Quick Coaching Tips

Do you wonder if it is ever possible to get organized and stay organized? Believe it or not, it is possible. It really is as simple as forming and keeping good habits. Once these simple habits are part of your daily routine, it will be much easier to get organized and stay organized. It only takes 21 days to form a new habit.

Here are some quick tips that will help you to stay organized:

1. Organize yourself - Sit down with a notepad and pen, and list all your commitments. Write them into a spreadsheet if necessary. The sheet isn’t big enough? Maybe your load of commitments is. Prioritize the important and essential things in your life, and decide how much of you there is to spread around. And don’t forget to save some for yourself!

2. Avoid putting pressure on yourself - Don’t have unreasonable expectations for your life or career. When setting goals, take into account that Man’s best plans can often go awry. Don’t count yourself out as a failure if you’re behind schedule. Remain dedicated to your plans, while remembering that all things take time, and may require adjusting of the outcome or approach.

3. Remove yourself from confrontations – Kids or co-workers, the principle is the same. When your stress is at the point where you cannot be coherent, or deal with the other person, no matter how big or small in a reasonable manner, then you need a break to cool off. Explain that to your child, regardless of how young they are. Toddlers will be reassured that you still love them, and older children will gain an appreciation of the stresses of parenting, if you simply say that Mom is tired, and needs to think about this and come back to it when she’s calmer.

Think you can’t do much in 20 minutes? Schedule a free 20 minute coaching consultation with certified Personal Life Coach Aurelia Williams and start forming your plan of action today!

The Importance of Me Time

It is so important for women to get away from the hectic home life now and again. It will help you recharge and refocus so that you can be the best you that you can possibly be.

If you are a parent, it will also help your children learn to do things without you around. One of the biggest benefits to taking time off to recharge is that often your husband (or significant other) will begin to appreciate more all that you contribute to the home.

Earlier today I used some of my ‘Me Time’ to browse the internet with my coffee in hand.  I visited one of my favorite sites owned by my online friend Daisy Sutherland (aka Dr. Mommy). She posted about how to Say Good-bye To Anxiety and Hello to You!. I encourage you to stop by there and peek at what she had to say.

Taking some me time can increase your health – even if your time isn’t spent at the gym. There are plenty of activities that will benefit the health of your mind and the health of your body, especially if you are doing it simply because it is something that you enjoy. It can lower you stress level which will help your health in a number of ways.

Having a little “me time” can help your skills, particularly if you spend the time taking a class or a course.

Taking time to go for a walk, a run, or a swim at the local pool will increase your cardiovascular abilities (and likely decrease your weight).

Joining a dance class is a great way to limber up your body while increasing your stamina.

Reading will release your imagination, increase your thinking skills and expand your mind.

Releasing your mind – no matter where you are spending your “me time” – will help you to be better focused when you get back to your reality.

Health benefits are not the only reasons that you need to consider taking some time off. Having a little alone time during the day (or taking a short trip alone or with some other moms) will help your children become more independent.

Your children will miraculously learn to find their own shoes (or backpacks or books or whatever it is they are always loosing). They will learn to keep up with events and activities that are important to them. Every little bit that they learn to do on their own is just one less stress that will be added back to you when you come home.

There are no real limits to what constitutes your own “me time.” It can be something different from week to week or the same thing every time. It can be five minutes, five hours or five days. You can take your “me time” in your bedroom, in another city or just somewhere where no one would think to bother you (many hide out in the bathroom). It is all about YOU so you get to decide the what, the when and the how.

By having your “me time” you will allow you and your family to remember that your feelings and health are important to. You will be able to take care of you for a change instead of putting everyone else’s needs, wants and desires before you. It will give you a chance to wind down before charging back up.

“Me time” is a valuable tool for your health and well being. It is also important to the health and well being of your family and your home.

Grab your copy of the ‘Real Life Guidance Report: Getting Out of the Super Mom Trap’ .  It offers parenting help and shows you how to overcome the situations that cause you to feel stressed, overwhelmed, and, most likely, under appreciated, so that you put an end to the Super Mom Syndrome.

Overcoming Self Doubt

If you are a person who suffers from self-doubt, then you probably feel like you’re the only one who doesn’t have confidence in your abilities. Actually, you may feel that everyone views you in the same way you view yourself. Self-doubt is an issue that many people deal with in their lifetime, but it is one that can be conquered.  All you need is a little determination, persistence and patience.

Below are some simple steps for overcoming self doubt.

#1 – Verbally Compliment Yourself – You may feel a little silly doing this at first, but it is a critical thing to do when working on overcoming self doubt. In the morning, when you go to the bathroom, look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself a compliment. It may just be something simple like, “I look good today.” It doesn’t really matter what it is, the point is that you compliment yourself. You are your toughest critic, so if your toughest critic can give you a compliment every day, everyone else should be easy, right?

#2 – Address the Problem – In order to overcome your struggle with self-doubt, you have to acknowledge it’s there first. So, sit down and think for a minute. What exactly is it about yourself that you doubt? Are there specific instances when you doubt yourself more than others? If so, what are those instances? Write them down. This process will help you specifically identify what it is that you fear the most. It may be that you aren’t confident in your speaking abilities or you doubt your professional abilities. Once you know what the problem area is, you can begin to work on it.

#3 – Find the Good – Now that you’ve determined what it is you doubt about yourself, write down every good quality you have. It doesn’t matter if you are a good cook, have great typing skills, are punctual or are great with other people. Whatever good qualities you have, write them down. And, write them down in “I” statements. For instance, “I am a great journalist.” Use this list of “I” statements to read in the morning when you give yourself a compliment. This step is key in overcoming self doubt as it will give you a list of things that you feel good about.

#4 – Keep a Daily Journal – A great way to build your confidence and and work on overcoming self doubt is to begin keeping a daily journal. Throughout the day, write down everything good that you do. Basically, you want to write down all of your accomplishments over the course of each day. Then, at night right before bed, take the list out and read over it. End the day by reading good things about yourself and you’ll be more likely to wake up thinking good things about yourself.

#5 – Talk to Friends – Everyone has at least one friend, so I don’t want to hear that you don’t have any friends to talk to. When you’re suffering from self-doubt, you need a support group to help you talk your way out of the self-doubt pit and back up to your mainland of confidence. This is what good friends are for. Use them!

#6 – Celebrate – Don’t place minimal importance on your achievements. Celebrate them! You need to celebrate the specific times when you overcome your self-doubt and achieve something you didn’t think was possible. These celebrations will give you more motivation to keep on going!

Self doubt is a real problem that affects many people. However, you can defeat it. The six steps listed above may seem simple. That’s because they are! Start implementing them in your daily life and you’ll be amazed at the difference they will make and you will also be amazed at the progress you make with overcoming self doubt.

If you need help with expanding your personal growth, simply sign up for one of our affordable coaching packages. You can also grab your free 20 minute coaching consultation to find out more about how a life coach can assist you.

3 Big Time Wasters

It’s true there are only 24 hours in a day and it’s also true we spend a third of that sleeping, but what do we do with the rest?  There’s probably no one who has not complained at one point about not having enough time in a day, yet we have more time than we think.  We choose, consciously or unconsciously, how to spend our day and use up our energy.  The following are three of the ways we waste our minutes or hours and end up feeling we don’t have enough time to do what we want.

1) Spending More Time Talking And Thinking Than Doing

Yes, it feels good to talk things over and try to get some help making a decision, but do you need to discuss it with everyone?  Do you have to fuss over it and toss it back and forth like a volleyball in your head before you reach a decision and start taking action?   Most actions aren’t worth the amount of time spent thinking about them, so time and energy are wasted. 

Don’t over-think.  It might be a good idea to set a timer to help you reach a small decision quicker.  As far as discussing it with other people, pick one person if you must, explain the situation briefly, and make your decision afterwards.

2) Thinking You Need To Have A Filler Before You Start Your Next Action

Playing solitaire on the computer after you finish a task is fun, but when you play game after game it becomes a time-wasting habit and you don’t even realize how much time has passed.  The same thing goes for sitting down after completing an activity to watch a few minutes of TV before going grocery shopping.  You find yourself saying “Where has the time flown?” about your day and you can’t figure it out. 

Become aware of what you’re doing all the time.  Try to go from action to action with purpose and do away with the time-sucking filler. 

3) Not Having Goals

If your goal today is to catch up with all your friends on Facebook, take a long nap, and have dinner at your favorite Italian restaurant then that’s fine.  But if you don’t have goals and you’re just sort of drifting through each day, you’re not going to be very happy with the outcome.  If you have goals to aim for it gives your day some structure and meaning.

Be aware of these time wasters and notice how you plan and spend your 24 hours.  You’ll be amazed at how different your day can be, and you’ll feel good that you’ve done and experienced all you wanted.

If you need help in tweaking your time managment, simply sign up for one of our affordable coaching packages. You can also grab your free 20 minute coaching consultation to find out more about how a life coach can assist you

Turn Your Day Around

We all have days where nothing seems to be going right.  Bad things happen, stress builds up, we feel awful and we can’t wait for the day to get over so we can start fresh the next day.  But sometimes, we have a hard time pulling out of the funk and one bad day turns into a horrible week or month.  If it seems like you’re stuck in one of these times and can’t find a way out, you might need to change your thinking first.   There are ways to turn your day around so that you can shine a bit of light on it.

When you let temporary bad times continue to get to you until you feel a bit like you’re drowning it means you’re seeing your life through the eyes of a victim.  You are allowing circumstances to control you instead of you controlling your life.  Try one of all of the following to help you jump out of the victim roll back into the designer of your day and being to turn your day around!

1) Clean out clutter: This may sound strange, but if you clean out a closet, you are taking control of that closet and ultimately your home.  You are the boss.  You’ve gotten rid of the stuff you don’t need that’s crammed in there and now it’s a clean, attractive, functioning part of your life.  This may seem too easy but it works.

2) Exercise: It doesn’t matter what’s getting you down, you can make yourself feel better about YOU if you exercise.  You might have to trick your mind to get started -

“I’ll just put on my tennis shoes and see what the air feels like outside.”
“I’ll just walk down the street to get the mail.” 
“I’ll just pick up my pace and go around the block… maybe twice.” 

Exercising serves several purposes; you’re doing something good for you which makes you feel better, you’re having a positive impact on your health, you’re relieving your stress by not thinking about your troubles for a bit, and you’re in charge of your body.

3) Have a new goal: It’s time to create a new goal in your life so you have something fresh and positive to strive for.  The goal doesn’t have to have anything to do with your current problems and it might do you good to actually switch your thoughts to a new direction.  For example, if your problems stem from your job, make a new goal to learn to paint with watercolors or start an online blog surrounding your favorite hobby.  When you have goals, no matter how small, you’re taking positive steps forward in creating the life you enjoy, and that feels good.

Sometimes a bad day only lasts one day but if you get stuck in a long negative rut, try these positive, take-charge-of-your-life ideas to get back on track.

There are many ways you can turn your day around and beat the blues!  Be sure to try any of the tips above.  Also, why not sign up to get your free coaching session today!

Personal Growth Tips

Personal growth is the development of self or the process of improving yourself by taking such measures as developing your talents, capitalizing on your strengths, enhancing your lifestyle and building a better future. There are many areas you can work on to develop the type of life you would like, but here are some tips to remember as you start this personal journey.

1. The decision to make changes in your personal growth has to come from you. In other words, you have to want to make the change and want it enough to overcome the obstacles you will face.

2. Don’t have a victim mentality. You are the one in charge of your journey and you have the power to change. Resist the urge to make excuses for your life and find ways to move forward. Own your mistakes along with your successes.

3. Focus on what you want to improve and arm yourself with ways to do it. Sometimes you need more information and other times you have to trick your mind into doing what you want. Zero in on it.

4. Have a big hairy goal but take small steps, always taking forward action, until you reach it. Don’t try to move your whole world at once, concentrate on one area of improvement at a time for greater success.

5. Persevere until your new actions become habits. Take it one day at a time and don’t beat yourself up when you have a rough day. And you will have rough days.

6. Congratulate yourself on your successes. Sometimes you can be striving so hard to reach a personal goal that you forget to stop and look how far you’ve come and all that you’ve achieved. Remember, personal development is an interesting journey.

7. You’re not really developing if you don’t do stuff that scare you. It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and shake up the way you’ve always done things. If the thought of this makes you break into a sweat, take a shower and get to work on it.

The purpose of self-development is to help you grow as a person. Find some self-help books that will aid you in your quest to improve yourself. This isn’t a quick trip to Grandma’s, it’s a long and winding road that can be uphill, rocky, and full of potholes. However, the scenery along the way is beautiful and interesting and you get to stop and stretch your legs when you need to.

By using the personal growth tips above, you will see some positive changes in your life.

If you need help with expanding your personal growth, simply sign up for one of our affordable coaching packages. You can also grab your free 20 minute coaching consultation to find out more about how a life coach can assist you.

Stopping Bad Habits

Have you ever stopped to notice how powerful you are? You can think of something and do it! Every day you consciously make decisions and take action. And when you do that you get the results you’re after. But what happens when you do something without thinking, unconsciously, and it has you pointing in a direction you didn’t really plan? This is what is known as a habit. What if it takes you backwards or in an undesirable direction? This is a bad habit.

Now, in the spirit of becoming the powerful being you are meant to be, it might be time to get rid of that bad habit. Stopping bad habits usually is much harder than it is to pick up the bad habit in the first place.

Here are some steps to take when stopping bad habits:

1) Making A Commitment

The first step is to make a commitment to change the habit. It’s not enough to think maybe you should change a habit, it’s important to commit to it. “I think I should lose weight” or “It would be nice to drop 15 pounds” is not committing. “I will lose weight!” is a powerful statement and your subconscious knows it. Be passionate about it, feel excited, write it down, tell someone else, and define your start date. The key to stopping bad habits is to hold yourself to it.

2) Arm Yourself With Knowledge

Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make the change and to make stopping bad habits easier on you. If you want to stop smoking, there are some options available that have better success rates and you would do well to learn what these are. If you desire to stop mindlessly eating sweets after dinner, come up with some acceptable alternatives and write them down so you can refer to them nightly.

3) Replace Bad Habits With Good Ones

Replace a bad habit with a good habit. If you want to stop watching so much TV, start taking walks with your spouse or kids instead. When you take away a bad habit, there’s a hole that needs to be filled with something else and you get to decide what it’s going to be!

4) Keep Track

How are you doing? Some days might be better than others, but you can’t really make a good assessment unless you keep track. When stopping bad habits, be sure to keep a journal or track your progress on a chart, if applicable. Ask for feedback from others if the habit is harder to track. Reward yourself after you’ve reached a certain goal or even an intermediary goal.

Remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Current wisdom tells us it takes an average of 21 days to stop bad habits. That means you might have mild annoyance or quite a bit of stress for three weeks, but it won’t last forever. You might even kick the habit sooner. If you feel you can’t do it alone, it’s okay to seek professional help. You’ve got the rest of your life waiting for you, and it looks promising.

Be sure to use any or all of the tips above to assist you in stopping bad habits! You will be so happy that you did.

Need someone to talk to? Someone whom you can trust will keep your information private and confidential? Someone neutral, who won’t judge you, who truly wants to help you overcome certain obstacles and help you be as successful as you possibly can? Please contact me for a free 20 minute consultation to see how I can help you overcome whatever is stopping you from being all that you want to be.