by Angela Taffs | Dec 29, 2014 | Personal and Lifestyle
Are you aware that you choose your attitude can dictate how productive your day will be?
So it is Monday morning again. How many of you woke up this morning thinking on the lines of ‘Oh no, I have to get up again’ which then set your attitude for the day?
How many of you groaned at the thought of having to work again this morning? Did you consider your attitude when you got up or give no thought to it all? If this resonates with you, try this simple trick that someone taught me a while ago.
A simple trick to create the right attitude
Change your language.
When we use the word ‘have’, we feel like we are imprisoned and have no choice in the situation.
Change the word ‘have’ to ‘get’. So instead of ‘I have to get up again’, you say to yourself ‘ I get to get up again’ or ‘I get to go to work this morning’.
A subtle difference in words but a huge change in attitude.
Choose your attitude
When you realise you have the choice to be able to do something when thousands of people don’t, your mind set can change dramatically.
Consider how lucky you are that you get to go to work, rather than have to. So many are unemployed and struggling financially with limited options of being able to work to pay the bills.
Consider how lucky you are to get to jump out of bed on this Monday morning when so many don’t have this option whether through disability or illness.
Consider how lucky you are that you get to do the housework when there are so many homeless on the streets who would give anything to have a roof over their heads.
And the list goes on. Use this simple trick to create the right attitude and see what a difference it makes.
Let me know how you get on in the comments below.
by Angela Taffs | Dec 29, 2014 | Personal and Lifestyle
Anyone visiting me at my office may think I have gone mad!
I decided to once again try and find some exercises to counteract the fact that I am sitting down for most of the day in the office at the moment and my rear end is suffering from it.
This took me back to when I worked in previous employment and decided to come up with some office exercises. To start with, every time I visited the ladies’ room, I did 10 squats before sitting down on the toilet. After a few times and when my legs started to feel the pain, I made the mistake of sharing this sensitive information with one of my colleagues.
This had the knock-on effect of then creating as many exercises as we could during our day to day work.
We tried lifting the telephone received 10 times but it wasn’t heavy enough so that idea when out the window.
So we started doing lunges when walking through the office which got some very strange looks!
At the water cooler, there is always a spare bottle so we tried to lift one of those a few times before getting our drink
We actually tried doing an office circuit incorporating as many things as we could to try and retain some fitness and tone up our office arses! After initially being mocked, the majority of the office agreed to join in our lunchtime plank challenge.
So there you have it. Sometimes the silly ideas are the best and the small things can make a big change.
I am off to think up some more office exercises to do in my home office and hope the postman doesn’t pass the window whilst I am trying them out!
And if you’d like some more tips go and check out my article on self care when working from home
by Angela Taffs | Dec 29, 2014 | Personal and Lifestyle
Do you want to move forward with life?
If the answer to this is yes (and please seek professional help if the answer is no), then is wallowing in the past halting your forward movement?
If you are driving your car to a destination, what is the one most important thing to do? The obvious answer is to look forward and focus on what is in front of you and where you are going.
So why do so many of us in our lives, metaphorically, keep looking in the rear view mirror? If we continue to do this we are only going to go off track, slow down so much that we never get anywhere at all, or worst of all, crash.
We really do need to learn that to move forward with life and achieve new goals, we need to stop focusing on the past.
Yes, the past will have taught us many valuable lessons and these we need to take forward with us, but constantly having our eye in that rear view mirror can only lead to unhappiness and failure. By constantly looking in the rear view mirror, we may miss opportunities ahead and will most certainly miss the beauty of what is around us at the present time.
So next time you find yourself dwelling over something that has happened to you previously, try and imagine your life is a car journey. Look forward. Focus on the future journey and where you are going, not where you have been.
An odd glance in the rear view mirror can be useful at times to see how far we have come in our lives and to see what obstacles we have just missed or overcome, but the front view window to your future is so much more important.
I truly wish you all the best with whatever journey you are on to move forward with life. Keep looking forward.
Much love
Angie x
by Angela Taffs | Dec 29, 2014 | Personal and Lifestyle
Do you want to overcome the fear of failure?
We have all heard about the fear of failure but personally, I feel it is never so evident as when you are running your own business, especially in the early years.
When employed by someone else and pitching for business clients, if the potential client says no, the rejection can be offset against the company you are working for. We can all sit back and blame the company for not having the full range of products or services the client demands,or for setting out the pricing structure incorrectly.
But when it is your own business and the products and pricing have been set by you, the rejection lies firmly with the decisions you have made when setting up the business.
Or does it?
There can be so many underlying reasons why your business is not suitable for a prospective client and that is altogether another subject matter in itself.
But what is so sad, and so frustrating to see, is when a business owner has everything they need in place for a successful business, yet they hide behind their office door as they are so afraid of the potential rejection on the other side.
How to overcome fear
Starting a business on your own takes a great deal of courage and a variety of skills. And none so more than that of being able to be thick skinned and to throw off any rejection as a wrong person, wrong place, wrong time.
Yes, we need to be aware of our offerings and to review lost client feedback. First and foremost though, we need to be brave enough to put ourselves out there. We need to believe in ourselves enough to have the courage to present our business with confidence and flair.
After all, if we don’t believe in ourselves, then why would anybody else.
So if you find yourself running shy of promoting your business at every given opportunity, stop reading the business books. Start working on building your own self-confidence and embracing potential rejection as a way to learn how to succeed. The transformation of a business can be quite incredible when the owner can stand up and be proud and confident about what they do and not afraid to share it with everyone.
And yes, you will get it wrong at times. But learn from these mistakes. Thank anyone for pointing out any mistakes or flaws and let them know you will take their feedback on board and be in touch in the future when you have addressed their point.
Failure can be deemed as a prerequisite for success
As James Dyson said:
“I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution.”
Winston Churchill was initially thought of as a political failure as he was defeated in every election for public office until he finally became the Prime Minister at the age of 62.
So overcome your fear of failure. Get up, get out there and promote your business with confidence and pride.
by Angela Taffs | Dec 29, 2014 | Personal and Lifestyle
Declutter your home and improve business productivity
If you declutter your home, how can this help improve your business? Because if you have a cluttered home, you are likely to have a cluttered mind which will impact on how productive you are in your business. And this is even more relevant if you run a business from home. You will constantly be surrounded by clutter that will cause stress and take up time trying to sort through when you want something.
But what is decluttering?
Basically, decluttering is sorting out everything in your home, deciding whether to keep it or not based on some strict criteria, getting rid of everything you don’t want to keep and organising what you do want to keep.
Easy huh?
Well, no, not always.
Why?
Because so many of us hang on to so many things in our homes and just cannot bring ourselves to part with them. These items quickly and easily turn into ‘junk’ which very subtly starts to take over our time, resources and finances making us stressed and miserable. In effect cluttering our lives.
One item on its own you could probably cope with but when you take into account all the number of ‘junk’ items you have in your home, it is quite frightening when you really sit back and add up the amount of time we spend on them without realising. We have to clean these items, keep tidying them when they get in the way, find more space for them as they gather more items to join them. This all costs money when you think about it too. Cleaning materials cost money. Storage space costs money. Your time is money.
So how do you declutter your home?
Get rid of the junk! But what is junk?
Junk is something that is:
- Broken
- No longer used
- Dated and/or obsolete
- You hate or don’t really like
- Doesn’t fit
- Doesn’t work
- Gives off negative vibes
- You wouldn’t miss if you never saw it again
Top junk items around the home:
- Books and magazines
- Clothes
- Jewellery
- Toys
- Presents given to you that you have never used/liked
- Paperwork and bills
Junk is not something that:
- You love
- Makes you feel good
- Makes you money
- Is a necessity in daily life
- You would cry over if it got stolen
It takes time and courage to declutter your home and your life but believe me, it is well worth doing. I have never known something so completely therapeutic as having decluttered a room. It is also good fun as you can discover things you had forgotten all about which can make you laugh with the memories or find that earring that you thought had disappeared forever.
You can make money be selling some of your junk items or help others by donating to charity. You can cut down on your cleaning time and bring a whole fresh look and feel to your home. And once you have done your home, you can apply exactly the same principles to any other areas such as your office or car.
So what have you been waiting for? Get started now and declutter your home. It may just help improve your business productivity.
by Angela Taffs | Dec 28, 2014 | Personal and Lifestyle
How to free up more time at home with time management tips
Using some simple time management tips will add 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there and help you discover the proper utilization of your time that you can never have imagined.
Time management is essential when running a business from home.
Top Tips
Prepare the night before
- Make use of your time preparing lunches, backpacks etc. the night before. Get things ready– documents, car parking change, shopping lists before ending the day out. In many ways, clutter costs much! It drains you of your time and energy. Organize things by putting keys, handbag and other items at the same spot.
Time management tips for the kids
- Have kids’ backpacks hang at a designated spot and encourage them into the habit of doing homework immediately after school and loading their bags for the next day before they go to sleep.
Create a routine
- Create a daily routine to streamline your day. Don’t waste time pondering over pointless things or it will end up becoming a habit. Overcome procrastination by identifying that you are beginning to delay important tasks for unnecessary ones over and over again. Determine these time wasters- the TV, the chitchat, or spending too much time checking on emails or social networking sites.
Create a list
- Have a list of tasks that need doing around the house with a note of how long they take to do. Keep this list handy so that when you find you have 5 or 10 minutes spare, you can scan the list for the smaller tasks and tackle them quickly. You will be amazed how much you can get done in a commercial break on the television. Use this time to quickly wipe over the bathroom, empty waste paper bins or dust a room. Don’t just stand by the kettle waiting for it to boil if making a cup of tea. Use these couple of minutes to clean the inside of the microwave.
Work with your energy levels
- Maximize the time when you are at the highest energy level. Learn to multi-task at this time. But do not let your downtime pass you by. Instead, take time to relax. All work and no play will surely makes you very dull! Your time and energy is priceless and you need to be firm in setting limits.
Delegate
- No one person can do everything so let older kids help you with simple things like preparing lunch boxes, emptying the dishwasher or starting a load of wash. Delegation is also important for proper time management, which can play an important role in moulding your kids. Keep a chart where they can gain stars for the tasks they help you complete. These stars can then be exchanged for rewards when you deem they have accumulated enough.
Finally, remember that everything need not be done perfectly. We are, after all, humans and our homes should be just that, a home, not a show room.
So try following these simple time management tips at home to help you you waste less time and energy and feel less stressed or even no stress at all!
