Author Archive
Watch me talk about my book with Nick Williams
Posted by: | CommentsWatch Me Talk About my Book with Nick Williams
At last I made it onto that famous sofa – no, not This Morning with Phil and Holly – the Nick Williams interview sofa. Watch me talk with Nick about my new book Don’t Give Up Your Day Job.
For more info and to buy the book go to www.DontGiveUpYourDayJob.co.uk
How To Achieve Your Long Term Goals
Posted by: | CommentsHow To Achieve Your Long Term Goals
Recently I had the great pleasure of achieving some goals that have been on my list for many years. I am now a published author and a few weeks ago I launched my book at the Piccadilly branch of Waterstones in London, which was another dream come true.
If I were to answer the question of what does it take to achieve a long held dream then I would have to say: persistence. Persistence with a capital P !
I looked up persistence in the dictionary and the definition of the verb ‘to persist’ is: to continue steadfastly or obstinately, in spite of opposition or warning; to persevere; to last, to endure. In other words, when the going gets tough, the tough keep going!
How to get things done if you need a deadline to get motivated
Posted by: | CommentsHow to Get Things Done If You Need a Deadline To Get Motivated
Yesterday I heard a brilliant tip if you are one of those people who only get things done if there is a deadline looming. Being motivated by deadlines is great because you know that you can pull a rabbit out of a hat at the eleventh hour. However the problem with this kind of motivation is that if there is no deadline on the horizon then you just can’t get started on your project and procrastination kicks in.
To solve this problem you need to create artificial deadlines so that you have milestones to work towards with your tasks or projects. And then you need to communicate those artificial deadlines to a friend or group of people so that they hold you accountable to the date and your deadline is now real.
With this approach you can beat procrastination, always move forwards with your chosen activities and probably get more done than just waiting around for the final deadline.
Forget New Years resolutions – make determinations instead
Posted by: | CommentsForget New Years Resolutions – Make Determinations Instead
It is that time of year again when we vow to stop smoking, lose weight, go to the gym and never consume chocolate or alcohol or carbs ever again. And how miserable to we feel making those resolutions? And how long do they last? Exactly!
How about making determinations instead? Determinations allow you look ahead and feel positive and they give you something much more constructive to aim towards. Maybe this is the year when you will make a career change, start a business or learn to dance the Argentinean tango! Doesn’t that make you feel a lot more excited? Now you can offset the winter gloom and feel energized as you take those initial fledgling steps towards your goals.
It is a good idea to write down your determinations. Not only does putting them on paper seem to increase your commitment to taking action towards them but it also helps at times when your activity levels start to flag. It is natural that you will have bursts of enthusiasm for your determinations and times when they seem to go by the wayside. By writing them down you can return to them at any point throughout the year and start to take constructive action towards them again.
Once you have decided what you want for the year (and written it down) think of three simple things you can do towards them this week. Now do those things and you are on your way!
How to stop being stressed when you have too much going on
Posted by: | CommentsHow to Stop Being Stressed When You Have Too Much Going On
For the last few months my life has been very busy. I have been trying to sell my London flat, publish a book, launch it and do all the other things required by my daily life. Not knowing when I’m going to move has also added the difficult dimension of not being able to make solid plans for things like holidays or ensuring that my work commitments fit with the geography of my new home. Throughout this time I have often felt stressed and overwhelmed.
There is a silver lining in every cloud and in spite of this stress I have come up with a time management method that has proved very effective. Every Sunday I give a few minutes thought to the week ahead and I decide upon three things that I would like to achieve that week. Examples of these are: decide on a web designer for the website for my book, contact solicitor about changes to the lease of the flat and find out how one of my friends launched her book. This week my goals are to sort out the book launch evening, see if it is possible to establish a timetable for completing on my flat sale and starting thinking about PR for the book.
When the going gets tough – have fun!
Posted by: | CommentsWhen the Going Gets Touch – Have Fun!
On and off I suffer from back pain and there have been many moments this year when I have felt quite crippled purely from stiff muscles in my lower back. In the past two months I have been having Bowen therapy treatment and thankfully these problems have eased in a miraculous way.
However, over the past few days I felt a little of the stiffness creeping back. In many ways I’m not surprised as it has been a stressful time caused mainly by the vendor of my London flat changing his mind on his proposed purchase and thus scuppering my plans to buy a new house and set up home with my partner!
Time Management Tip – Halve Your Emails
Posted by: | CommentsTime Management Tip – Halve Your Emails
Are you one of those people that get over a hundred emails a day? Probably most of them aren’t that important but you have to plough through them anyway just to make sure that you are not missing anything vital.
Did you know that in Outlook it is possible to separate out the emails that you are CC’ed so that your Inbox can then contain just the emails that are sent directly to you?
You will need to set up a separate folder for the CC’ed mail then go to
Tools > Rules and Alerts in the menu where you can set up a rule so that all mail where you are CC’ed on it goes to the separate folder.
This may substantially reduce the traffic coming through your Inbox. You can then schedule time when you are less busy to have a quick look at the CC’ed mail – or you may decide just to delete these messages!
Believe You Can Change
Posted by: | CommentsBelieve You Can Change
In the personal development world you will find much talk of beliefs. Beliefs drive what we think we can or can’t do. Many of them are positive – we know what we are good at or what we find easy; others are negative in that we believe we are not good at something or can’t do certain activities maybe because we are too old, too young, not experienced enough or have too much experience. Negative beliefs come with an excuse of why we are just not very good at those activities.
However, just because we believe something to be true doesn’t mean that it actually is and it doesn’t always have to remain that way for ever. One way to change these negative thought patterns is to flip the “I can’t” to a more positive statement. Over time if we persist with catching our negative thoughts and changing them to something positive then this will encourage us to take action towards making that positive statement actually come true.
Time Management Tip – Parkinson’s Law
Posted by: | CommentsTime Management Tip – Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law says that an activity will take all the time that you allot to it. If you have a report to write and you think it will take two days then you’re right – it will take two days. If however you get a sudden phone call from the boss who says that he needs it by the end of today – hey presto – magically you get it done today.
You can’t defeat this law – but you can play it to your advantage. Use Parkinson’s law to decide how long you want a specific activity to take. Decide that you want to finish preparing course material by the end of the day. Decide that you will catch up on some emails by lunchtime. Decide that you will return five phone calls between now and your next meeting.
In making the decision you are thinking about what you need to get done, stating an intention and then focussing your mind on getting it done. This means that you are more likely to be successful at completing the task or tasks within the given time frame than if you hadn’t made the decision and just allowed yourself to drift through the day.
How To Overcome Obstacles
Posted by: | CommentsHow To Overcome Obstacles
When life is throwing one challenge after another at you how can you keep moving forward and win through each day?
The key words here are ‘each day’. In challenging times, if you are facing illness, stress at work or money problems, you can determine each morning to have some kind of victory, no matter how small. You don’t have to be Hercules, make all your problems go away or solve the woes of the world; but if you can just generate and recognise one small success then your day will have been valuable and you will feel that you are gradually winning with your battles.
