Your Work, Your Business

This is the seventh in a series of M.A.D. Moments based on different areas of your life to inspire you or give you that boost at the start of the year.

What does your work and business mean to you?

• Do you enjoy the work/job that you do?
• How many hours do you spend at work – would you like to spend less?
• Do you work with people who respect and support you?
• What would you really like to doing if you weren’t doing your current job/business?

Do you live to work or work to live? As we spend approximately 50% of your waking hours at work – or possibly more if you work for yourself, you might as well enjoy it and make the most of the time you spend there, so that you actually get to spend more time on other areas of your life.

If you want to try something different, think about what it is you’d like to change. Do you need to change jobs or just your current position? Perhaps you can delegate the tasks you don’t enjoy or aren’t so good at to someone else, either within your team or think about employing someone else to do them.


Action:

What difference could you make to your work or business this week?

• Where could you make improvements to your business? Take a look at your office – do you have the systems and resources in place to support you? Take a look at your time – are you organised, do you spend the time as you wish, are you enjoying what you’re doing? If you want to take your business up a gear – get yourself a mentor, someone your respect who’s where you want to be or who’s done what you want to do.

• If you're looking for a new career then spend some time thinking about what you want from your work. What do you value, need, want? What does work mean to you? How important is it in your life? What are the things you're good at, what sort of work do you like to do? How could you create your perfect job?

• Sometimes living from day to day is fine but it helps if you have a plan in mind. Where do you want to be a year from now, three years from now? Set a goal “Next year, I want to be doing …..”.
  

What does your work mean to you? How important is it in your life? Take a look this week at what’s working and what’s not and take steps towards making a difference.

Your Family & Friends

This is the sixth in my series of M.A.D. Moments based on different areas of your life, to inspire you or give you that boost at the start of the year.

What do your Family and Friends mean to you?

• How often do you see your parents (if still alive)?
• Do you have a circle of close friends?
• How often do you see members of your family?
• Do you have a good relationship with your children?
• Do you have a best friend who you see/speak to often?

This week is about focusing on the important people in our lives. When we're busy thinking about balancing our life and fitting everything in, we can often neglect those close to us because they're always there. I'm not saying we ignore them but maybe we don't always give them the attention we'd like to. Maybe our closest friends have moved away, we don't see members of our family as often. “Oh, I'll call X next week...or meet X for lunch” and then next week becomes next month and then next year ....

Friendships have to be nurtured in order to survive. We all have friends that maybe we don’t see so often but with whom we can reconnect at any time and it’s as if we’ve never been apart. In these days of cheap phone calls and the internet, it’s even easier to keep in touch with those friends further afield. I use Skype and MSN to stay in regular touch with friends I wouldn’t otherwise speak to except occasionally.

Friends come and go during the course of lives. There will be friends that we’ve known since childhood and friends that we’ve know at different stages of our life and still keep with us. Make a point of only having people around you who respect and support you.

Action:

What difference could you make to your Family & Friends this week?

• Who in your family haven't you spoken to in a while? Not just on a "Hi, how are you, OK fine..." type way but really genuinely wanted to know how they are.
• Make a point of phoning up someone you've been meaning to talk to but haven't quite got round to, or write that letter or email you've been meaning to send. Set aside time this week to spend with the important people in your life. Not just the time you would normally spend together, at the beginning or end of the day or helping the children with their schoolwork but something different.
• Re-evaluate your relationships with your friends. Do you have friends who don’t serve you or who always seem to want something from you? If your friends are worth knowing then make the effort to spend time or talk to them.

Enjoy the time spent with your family and friends this week.

Your Fun, Social Time

This is the fifth in a series of M.A.D. Moments based on different areas of your life to inspire you or give you that boost at the start of the year.

So how is your fun and social time?

• Do you spend your weekends catching up on chores?
• Would you like more time for socialising?
• Do you have interests and hobbies outside of work?
• Would you like to have more FUN in your life?

Sometimes we’re so busy working or getting on with our day-to-day lives that we don’t find time to have fun or we’re too tired at the end of a day’s commuting to think about going out. It’s important to take time out to relax and socialise, to do something different to enable you to distress and recharge your batteries.

What do you enjoy doing but perhaps haven’t done in a while? Whether this is meeting up with friends for a meal, going out to the cinema or theatre. Think about the fun you had when you were younger – even the simple things in life can be fun.


Action:

What difference could you make to your Fun Time this week?

• Do something you haven’t done in a while – that’s fun and sociable. Arrange a meal out with friends or invite them round for a social evening. If you’re not in the habit of socialising regularly, find time in each week to meet up with a friend just for a coffee, meal and a chat.
• Take time out this week to relax and unwind. Find thirty minutes or maybe even an hour at the end of each day to do something just for you. Switch off totally from the outside world – that includes the phone and the TV, sit and listen to some music, read a book, soak in the bath or meditate.

When you are out having fun – allow yourself to totally enjoy what you’re doing and the people you’re with – don’t think about the other things you should be doing and distract yourself from the enjoyment.

Have fun this week – I will! :)


How balanced is your life - take a look at the Life Balance Wheel.

M.A.D. Your Personal Growth

This is the fourth in a series of M.A.D. Moments based on different areas of your life to inspire you or give you that boost at the start of the year.

What does personal growth mean to you?

• What new skill would you like to learn?
• Do you have an activity you’d like to try?
• What have you always wanted to do or learn?
• Do you have a habit you’d like to change?
• What are you tolerating in your life, work, environment?

We all have areas where we’d like to improve. In our work or business we probably spend time learning new skills, keeping on top of the latest development in regulations, products or technology but how often do we spend time on our personal development.

Perhaps you’d like to learn a new skill, drop an old habit that is no longer useful to you or develop a new interest. Most of the time we’re too busy rushing around from day to day to think about allowing time for ourselves. It can take most of our energy just to get out of the bed in the morning.


Action:

What difference could you make to your Personal Growth this week?

• List out at least 10 new activities or skills you’d like to learn – perhaps something you haven’t done since you were a child or something you’ve been meaning to do – paint, cook, learn to play golf, tennis, horse-ride, join a football/running club, learn a musical instrument … etc.

• What habits or behaviours would you like to change? Think of at least three habits that you’d like to change. What behaviour do you display that annoys you or that you know annoys others? Think of at least three things that would enhance your life if you did them differently.

Take some time this week to find the course, club or workshop that will give you your new skills and sign-up. Don’t put it off any longer. Decide to learn at least one new thing this year.

Developing new habits or behaviours takes longer than a week but at least become aware of what and when you’re doing it. Think about how you would to do it differently instead. If you want to create a new habit, give yourself time.

This week, pick one thing that you'd like to improve.