Right Things Done is an incredible book that can be visited again and again as you move deeper & deeper into the world of Lean Business Strategy and success.

This is my bible in terms of Lean Business Strategy and Pascal Dennis is one of my favourite Lean mentors.

The best place to learn about your business is from your people. Ensuring your people are your primary source of learning will not only sky rocket your business but will also deliver a Lean culture where people are deeply respected. 

Take the time to listen to your team and prioritise their development. There is no end to what your talented people can teach you if you give the time to listen and learn!

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the last 6 months and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 6 months.

If you liked this post, you might like like my post on the 

‘A Guide to Your Personal Mid Year Review’

Want to read more about Positive Change in life & business?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ and sign up to my Weekly Newsletter below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain 

x x

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A Guide To Your Mid Year Review

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

It’s time for your Mid Year Review 😊

The first 6 months of the year have gone so fast! 

How has the first 6 months of 2023 been for you?

Below are the 4 Steps to your Mid Year Review that will help you answer that question. 

As you answer the questions in each step, refer to your Wheel of Life that contain the key areas of your life. If you haven’t created a Wheel of Life, you can use mine below. 

The areas of my Wheel of Life are Sense of Self, Relationships, Health, Work, Finance, Recreation, Environment & Contribution. 

It’s important that you document your review somewhere so you can refer to it and hold yourself accountable to the actions that come out of your review. 

Step 1 is all about what went well over the past 6 months

i. What worked well for you in the past 6 months? 

What did you do that you enjoyed?

What worked out exactly how you wanted or better than you wanted? 

There are so many blessings in our lives each and every day, sometimes it’s just a matter of taking a closer look to find them.

You may see that life goes your way more than you may realise.

Using a daily gratitude journal can really help answering this question. 

If you don’t have a daily gratitude journal maybe it’s something you could start for the next 12 weeks. Even just one gratitude a day over 12 weeks is about 90 things to be grateful for over 12 weeks, wouldn’t that be something really lovely to look back and reflect on?

ii. What did you do that supported this success?

How did you bring success into your life?

How did you contribute to the things that worked well for you?

Did you work hard at something and then reap the rewards?

Did you make sacrifices to improve your life?

When we reflect on how we are successful in areas of our life, we underestimate the part we played in that success.

YOU are successful and YOU are the creator of that success. YOU have brought all of your happiness, joy and success into your life. 

Knowing how you contribute to your own success means you can build on this to bring so much more success into your life.

iii.  What brought you joy and happiness in the past 6 months?

When were you at your happiest over the past 6 months?

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you? 

Knowing what brings us happiness allows us to create more time to bring more happiness and joy into our lives.

Knowing who brings you happiness means you can create more time to spend with these very special people.

You want to be spending as much time as possible with those who bring out the best in you. The more you bring out the best in yourself, the more you can bring out the best in others.

iv. Are you happy with where you spent your time over the past 6 months?

Time goes by so fast and as we get older I think time seems to speed up that little bit more.

Time is so precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have. This realisation always makes me so determined to live life to the fullest every single day and that means spending my time where I am happy spending it.

Where did your precious time go over the past 6 months?

Are you happy with where your time was spent over the past 6 months?

Are you fully enjoying every minute of your days, weeks, months?

 

Step 2 of your Mid Year Review is all about what didn’t work well for you in the past 6 months.

i. What didn’t go well over the past 6 months

What didn’t go your way in the past 6 months?

What happened that you didn’t enjoy?

What didn’t go to according to plan?

What is holding you back from living your best life?

Challenges, obstacles and plans not working out are a normal part of life.

No matter how much we plan, no matter how much we try to control our plans there are times when things just don’t go our way. Acknowledgment and acceptance of this fact is the first step to turning challenges & obstacles into opportunities.

In his new book ‘Green Lights’, Matthew Mc Connaughey talks about the fact that if we only had green lights in life, if there were no amber or red lights, then life would be very boring and we would never grow and evolve. Such truth and wisdom in that.

How can you acknowledge and accept what doesn’t work out for you and understand this is all part of your path?

ii. What obstacles got in your way?

Looking back at the past 6 months, were there obstacles that got in your way? 

Obstacles & challenges can turn into opportunities for success if we take the time to evaluate and learn from them.

The question to ask here is what can you do to eliminate these obstacles & challenges and if you can’t eliminate them how can you think about them differently? 

We all have compete control over our thoughts and just reframing things in our mind can turn obstacles & challenges into opportunities for success.

Dr Wayne Dyer’s book ‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ teaches us that all we have to do to change what is not going well in our lives is to think differently about it. A most profound book, I highly recommend it.

iii. What didn’t bring you joy and happiness in the past 6 months?

Happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand. No human life is devoid of unhappiness just like no human life is devoid of happiness. Acceptance of this goes a long way to find out what exactly makes us unhappy.

When were you at your unhappiest over the past 6 months? 

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you?

Knowing what makes us unhappy allows us to think deeper about the role certain people, situations, interactions and places play in our levels of happiness.

There is no such thing as the perfect life that is happy all the time, however there is a level of contentment and inner peace that can be reached by understanding what takes our happiness & joy away and working to avoid, eliminate or understand more about this.

iv. Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 6 months

We all know time is precious.

Think about all of the key areas of your life from your Wheel of Life. 

Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 6 months?

Did you spend too much time in some areas and not enough in others? 

What areas would you have liked to have spent more time in?

How balanced is your life in terms of where you spend your time?

 

Step 3 of your Mid Year Review is all about what you learned in each of the key areas of your life over the past 6 months. 

The only way we grow and evolve as humans is by learning more and by turning these learnings into action that propels us forward. 

Going through each of the areas of your Wheel of Life (or using mine below) reflect on the questions below to understand what you learned over the past 6 months in all of the key areas of your life. 

Sense of Self –  What did you learn about yourself? How did you grow and evolve as a person? Have you dedicated time to personal development? What did you learn about your relationship with yourself, has your relationship with yourself improved?

Relationships – What did you learn about your relationship with others, has your relationship with others improved? Are there relationships you want but don’t have? Are there relationships you have but don’t want?

Health – What did you learn about your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health? Did your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health improve?

Work – What did you learn about your work? Are you growing and developing in your work? Has your work moved forward and improved?

Finance – What did you learn about personal finance? Did your personal finance improve?

Recreation – What did you learn about socialising and recreation? How can you bring more fun into your life?

Environment – What did you learn about your environment? Did your environment improve? For me environment relates to my home and also our planet, both are of immense importance to me and bring me happiness and joy.

Contribution – What did you learn about contribution?  Did you make the world a better place by giving your time, money or skills? Giving doesn’t have to be grand gestures, giving in the smallest possible way can often be the most impactful.

 

Step 4 of your Mid Year Review is about creating actions that will support you to live your best life every day and move you closer and closer to your goals

i. What can you build on in terms of your success?

Reflect on all your answers in Step 1.

What actions can you take over the next 6 months to ensure you build on the successes of the past 6 months?

ii. What can you build on in terms of the challenges you experienced?

Reflect on all your answers in Step 2.

What actions can you take over the next 6 months to ensure you build on the challenges from the past 6 months?

iii. What can you build on in terms of what you learned over the past 6 months?

Reflect on all your answers in Step 3.

What actions can you take over the next 6 months to ensure you build on and take advantage of the learnings from the past 6 months?

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 6 months and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 6 months.

Happy reflection 😊

Siobhain 

x x

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My Journey Through the Stress Performance Curve

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The Stress Performance Curve is pretty self-explanatory, the more stressed we get the further along the curve we move. Here is an explanation of the different zones on the curve.   

 1. Boredom Zone

In the first zone there is very low stress and we are bored. Stay here too long and you will feel the effects of boreout which are just as dangerous as burnout. If you are in this zone in your life or work your mental, emotional, physical & spiritual health is at risk. 

Performance in this zone is next to nothing.  

2. Comfort Zone

As our stress levels increase we move into our comfort zone, this is manageable stress and is on the way to peak performance. It is comfortable here but there is no growth and if you stay here too long, you will slip back into the boredom zone. 

Performance in this zone is higher than in the boredom zone but not at it’s best.  

3. Stretch Zone

As pressure & stress increases, we move into the stretch zone. This is where our minds & bodies are being stretched. You know that feeling when you’ve got a lot on your plate but you’re totally in control, you are busy but you are really enjoying it. 

This is the zone where your level of stress and your level of performance are at their optimal. This is where everyone wants to be – not stressed, not overloaded, not under pressure but challenged, stretched & at absolute peak performance.  

This is where we do our best work. 

This is where we live our best lives.

This is where our mind, body and soul are at optimum health. 

This is where we excel.

In a Lean Culture, this is where employees are the happiest, most productive and where we should aim to stay. When employees are working in this zone they are healthy, happy, engaged, committed, learning, problem solving and enjoying their roles. 

Businesses that support their employees to stay in this zone thrive. 

 

4. Strain Zone

As pressure and stress levels increase we now move into the strain zone. We no longer feel in control and we start to feel under pressure, overloaded, too much on our plate and it’s hard to see the wood from the trees. In this zone we are no longer operating an optimum level – our performance, interest, happiness, health and energy levels decrease and everything starts to go downhill. 

Performance in this zone is diminished and reduces every day you stay here. 

In this zone we have two choices. One – to continue with the workload, continue taking on pressure and stress and hope it somehow alleviates. This is not a wise choice and we just continue on the slippery slope towards burnout. 

The other choice is to STOP. 

Stop taking on work, stop taking on activities, stop taking on pressure & stress. Remove as much as we can from our workload. This is a very wise choice and as you start to remove items from your to-do list you will start to move backwards through the Stress Performance Curve. 

5. Burnout Zone

When you are in the strain zone and you continue you to take on activities/work and continue to add to your to-do list you will eventually end up in the the burnout zone. 

You may think you are getting loads done, that you are ploughing through stuff and you are on your A-game but you are not. You are now back to the level of performance that you were when you were in the boredom zone. 

Performance in this zone is next to nothing.

You may be getting things done but there is no time for thinking, no time for creativity, no time for imagination, no time for innovation, no time for rest, relaxation and recuperation, no time for anything only the to-do list. Whilst you are getting to your to-do list, the pace and quality of work is immensely diminished.

In this zone it’s fight or flight and that’s about it. 

Not only is this not sustainable but it is also dangerous to your mental, emotional, physical & spiritual health. There is no enjoyment in what you are doing and you wondering is the to-do list ever going to end! You probably become irritable, unfulfilled, unhappy, unproductive and apathetic. 

This is a very real and dangerous place to find yourself in. 

If you are here, do everything you can to get out of this zone, your health is more at risk than you would imagine. 

The Stress Performance Curve is fascinating and the amount of time we spend in each of the zones and how long it takes us to go from one zone to another different for us all. 

Here is an insight into my journey through the Stress Performance Curve which I hope I never repeat:

In hindsight I probably started 2021 in the stretch zone. In 2020 I had taken on a serious amount of work outside of my day job and even through I absolutely loved every minute of it, I knew I was stretched.

In early 2021 I started doing webinars and launched my first online course ‘Kickstart Your Personal Strategy’ which is something I am very passionate about and was excited to teach it. I was spending lots of time writing/editing blog posts and on social media. Add this to a very busy day job on top of lockdown and it wasn’t long before I started to move into the strain zone.  

Of course all of this is in hindsight and in hindsight we have 20:20 vision!

For most of early 2021, I just felt under pressure all day everyday. There was too much my plate, I had committed to too much and I was working way too many hours. 

 Looking back at my journalling around that time, all of my healthy habits that I had spend years building to sustain balance in my life were gone. By the time April came around that was it I was in the burnout zone. 

If you’ve been burned out or are currently functioning in the burnout zone it is not a pretty place to be.

 it’s not enjoyable, it’s not happy, it’s not fulfilling, it’s not productive, it’s not anything that you would actually want for your life. In this zone everything becomes a challenge, the normal day-to-day activities like exercising, socialising, thinking straight –  it’s all so overwhelming. 

When I finally realised I was burned out I made the decision to STOP. I stopped everything except my day job, I stopped writing blog posts, I stopped creating content, I stopped doing webinars, I stopped social media.

I STOPPED. 

When you stop everything and remove workload from your plate, it doesn’t mean that you automatically go back to the optimal performance stretch zone. It takes time for your mind, body and soul to re-adjust, to get out of that fight or flight mode and to come back into some level of normality. 

As I started to move through the strain & stretch phase I finally found myself in the comfort phase. I had successfully removed enough from my plate that I felt comfortable with my workload again. 

Naively, I thought that was the end of my journey through the Stress Performance Curve but it wasn’t. I was now working on my day job only and not all of passions outside of work. This presented me with 2 problems. 

One, I missed writing & creating content etc but I knew I couldn’t take it all on again without going back to the burnout zone. 

Two, I was no longer enjoying my role at work and was operating in the boredom zone there. Operating here is just as detrimental to health as the strain & burnout zones. Even though I was busy, I was no longer doing work that challenged, excited or motivated me.

And so, I made the decision to leave my day job to focus solely on and build a business around my passions in life which are Lean Culture/Strategy, Writing & Travel Photography. 

Knowing about and understanding the symptoms of each of the zones of the Stress Performance Curve goes a long way to ensuring you stay in the stretch zone or at least not too far away from it!

Human beings are not machines, we all have limits and going past those limits damages our most valuable asset, our health! 

Where are you on the Stress Performance Curve? 

How long have you been there?

Are you aware when you are heading into the Strain and Burnout Zones?

Are you aware when you are heading into the Comfort and Boredom Zones?

How do you keep yourself at peak performance in the Stretch Zone? 

How do you keep your team and  business at peak performance in the Stretch Zone? 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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The Stress Performance Curve

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The Stress Performance Curve is pretty self-explanatory, the more stressed we get the further along the curve we move. Here is an explanation of the different zones on the curve.   

 1. Boredom Zone

In the first zone there is very low stress and we are bored. Stay here too long and you will feel the effects of boreout which are just as dangerous as burnout. If you are in this zone in your life or work, your mental, emotional, physical & spiritual health is at risk. 

Performance in this zone is next to nothing.  

2. Comfort Zone

As our stress levels increase we move into our comfort zone, this is manageable stress and is on the way to peak performance. It is comfortable here but there is no growth and if you stay here too long, you will slip back into the boredom zone. 

Performance in this zone is higher than in the boredom zone but not at it’s best.  

3. Stretch Zone

As pressure & stress increases, we move into the stretch zone. This is where our minds & bodies are being stretched. You know that feeling when you’ve got a lot on your plate but you’re totally in control, you are busy but you are really enjoying it. 

This is the zone where your level of stress and your level of performance are at their optimal. Everyone wants to be here – not stressed, not overloaded, not under pressure but challenged, stretched & at absolute peak performance.  

This is where we do our best work. 

This is where we live our best lives.

This is where our mind, body and soul are at optimum health. 

This is where we excel.

In a Lean Culture, this is where employees are the happiest, most productive and where we should aim to stay. When employees are working in this zone they are healthy, happy, engaged, committed, learning, problem solving and enjoying their roles. 

Businesses that support their employees to stay in this zone thrive. 

 

4. Strain Zone

As pressure and stress levels increase we now move into the strain zone. We no longer feel in control and we start to feel under pressure, overloaded, too much on our plate and it’s hard to see the wood from the trees. In this zone we are no longer operating an optimum level – our performance, interest, happiness, health and energy levels decrease and everything starts to go downhill. 

Performance in this zone is diminished and reduces every day you stay here. 

In this zone we have two choices. One – to continue with the workload, continue taking on pressure and stress and hope it somehow alleviates. This is not a wise choice and we just continue on the slippery slope towards burnout. 

The other choice is to STOP. 

Stop taking on work, stop taking on activities, stop taking on pressure & stress. Remove as much as we can from our workload. This is a very wise choice and as you start to remove items from your to-do list you will start to move backwards through the Stress Performance Curve. 

5. Burnout Zone

When you are in the strain zone and you continue you to take on activities/work and continue to add to your to-do list you will eventually end up in the the burnout zone. 

You may think you are getting loads done, that you are ploughing through stuff and you are on your A-game but you are not. You are now back to the level of performance that you were when you were in the boredom zone. 

Performance in this zone is next to nothing.

You may be getting things done but there is no time for thinking, no time for creativity, no time for imagination, no time for innovation, no time for rest, relaxation and recuperation, no time for anything only the to-do list. Whilst you are getting to your to-do list, the pace and quality of work is immensely diminished.

In this zone it’s fight or flight and that’s about it. 

Not only is this not sustainable but it is also dangerous to your mental, emotional, physical & spiritual health. There is no enjoyment in what you are doing and you wondering is the to-do list ever going to end! You probably become irritable, unfulfilled, unhappy, unproductive and apathetic. 

This is a very real and dangerous place to find yourself in. 

If you are here, do everything you can to get out of this zone, your health is more at risk than you would imagine. 

The Stress Performance Curve is fascinating and the amount of time we spend in each of the zones and how long it takes us to go from one zone to another different for us all. 

Knowing about and understanding the symptoms of each of the zones of the Stress Performance Curve goes a long way to ensuring you stay in the stretch zone or at least not too far away from it!

Human beings are not machines, we all have limits and going past those limits damages our most valuable asset, our health! 

In my next blog post I give you an insight into ‘My Journey through the Stress Performance’. 

Where are you on the Stress Performance Curve? 

How long have your been there?

Are you aware when you are heading into the Strain and Burnout Zones?

Are you aware when you are heading into the Comfort and Boredom Zones?

How do you keep yourself at peak performance in the Stretch Zone? 

How do you keep your team and your business at peak performance in the Stretch Zone? 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ and sign up to my Weekly Newsletter below.

 

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The Importance of Time Off

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The Power of Time Off

Image Credit: Stefan Sagmeister’s Time Off timeline

In October 2021 I left my job without another which for many reasons was the right decision for me albeit a difficult one to make. I had planned to take a break to the end of 2021 and then set up my own business in early 2022.

Then I watched Stefan Sagmeister’s Ted Talk and the direction of my life changed completely.

That was almost 3 years ago now and Stefan’s video still has the huge impact on my life , just ike it did when I first watched it. 

Stefan Sagmeister runs a design studio in New York and every 7 years he closes it for a year to pursue some little experiments, things that are always difficult to accomplish during the regular working year. In this year Stefan and his team are not available to any of their clients as they are totally closed.’

Stefan refers to this time as a ‘A LOVELY AND VERY ENERGETIC TIME’.

That’s it, 30 seconds into this Ted Talk I was hooked. All plans of setting up and running my own business faded from my mind.

I wanted this time, I wanted ‘A LOVELY AND VERY ENERGETIC TIME’ just as Stefan had described. 

Stefan is very lucky to work on his passions of music & design but outlines that after a while even this can get boring and everything starts to look the same. This is true for any work we do, even if it is something we are deeply passionate about. We need variety and we need to be learning to nurture & fuel our creativity & innovation, keeping our work fresh & exciting. 

Below is Stefan’s genius idea in a timeline.

Stefan explains we spend roughly the first 25 years of our lives learning in some form of education, we spend roughly the next 40 years working and if we are lucky enough, we spend roughly the next 15 years in retirement.

Stefan takes 5 of these retirement years and disperses them throughout his working life – GENIUS! 

Stefan explains that this is clearly enjoyable for him but also the work that comes out of this year flows back into his company and society at large and so is beneficial to everyone. 

Stefan outlines some of the creative ideas & success that he and other companies such as 3M and Google have had by giving their employees time to creatively pursue whatever they want. It is this creativity that keeps people FRESH, CREATIVE & INNOVATIVE. 

It is this FRESHNESS, CREATIVITY & INNOVATION that differentiates companies that grow & succeed from companies that regress & fail. 

Thankfully this creative time allowed Art Fry to develop the Post-It while working with 3M! Anyone who knows me well knows my obsession with Post-Its! 

After 30 seconds of his Ted Talk, Stefan had inspired me to take TIME OFF.

  • Time to spend with loved ones, time to learn, time to focus on all the things I wasn’t getting to while I was working
  • Time to enjoy this ‘LOVELY AND ENERGETIC TIME’, time to fuel and nurture my creativity & innovation
  • Time to do whatever it is that I want to do

I’m currently almost 3 years into my TIME OFF and even though I didn’t plan  it to be so long, this TIME OFF has been an amazing gift. 

Is there something you want to take TIME OFF FROM?

Do you take time to nurture & fuel your CREATIVITY & INNOVATION?

How much time do you spend pursuing what you want to pursue?

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

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6 Steps to Your Business Quarterly Review

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

The end of each quarter is time to look back and reflect on how things went in the past quarter and plan for the quarter ahead. 

Having a business & personal strategy is all about creating an amazing sustainable business and creating a fulfilled, purposeful and meaningful life. Your business and personal strategy is only as good as the reviews you do and the changes you make as a result of these reviews.

When it comes to business strategy and the goals you have set, the quarterly review can be the most important as there is way more progress quarterly than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly which is always motivating. 

Ideally you are reviewing progress of your business goals daily, weekly and monthly which makes your quarterly review easier, more streamlined and more effective,

Your quarterly business review is carried out as you approach the end of a quarter so your action plan is in place for the next quarter as it begins or very shortly after. 

Here are 6 simple steps to carry out your Business Quarterly Review:

Step 1 – Review your business goals, the metrics you use to indicate progress and the progress itself

Are your goals still relevant? 

Ensuring the goals you set at the beginning of the year are still relevant is critical to the success of your business. Having irrelevant goals means you are traveling in the wrong direction which is almost worse than having no goals! 

It has never been more important to have relevant, clear, defined, meaningful, achievable and realistic business goals given the changes that have happened to business’s since the start of 2020.

 Are the goals you set at the start of 2022 still relevant to you and your business?

Are you prioritising development of and respect for you and your team?

The success of your business is directly correlated to the amount of time you spend developing and supporting your people.

There is no greater way to spend your time than supporting, developing and showing respect to your people.

Do your goals still align with your Business Vision, Mission, True North and Values? 

Your Vision is your direction. 

No Vision, no direction, no progress! 

Do your goals still align to your Vision, Mission, True North & Values of your business? 

Are you regularly communicating your Vision, Mission, True North & Values to your people?

Are you regularly making decisions aligned with your Vision, Mission, True North & Values?

If not, your direction exists only on paper which is not the best place to have it! 

Note: If you don’t have a Vision, Mission, True North & Values, now would be a good time to start thinking about creating these. No matter where you are in terms of your business, it is never too late to make positive change and that starts with Vision, Mission, True North & Values. 

Do you have the correct metrics in place? 

Your metrics should highlight progress towards your goals and should also highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals,

Do your metrics highlight progress towards your goals?

Do your metrics highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals?

When do you review these metrics? 

Are you measuring the right things? 

Are your metrics at the right level?

Are you improving your processes?

If you are not improving your processes, chances are your metrics are standing still or going backwards!

Process improvements = metrics moving in the right direction = goals achieved

Have you made as much progress as you planned in the past quarter? 

Have you enjoyed the progress made or has it been an uphill struggle? 

Have you over stretched yourself?

Have you under stretched yourself?

Step 2 – Evaluate what worked in terms of your goals, how were you successful?

What worked for you in the past quarter?

 What did you do that enabled this success?

 What areas of your business were successful?

 What parts of your business did you enjoy?

Step 3 – Evaluate what didn’t work in terms of your goals, what got in the way of success?

 What didn’t work for you and got in the way of your goals?

 How did you deal with and overcome these obstacles?

 What areas of your business were unsuccessful?

 What parts of your business did you not enjoy?

Step 4 – Make informed decisions about what your key focus areas for the next quarter

Based on the answers to all of the above, what ACTION will you take for the next quarter? 

Strategy reviews are only as good as the ACTIONS that are taken as a result of those reviews.

How can you support, develop and respect your people more in Q2? #PeopleFirst 😊

  • Are your 2022 goals still achievable based on progress made in the last quarter?
  • Do you need more goals to stretch yourself?
  • Do you need less goals to stop over stretching yourself?
  • Are there goals that no longer serve you?
  • What are your priority goals for the next quarter?
  • What are your non priority goals for the next quarter?
  • What will you do to continue progress in successful areas of your business?
  • What will you do to learn from and turn around unsuccessful areas of your business?
  • How will you measure progress of your goals in the next quarter?
  • What metrics will you update, add, remove?
  • How often will you update these metrics?
  • Where will you document your goals, metrics, progress?
  • How will you communicate your plans to your team?

Step 5 – Document your strategy, goals, metrics & progress

It’s really important to capture your goals, metrics & progress on your goals somewhere.  Whether you prefer physically putting pen to paper or to use something electronic there are so many options. The science behind why writing things down to enable success is outlined in the amazing book

 ‘Write It Down, Make It Happen’. 

My favourite tools are below,

Physical  – I love Moleskine journals for tracking progress of goals & journalling. Moleskine journals are colourful, hard wearing, long lasting journals of the highest quality. It doesn’t really matter what you use from once you write your goals down and track progress daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly that will, at the end of the year, result in your Annual Review.

Online – My tools of choice online are Google Docs & Google Sheets and Google Slides. These are almost identical to Microsoft WordExcel and PowerPoint. 

I use Asana for Project Management and absolutely love it. It has an app which is super simple to use and keeps everything in the one place and all super organised. 

These tools are all ABSOLUTELY FREE, are very easy to use and are all you need to set and track progress in your business. 

Step 6 – Learn more about Lean Business Strategy

The longer I work in Lean Business Strategy the more I learn.

There is always another level of Lean Business Strategy to move into and there is always so much to learn.

Your will learn the most about your business from your people. Take the tine to listen to them and prioritise their development. There is no end to what your talented people can teach you if you give the time to listen and learn!

If you are looking for a book on Lean Business Strategy, I highly recommend ‘Getting The Right Things Done’ by Pascal Dennis and really any other books by Pascal Dennis. 

This is my bible in terms of Lean Business Strategy and Pascal Dennis is one of my favourite Lean mentors. 

Getting The Right Things Done is an incredible book that can be visited again and again as you move deeper & deeper into the world of Business Strategy and success.

Below is a list of mentors that I follow and have learned so much from over the years from their books, podcasts etc – Marie Forleo, Amy Porterfield, Katie Anderson, Karen Martin, Pascal Dennie, Brendon Burchard, Robin Sharma, Tony Robbins, Simon Sinek, Dr Wayne Dyer (RIP), Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle. There are many more but these are my favourites!

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at Q1 and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to Q2,

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain 

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Do You Have Decision Fatigue?

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Do you have Decision Fatigue?

Seemingly, adults make about 35,000 DECISIONS A DAY! 

Can you imagine how taxing that is on your brain? The more we do, the more decisions we have to make, the more decisions we make the more pressure is placed on our brains, minds and bodies.

The more pressure that is on us, the less we are able to make quality decisions. 

According to Wikipedia, decision fatigue is ‘the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making. It is now understood as one of the causes of irrational trade-offs in decision making. Decision fatigue may also lead to consumers making poor choices with their purchases’. 

Here’s the visual explanation of that, 

To a certain point, which is different for all of us, we make good quality decisions, promptly and with confidence.

These decisions yield the results we want and we move forward with our lives & work.

Past a certain point, which again is different for all of us, we make poor quality decisions, are slow to make these decisions and make them with less confidence.

These decisions do not yield the results we want and we don’t move forward with our lives & work. 

As you can see from the graph, when you move past this point, it’s a slippery slope!!

I know this from personal experience. Early in 2021, I was making good quality decisions, promptly and with confidence.

These decisions yielded the results I wanted and I was moving forward with my life and work. 

As the year progressed and I took more & more on and became busier & busier, my decision making reduced in quality, became slower and I made decisions with a lot less confidence.

These decisions yielded the results I did not want and I wasn’t moving forward with my life & work. 

The lesson here is if you want to make good quality decisions, TAKE ON LESS.

DO LESS BUT DO IT BETTER!

How is your decision making? 

Are your decisions giving you the results you want or the results you don’t want?

Do you have decision fatigue? 

If so, what can you remove from your work/life to reduce or eliminate this fatigue?

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your FREE EBOOK ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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