Category: Other

This morning I did my workout at the 1000 steps at Mt Dandenong in Melbourne’s east, which I love to do as often as I get the chance. It’s simply a beautiful place to be.

As a fitness leader in the community and a fitness and health professional, it was wonderfully inspiring this morning to really take notice of how many people, different people, were together in one place with one common goal.

It is a unique, rare encounter to be part of something like that.

Different ages, both sexes, adults, kids, babies, singles, couples, families, different ethnicities, all types of languages, a vast range of fitness levels and abilities, some cruising, some panting, some having to stop and rest and regular intervals.

Each person had their own personal goal, they were facing their own challenges, battling their own unspoken demons.

There was a sense of unity, peace, cameraderie amongst these strangers, all who shared the same common individual goal of getting to the top of those blasted steps!

People truly are fantastic when they want to be. Awesomeness is everywhere. Make a point to look for it every now and again.

Success in business, like in life, is a marathon, not a sprint. Consistency is not only king but it is absolutely, undeniably, irrefutably necessary. Habits take time to form but like learning a new skill in sport, the more you practice the better you get. So how do you create kick arse habits to keep you going through the business marathon month after month, year after year with consistency?

Here are my 3 tips for creating kick arse habits:

1.       Set a schedule

There are many areas of your business which require a consistent effort. Let’s take blogging as an example. The best way to ensure that you consistently do what it required, when it is required, is set a schedule. It sounds simple, obvious even. But the number of business owners with poor time management skills is astounding. Work out what needs to be done on a regular basis, and schedule it into your day, week or month and make sure you stick to this schedule. With our example of blogging, let’s set a schedule of writing a blog post every Monday and Thursday.

2.       Choose a pace that you can sustain

Your schedule must be set at a pace that you can maintain for the long haul. Consistency adds up very fast and trumps a short lived, over enthusiastic effort which flames out after a month or two. Let’s look again at our example of blogging. A new, enthusiastic business owner might be super motivated when they first start blogging and they might serve up some great blog posts every weekday for a month. Inevitably, at this kind of pace, it’s simply not going to be sustainable. It would be so much more valuable to write a well thought out, engaging blog piece, twice per week and maintain that for 5 years than try and blog every day only to find that you can’t keep up that pace.

3.       Repeat over and over

As reliably as seeing frost on a Melbourne morning in July, you will win the business battle with consistency, every time.  Once you have your schedule set and a pace established that you can reliably stick to, simply continue to do it again and again and again, for as long as you want to have success.

Whether it’s winning the battle against the snooze alarm, winning the job interview race for a new role or winning a customer in business from a competitor, the need to win in life is essential. Here are my three tips for winning the race of life:

1. Conviction

When you’re in a battle, whether it’s against yourself or a competitor, your own belief in yourself and your ability is the most powerful weapon you can ever have. Your belief needs to be so strong that there is no other result possible than the one you are striving for.

2. Fire in your belly

You have to find that fire in your belly, that desire which makes you want it more than anything. You have to want it more than your fear. You have to want it more than the effort it takes. You have to be so determined that no one and nothing can stop you.

3. Do what others won’t or don’t

To rise to the highest level, you have to be prepared to do what all the others won’t. To stand out as exceptional, all you need to do is the small things that others don’t. There is only room at the top for one. Someone has to be there, so why not you?

When you really want something in your life, you have to reach the point where you want it more than you are afraid of it. Alternatively, you need to feel the pain of not achieving it, and be driven towards avoiding that pain.

Rarely will something come to you until you are truly ready to embrace the steps you need to take to get there, regardless of the challenges. But the bottom line is, taking action is the only way forward.

Everyone has blockages preventing them from achieving certain things. Everyone is afraid of something and that’s perfectly ok.

Feel the fear and then do it anyway!

Do you hate your job so much that you could quite happily throw it in tomorrow without a second thought?

Ok! Hold it right there. Step away from the keyboard. Before you hand in your resignation papers, there are a few questions you need to ponder.

What do you want out of your work and your life? Do you need a new job or do you need a new perspective? Is your problem really a job problem or is it actually a YOU problem?

What exactly is the pain point for you? Is the issue you are miserable about going to disappear in a new environment? Is the grass actually going to be greener? Are you 100% sure about that?

Don’t get me wrong. There may actually be a problem outside your control that is making you miserable. Sometimes it is the job – the lack of purpose in the company, the lack of leadership, the lack of inspiration, the lack of autonomy or the poor culture.

However, sometimes it’s your thinking and your perspective. Sometimes everything else going on in your life outside and around your work is influencing how you are seeing your situation and if you put yourself in a new situation, with the same thinking, you’d be no happier.

Moral of the story – a change in thinking may very well change your experience.

When you are looking for change, for progress, for growth, there are three simple questions you need to ask yourself:

What should I keep doing that serves my goals?

What do I need to stop doing that is sabotaging my goals?

What can I start doing in order to move forward towards my goals?

Many things appear impossible, until he who believes it is possible, tries.

·         Prior to 1875, swimming across the English Chanel was thought to be impossible… Until Captain Matthew Webb achieved the feat.

·         Prior to 1903, no-one believed that it was possible for human beings to fly… Until the Wright brothers took to the sky.

·         Prior to 1953, conquering the ‘roof of the world’ by climbing to the summit of Mt Everest was considered impossible after numerous failed attempts by ambitious climbers… Until Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay conquered the mountain.

·         Prior to 1954, the athletics world believed no-one could run the mile in under 4 minutes… Until Roger Banister did it.

·         Prior to 1969, man landing on the moon was a pipe dream… Until Neil Armstrong and the crew of Apollo 11 took those famous first steps.

“It always seems impossible, until it’s done” – Nelson Mandela

1. Prioritise – make a ‘must do’ list each day. If it doesn’t need to be done by the time you get into bed tonight, leave it until tomorrow / next week. When you have extra free time, then you can focus on getting ahead.
2. Focus on today –keep your focus on today’s tasks. Worrying about tomorrow or the future is futile and simply distracts you from maximising your efficiency in the present moment.
3. Learn to say no – be realistic about what you can achieve in a day / week. Over scheduling leads to stress, inefficiency and exhaustion which is counter-productive to getting things done.
4. Learn to delegate – you do not have to do everything yourself. Find ways to delegate tasks to AT’s, partners, office assistant, virtual assistant, members.
5. Preserve your greatest asset – YOU – Schedule in breaks and make sure you take time out for yourself. A short break every now and then let’s you refresh and recharge your batteries and helps clear your head.
6. Chunk time – Time chunking has been shown to be an effective time management technique. Time chunking is about setting yourself chunks of time throughout your day to focus on one particular task or set of tasks.
7. Close down or silence distractions– Turn off Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Even checking emails every time you hear the incoming message sound can distract from your efficiency while trying to complete other tasks.

Quite speechless….. but more than anything proud to say I can now add the “Best Selling Author” feather to my cap. WOW! Open, honest, real and inspiring stories by women, for women, all about beliefs and how they have shaped our lives.

There comes a time in life where we start to question the things we have long believed in. Are they our beliefs? Are they ones imposed by others? Do they honour who we really are? How do we change the beliefs that no longer serve us? These and many more questions have been answered by 25 amazing and inspiring women from all over the world.

Until May 12th you can download your FREE copy on Amazon.com