Good quality personal and professional relationships help reduce stress and depression, and increase your sense of well-being and happiness.  However, one of the biggest mistakes people making in trying to achieve success and happiness is that they tolerate an unsupportive environment, which includes the people you spend time with.  If you want to enjoy your career and social life more, it’s time to clean out your relationships and follow these 5 steps to building a great network…

It Can Be Confronting

Grab a pen and paper now, and take a moment to write down the names of the 5 people you spend most of your time with.

Once you have 5 names in front of you, consider this…

Self-made millionaire and successful author Jim Rohn once said “You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with”.   Now cast your eyes over the list of names you just wrote down and think about the fact that you’re a reflection of those people.  How does that make you feel?  Are they positive people who lift you up, challenge you and help you grow, or are they negative people who sap your energy and make you feel down?

There’s no denying it, you’re the sum of your network, you are who you hang out with, and whether you like it or not you end up modeling the people around you.  Significantly, they can help grow you but they can also hold you back.

The people you spend time with influence what you think about, how you feel, and what you do, so as you look over your list think about the conversations you’ve been having and the people you’ve been surrounding yourself with lately.

Are you subjecting yourself to a lot of ‘doom and gloom’, or are you spending time with people who motivate and inspire you?  Significantly, you have a choice.

If you’re spending time with negative people who think that life’s too tough then you will find it MUCH harder to be happy around them.  That’s not to say that you can’t be positive just because those around you aren’t, BUT it’s more difficult and takes a lot more effort.

World-renowned artist Wyland said

“There are two types of people – anchors and motors. You want to lose the anchors and get with the motors, because the motors are going somewhere and they’re having more fun. The anchors will just drag you down”

This really exemplifies my point. You can CHOOSE who you spend time with and the influences in your life. Some choices are harder to make than others, but the choice is in your hands – it’s not made for you.

So what can you do if you feel as though you’re not spending time with positive people or that you’d like to make some new friends and increase your network?  Thankfully in this day and age it’s very easy and I’ve got some simple suggestions for you: -

1.  Identify the positive influences ALREADY in your network.

Stop spending time with people who drain you or drag you down and instead make a concerted effort to invest time and energy into your existing key relationships.  That’s not to say that you have to stop seeing certain people, because that can be hard if a negative person is a family member for example, but you can choose to limit your time with that person.

All too often our friendships are unconscious – and what I mean by that is that we can go along day-by-day seeing the people we know and doing what we’ve always done, but by making a conscious effort when it comes to the relationships in our lives we can make sure that they really do serve and support us well.

So for example, set yourself a goal – perhaps there’s a particular friend you would like to see more of but time always seems to slip by.  Make a conscious effort to schedule regular catch-ups with them and diarise to call or email them.

2. Use your lunch time to build your network.

A great strategy is to have lunch with somebody old, and somebody new every single week.  And what I mean by that is, catch up with someone already in your network that you know, respect and admire, but also make time to see someone new that you can build a relationship with overtime.  Perhaps someone new has joined your team or department, or perhaps you met a friend-of-a-friend at a BBQ over the weekend.  It doesn’t matter HOW you met them, what’s important is that you make the effort to maintain and extend your network on a regular basis.

Treat your network like a Bonsai tree – tune and prune your network over time.   Your network is your net worth, so if you’re not improving your network you are ultimately reducing your network.  Remember – life’s not static and neither is your network.

3.  Meet with a mentor on a regular basis.

It’s great to get trusted advice and feedback, and it aids your growth and development, all of which contribute to your overall sense of happiness.  So if you don’t already have one, make a note now to identify someone who you think would make a good mentor and make a point of asking them this week if they are happy to help.  For most people this is a great honor, which they will also benefit from, so don’t be shy in getting a mentor on board.

4. Surround yourself with the best.

Do what you can to surround yourself with people who are great at what they DO.  Their energy, enthusiasm and expertise WILL rub off on you – all you need to do is put in the effort.  This is a strategy that I actively encourage all of my clients to start using immediately as it’s so effective.  And the beauty is that not only will their positivity and smart success habits rub off on you, but you will also open yourself up to their extended network if you invest enough time and effort into the relationship.

5. Build your on-line network.

There are great people all over the world and it’s never been as easy as it is today to connect with people globally, so try to find great places online that make you think or give you new insights and inspirations.  LinkedIn is a fabulous resource to not only extend your network but also to learn from people who are talking about the things you’re interested in – so join some groups, participate in the discussion boards, and be an active part of your on-line community because the world is a small place these days and on-line networking can be incredibly powerful when carried out smartly.

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com

Practically every workplace and job has something boring about it, so from time to time we all have to endure trying to muster the motivation to do a task that sends us to sleep.  Unfortunately this is when procrastination often kicks in, and in most cases the boring work has gotta be done – like it or not!  So what can you do to get motivated and through these tasks more quickly?

3 Tips To Motivate You

If you want to get the boring stuff out of the way pronto so that you can get back to liking your job, and enjoying your day, here are 3 simple steps you can take right now to survive the boring work: -

1.  Break It Down

Seeing a big boring project or day-long task in it’s entirety ahead of you can be enough to make a grown man cry, so instead of trying to find the motivation to do the whole job, break the task down into smaller chunks so that it becomes more palatable.

For example – instead of trying to work out how you’re going to face entering an entire year’s worth of expenses onto a database, break the task down into months and plan your time accordingly so that you’re not focusing on the entire year.  This won’t make the task more enjoyable, but it will make it more manageable which will help you get through it more quickly.

2.  Sell It To Yourself

If you were trying to convince someone else to do this work for you what would you say?  Why is this work important?  Play salesman and remind yourself of what getting this job done means to the bigger picture.  Just because the task is tedious doesn’t mean it’s not important.

3.  Match Your Energy Levels

If you’re a morning person, don’t leave these tedious tasks until your tired and flagging in the afternoon because you’ll find it even more difficult to muster up the motivation to do them.   Work with your energy levels and schedule time in your diary to do the boring work when you’re at your most alert – you’re likely to get the job done much more quickly and effectively as a result.

What do you do to get through the boring stuff more quickly? Post a comment below – I’d love to know what works for you…

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com

I remember going to interviews back in my corporate life and being proud to state that perfectionism was one of my strengths.  Oh how wrong I was!  You see, striving for something that doesn’t exist is pretty foolish, and it can really hold your career and business back if you continue on a quest for something mythical.  Here’s why…

Success

I came across an old notebook recently one of the quotes written on the front was ‘sloppy success is better than perfect mediocrity‘.  So true!

As someone who always wanted to get everything 100% right, contemplating sloppy success was very foreign to me.  I mean, why would you want to do something below-perfect?

But here’s the kicker – by constantly being on a mission to reach perfect, I held myself back from achieving goals in my career and business that I could have reached simply by setting realistic standards.

Consider these scenarios – what’s the better outcome: -

• Never applying for a job just because your resume isn’t exactly how you think it should be OR submitting a professional CV that ticks most boxes and secures you an interview?

• Spending too many hours on a blog post that misses a deadline and doesn’t get read OR publishing your work regularly so that your client base understands your business offering and engages you to work with them?

• Procrastinating over losing weight because you haven’t devised the perfect diet and exercise plan OR getting stuck in now so that you’re doing something to help shift those kilo’s?

I know I wasn’t alone in setting the bar so ridiculously high, and I meet clients practically everyday that have been on the same mission – one that’s holding them back from actually getting ’stuff’ done, reaching their goals, and moving forward personally and professionally.

The good thing is that when you have that ah-ha moment and realise that by aiming a little lower you can actually lift your game, and life a lot higher, that’s when goals get kicked and aspirations become reality.

It’s not about having low standards, or comprising on quality or output.  It’s about being realistic and smart.  After all, there’s no logic in aiming for something that truly doesn’t exist!

What are you going to do differently now that you’re not aiming for perfection? Post a comment below and let me know….

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com

If you’ve been contemplating a career change, but don’t know how or what, it’s critical to get your head engaged first so that you don’t find yourself stuck in the same boring career this time next year!   The key to getting your brain working FOR you, and not against you, lies in knowing your left from your right.  Let me explain…

Ready, Steady, GO!

Ideally, when thinking about a career change, you really want the experimental right hand side of your brain to kick in because that’s the side that lets us be creative and truly think about what we want to do.  The right hand side of your brain is where 95% of your untapped potential lies and it has the ability to imagine, take risks, see the fun things and be curious.

However, what can and often tends to happen, is that the logical left hand side of your brain jumps into action very quickly as soon as you allow yourself to start contemplating something new.  The left hand side of your brain is the side that keeps you safe – it makes sense of the things you’re thinking and feeling, it follows rules, avoids doing the wrong thing, and punishes itself for making mistakes and imperfections.

So to put this into context, you might start thinking about what you’d LOVE to do professionally and all the exciting career options potentially available to you, but then all of a sudden you stop and start contemplating HOW you would make those things actually happen.

Before you know it you’ve forgotten about all the exciting options out there in the big wide world,  and instead you’re back at square one with a career that’s safe and ‘makes sense’ to you because it’s what you know – a.k.a. your comfort zone (which isn’t always comfortable!).

As you can imagine, if you let yourself be ruled by the left hand side of your brain 100% of the time you’ll find yourself living permanently within your comfort zone, a dangerous place to be if you want to progress personally and professionally.

As a Career Coach I regularly meet people who have let the left hand side of their brain kick in and stop them from creating a career they love.  The safe side of their brain has shut down all the options they had, or would have liked to explore, and instead they’re bogged down and feeling trapped in their current career.

So one of the first steps you need to take when you think you want to change jobs is to get the right hand side of your brain working and to explore what your ideal career and lifestyle looks like.

If you truly want to carve out a career that you’re excited and enthused about then you have to readjust the balance so that the experimental side of your brain is allowed to kick back in.  To help you do that follow these simple steps: -

1. Play Time: Get a big piece of paper & lots of coloured pens – this is a creative exercise designed to engage the right side of your brain so it’s important to release your inner child and have some fun with this.  Ruled A4 paper and black biro’s are banned!
2. Imagine: Draw a picture of what your ideal career and lifestyle looks like to you,  ideally using images rather than words where possible.  The idea is to get down on paper all of the great ideas that are swirling around inside your mind and all the images you have of the life you would like to lead.  Don’t hold back – as long as you believe that what you’re drawing and writing are possibilities then that’s all you need to worry about.  And if you’re not sure on what your next ideal job looks like, just imagine elements of it like workings hours, industry, location, team, salary … and so on.   The more detail you can build up the closer you will get to identifying the next steps for you.
3. Remember: Whilst you’re doing this exercise it’s important to think about WHAT you want and not HOW you’re going to achieve it – the how comes later!
4. Invest:  Make sure you set aside at least an hour to do this, in a quiet place where you can let your mind wander and invest quality time in really exploring what you want your life to look like.

This exercise is not about reality, it’s about creating possibility and exploring options.  Importantly, focus on WHAT you want, and forget HOW you’re going to achieve it.  Yes, the ‘how’ is important, but only when you know WHAT you want (and it’s amazing how the ‘how’ becomes so much easier when you’ve identify something you REALLY want!).

By allowing yourself to simply consider what you would truly like to do, you will create options and possibilities that you can start work on.  You might not find yourself in those particular jobs, but by taking the blinkers off you will create ideas and opportunities that you probably hadn’t explored before.

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com

If you’re savvy with your money you’ve probably got a budget that helps you manage your hard earned cash wisely.   But as time is our most valuable commodity it goes without saying that we should all have a time budget too.  The problem is that most people don’t, and that’s why they can find themselves regularly wasting this important resource.  So if you would like to spend your time more wisely here’s how…

Your Most Valuable Commodity

Unlike money, you can’t borrow, store or multiply time – all you can do is spend it.

Spending less time doing something isn’t saving time, it’s actually spending your time more wisely because you can’t put the additional time you ’saved’ into a bank and use it later (unfortunately!).

So having an awareness of how you spend your time, and then budgeting smartly on how you’re going to use it in the future is important.  Follow these simple steps to set a Time Budget that will help you make the most of this valuable commodity: -

1.  Where are you spending it?

• Take a moment now to write down where you currently spend your time.
• Do you work long hours; get up late; procrastinate; flaff around on email or waste time on social media?
• Just like a financial budget, you need to know where you’re currently spending your time to be able to make effective changes.  If you’re unsure, keep a time diary so that you really know when you’re time is going.

2.  Where do you want to spend it?

• Realistically, how would you like to be spending your time?
• Do you want to exercise more regularly; see your family more; leave the office at a decent time or get key projects done on time?
• If you don’t know where you want to spend your time you can’t budget effectively so make sure you have a clear vision of how you would like your time to be dished out otherwise you’ll probably find someone else dictates that decision for you

3.  Where are you spending your time unwisely?

• In setting a financial budget it would be important  to identify areas where you’re wasting money or could possibly cut back your spending – do the same with time
• What tasks or jobs are you doing that waste your time?  Write them down.

4.  What changes do you need to make?

• From your answers in #3, what’s the first change you would like to make to your budget?
• For example, if you’ve identified that you spend too much time on email you could decide to only check your inbox three times a day, for 15 minutes each time.  Or perhaps you spend too much time watching TV and by cutting that down you could find more time to exercise

5.  What activities do you need to schedule in your diary?

• Blocking appointments in your diary is critical if you want to spend your time smartly
• Now that you’ve identified the changes you want to make, schedule time in your diary for each task as this increases focus and commitment to follow through with your budget
• Create a diary that looks the way you want to spend your time and commit to executing your plan

As Psychologist Dr. Denis Waitley points out, “Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent more hours.”  So how you choose to budget your time, and then spend it, is the key to how successful your life is.

What changes are you going to make to your time budget? Post a comment below and let me know…

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com

I love routine.  It gives me structure, control and with a baby I almost can’t do without it.  Routine can be a fabulous thing, letting us form habits that help us through the day and make life easier.  But – and it’s a big BUT – routine can also be very detrimental when it comes to career progression and that’s why a rejig from time to time can benefit us all.  Here’s why…

Reshuffle

As we all know, habits can be good and bad.  Either way, they’re not instinctive, they’re actually reactions we acquire.  These reactions can help us form routines in our lives, and significantly those routines and habits actually form US, meaning that ultimately we become a reflection of the reactions we’ve created over time.

To put it another way, if you’re a gym junkie who loves healthy food then you’ve probably got a myriad of habits and reactions that serve you well and as a result are a reflection of the healthy lifestyle you lead.

On the downside, if your routine is somewhat negative, then your habits probably need to be changed, and that’s the key word here – change.

Change creates a fear of the unknown for many people, and threatens our habits and patterns of behavior, forcing us to reevaluate the things we do in our lives and how we do them.

It also often means that we need to unlearn past behaviors that don’t serve us well, which can be tricky  (think bad eating, laziness, procrastination, lack of exercise … and so on!).

The problem with change is that, whilst it can be very beneficial, people are often more comfortable with their old way of doing things, and old problems, rather than embracing new solutions.  Even if their old ways are painful on some level!

So here’s the thing – if you’re not getting the results you want in your career (or life) you need to disrupt your habits and routine, and embrace change.   That doesn’t mean that you have to leave your current company, or embark on an entirely new career path, it simply means that it’s time to reassess what habits are serving you well and ditch the one’s that aren’t.

On a minor level perhaps having your email open all day is a habit that needs quashing to improve your productivity.  On a larger scale maybe you need to stop sitting back in meetings, going unheard if you want to get ahead and clinch that promotion you’ve been hoping for.

By disrupting your usual routine, and being open to change, you create the opportunity to be the best version of yourself possible.  It’s like reinventing yourself – it’s invigorating, empowering and necessary if you want to get ahead professionally.

What routine are you going to disrupt? Post a comment below and let me know!  I’m going to start outsourcing and delegating more …. I’ve got to let go of ‘the control freak’ within me, and start forming some good new habits that create more time and space in my day.  How exciting!

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com

Everyone’s experienced ‘one of those days’ where you’ve lost your motivation to work,  feel less capable of doing a good job and your productivity’s at an all-time low.  But what can you do if every day feels like that?  Here are 5 quick tips to help you get your mojo back asap…

Quick Motivation Boosters

Having a permanent bad day at work is normally a sign that something more drastic needs to be done like changing jobs or career, but if you’re in need of a quick pick-me-up these ideas will help make the week more bearable: -

#1:  Mix It Up

Routine can be a killer at times, and if you’ve lost your mojo the sheer thought of doing the same work, on the same day, over and over again might be enough to tip you over the edge.  So try to mix your routine up as much as possible.

If you can, run that report on a different day, or see your clients at a different time during the week.  Change when you do your routine tasks so that your day feels a little different, and do whatever you can to add some variety to your usual schedule.  As they say, a change is as good as a break (sometimes!).

#2:  Get Away

If a change to your routine doesn’t do the trick, book yourself a weekend away or that well-earned holiday you’ve been dreaming of!  Escape normality and enjoy some downtime  – it might be just what you need to come back to work refreshed, with a new perspective.  And we all know having a break to look forward to can make everything seen a little rosier!

#3:  Treat Yourself

Regardless of what performance incentives you have at work, set yourself personal goals that you actually want to achieve with a treat at the end to celebrate your success.  So for example, you might decide that when you finish a particular project you’ll treat yourself to a nice dinner or book tickets to an event you’ve been dying to see.  Either way, set yourself a personal incentive to get the job done rather than relying on your KPI’s which you might find quite uninspiring!

#4:  Talk To The Boss

A quick chat to your boss can sometimes be all it takes to make your situation more enjoyable.  If you’d like to get involved in a new project, want to take on new responsibilities, or if something’s bugging you that you can’t deal with yourself have the courage to talk about it – you’ve got nothing to lose but potentially a lot to gain.  Just make sure you don’t turn this opportunity into a whinge-fest – go armed with ideas on how you could improve your situation and ask for what you want – don’t expect your boss to have all the solutions.

#5:  Get Balanced

If you’ve lost all perspective on what goes on outside of work, it’s time to readdress the balance so that you feel more energised when you’re in the office.  Schedule time in your diary to exercise, block out time to see your family and friends, and make time to do the things you enjoy outside of work.

We all have bad days at work, but it’s the choices you make on how you spend your time that can make the big difference so take a moment now work out how you can put these 5 tips in place and start getting your mojo back asap!

Have you got things on your to-do list that have been hanging around like a bad smell,  hoping, wishing and waiting to get done week after week?  If that sounds familiar you’ve got what I like to call a ‘gonna to-do list’ – something that can cause a lot of frustration if you’re not careful!…

Divide and Conquer

Everyone’s got stuff they’re ‘gonna’ do, and the odd ‘gonna’ here and there’s OK but if your list continues to grow over a long period of time unfortunately so will your frustration levels as tasks go undone week after week.  This in turn can impact your ability to focus and concentrate on what’s actually important.

Unconsciously all of those ‘gonna items’ that are swirling around inside your head compete for your attention, making it hard to put them completely out of your mind until they’re done or deleted.

So what can you do to ease the burden if your to-do list is overflowing with ‘gonna’ items?  Start by following these simple steps…

1.  3 Columns: On a piece of paper draw three columns entitled – Want To, Need To, Should Do

2.  Split Them Up: Go through your to-do list and write each task down under one of the three headings.  Here’s how to split them up: -

Want To – items you actually have a desire to do but just haven’t found the time for so far

Need To – these are the tasks that contribute to your key goals and objectives

Should Do – jobs you think you ought to do but probably don’t have much motivation for

3.  Organise: Now it’s time to prioritise, reduce or eliminate you ‘gonna’s’ based on your 3 lists.  Here’s how: -

Want To & Need To: These are your priorities because they make you feel good when done, and actually contribute to your goals and purpose.  To stop them being ‘gonna’s’, pick one, break it down into smaller tasks and schedule time in your diary to get each piece done.  Importantly, be realistic and don’t try and work on all of these tasks at the same time.  For example: -

Gonna Task: Get a new job

Want, Need, Should: You want to do it, and on some level you probably need to as well

Break It Down: Having ‘get a new job’ written on your to-do list is a huge task and one that can seem overwhelming, which is probably one of the reasons why it’s stuck on the ‘gonna’ pile in the first place.  To change jobs requires lots of different individual actions, including writing your resume, updating on-line profiles, researching potential employers, meeting recruiters, brushing up on interview techniques, and so on.  By focusing your time and attention on each of these components one by one it’s much easier to start taking action, moving ‘get a new job’ off the gonna pile!

Should Do: I tell my clients not to ’should all over themselves’ and it’s something I urge you to resist too.  Life’s no fun if you spend too much of your time doing things just because you think you should, and these tasks are often the biggest culprits when it comes to gonna-lists.

Take a look at your ’should’ list and be brutal – delete everything that’s been sitting on there for weeks and is unlikely to ever get done.  Resist the temptation to leave them on your to-do list just as a reminder – your mind will be much clearer and focused when you get rid of them once and for all!

For the items that are left it’s important to look at your motivation behind doing them, and what the cost will be to you if you continue to put them off.  If there’s no cost, and you’re unmotivated to take action, then delete.  If there’s a cost and it’s one you’re not willing to pay, then follow the same process as above and break each item down into small, bite sized pieces so that the task becomes more palatable.

Whatever category your ‘gonna’s’ fall into, rest assured that when you eliminate, reduce or actually do them you’re going to feel a whole lot better, and we all know it’s hugely satisfying to draw a line through a long, lingering to-do list item!!

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com

Doing the same thing over and over again, despite getting below average results, is a waste of time.  We’ve all heard the definition of insanity, yet many people drive themselves mad every day playing out this frustrating cycle instead of investing time considering what other options exist.  If you’ve been stuck in a rut, working your butt off and getting nowhere, it’s time to start thinking a little more creatively to change the error of your ways…

Different Thoughts, Different Results

I’m sure we all know someone who seems to be constantly dieting, but never losing weight.  Or the perpetual job hunter who is always trying to find the next best career move but never seems to go anywhere.

Whatever you’re aiming to achieve right now it’s important to demonstrate behavioral flexibility if you’re not getting closer to achieving the things that you’re striving for.

Of course, give your strategy some time and tweaking, but relying on the same old plan of attack when there’s no sign of a return is just plain daft!

By thinking more creatively, asking some simple questions and taking the time to answer them you will give yourself the scope to think differently, instead of just doing what you’ve always done.  And the golden nugget here is that when you think differently, you get different results.

Take a moment to work through these questions and write your answers down: -

1. List one of your key goals that you’re struggling to achieve
2. What actions have you been taking that are NOT working?
3. Why aren’t they working?
4. What advice do you think a specialist in this area would give you?
5. What actions could you take instead?

By working through these questions you will create new neurological pathways, which is coach-jargon for new thoughts and ideas.  Those ideas might not be your saving-grace, BUT they will get you to think differently about your situation and importantly, DO something differently.  That change may be just what the goal-doctor ordered to help you escape a frustrating rut and get closer to achieving your goals.

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com

Do you think you’re working hard and can’t fit anymore into your day?  You’re probably wrong.  According to a Microsoft survey, most people actually use 60% or less of their available work time which means that whilst you might be at work five days a week you’re probably only productivity using three of them!  Those stats might be hard to swallow if you’re working long hours and feel under the pump.  But it gets worse…

Stop Kidding Yourself

On top of that, a study using time diaries found that people claiming to work 60 to 69 hours per week clock an average of just over 52 hours, whilst those who believed they worked 70-80+ hours actually only totaled 58.8 hours per week.  That’s a massive difference if you’re getting home late every night and feel as though you don’t have time for a life outside of work.  Imagine what you could do with an extra 10-20 hours a week?

There are many different scenarios that contribute to these statistics, and one of them I can really relate to.  In my previous corporate life I worked in an environment where being ’seen to be seen’ was the culture.  So I spent many evenings sitting at my desk, working pretty unproductively, just to while away the time so that I wasn’t seen to be leaving the office ‘early’ (anything before 7pm!).

Stupidly, I didn’t get anymore work done and I suppose unconsciously, because I knew I would be in the office later, the rest of my day was ineffective too because I started relying on working longer hours to get the basics done.  So you can see how suddenly a vicious circle forms, and before I knew it I was ‘one of those people’ working 60-69 hours per week but actually wasting around 10 of those hours being unproductive.

Thankfully that was in a ‘former life’ but I know for many of my friends and clients this is their reality.  However, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Importantly, your first step forward is to recognise how you are spending your time and where you are wasting it.  Working long hours isn’t the solution to being productive and effective.  Sure, if you’ve got more on your plate than you can handle then you’re going to have to put in some extra hours to get on top of things, BUT this shouldn’t be a long-term solution.

If, like the people in Microsoft’s survey, you’re wasting 2 days a week being unproductive there’s a LOT of scope for change.  Some simple strategies that will help you improve the way you work include: -

• Stop multitasking, it doesn’t work when it comes to complex, high-end tasks – read more
• Allocate specific blocks of time for important tasks – read more
• Simplify the way you do things to be more effective with your time – read more
• Plan your day the night before and focus your time on Mission Critical tasks – read more
• Stop filling your to-do list and day with time wasting tasks – read more

Significantly, stop relying on working extra hours to get your job done.  Yes, there will be occasions where you need to work overtime, but if you automatically expect your day to be longer it will be.

Your attitude to time, and your mindset play a big part in how your day pans out so if you would like create extra time in your week, or would simply like be more productive with the time you’ve got, then start changing the way you think and act when it comes to mastering your most valuable commodity.

And as for the ’seen to be seen’ culture, you can break the mould like I did.   Have boundaries, work effectively when you’re in the office, and be confident that you’re doing a great job without needing to over-compromise.

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Written by Faye Hollands – Director at Outshine Consulting and Busy Working Mumma. Faye is an accomplished Career Coach, Small Business Coach and Productivity Specialist who has successfully coached countless clients on how to create a career they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

To receive your FREE MP3 download of Faye’s popular teleseminar ‘How To Create A Career You Love‘ and weekly articles to improve your career, business and time management skills click here.

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com