Helping you live to your full potential.
The leaves are changing colour, summer has ended and I have that back to school feeling. It feels like a season of transition and of new beginnings.
And I’m discovering that I’m not alone. As a Life Coach, I have often focused on the beginning of the calendar year for new starts and goal setting but in fact good times for goal setting are during periods of natural change. And those for me are Spring and Autumn.
September is a great time to review your self-care goals. The summer holidays are over and perhaps you indulged a little (or alot in my case, hello Italian gelato!), schools and work are back to a routine, and you are thinking of what is important to you. Now is a great time to focus on building in regular selfcare.
I remember working with a woman who struggled with her mental health and motivation. And after living with depression for many years the thing that changed all of that? It was making her bed. So simple yet it was a game-changer. Making her bed meant that she didn’t go back into bed. Then she added on a daily shower and getting dressed instead of staying in her pj’s. She started preparing breakfast and eating better. She later took on a volunteer role which gave her a sense of purpose and meaning to her day.
Making your bed is in fact a great example of a Keystone Habit.
Feeling motivated and keeping motivated can challenge all of us at various points in our daily life. Indeed, it’s one of the most common topics that people in my Happiness Club tell me they are struggling with. The number of people struggling with their motivation has significantly increased during the pandemic and the extended periods of lockdown and working from home. So, I asked our Happiness Club members this week, what helps you to get motivated? Well, there is a lot of knowledge in the group and I’ve added all that wisdom to my research and experience to bring you this comprehensive guide to how to get your motivation back and to stay motivated. Much of what I will share is fundamental to what makes us happy and some are the key steps in my Intentional Happiness Circle.
During the week I block off an hour for a lunch break. I prepare some healthy food and then make a pot of tea and relax on my sofa with a book for 30 minutes. I’ve come to realise that as well as a good night’s sleep, I also need to plan in some rest each day. With everything I do now online, I found myself sitting for long stretches of time in front of my laptop. It takes a lot of emotional energy to show up and be fully present with people when I am coaching and it takes a lot of creative energy to create content and resources. And I was finding that even after a good night’s sleep, I was often still feeling tired.
Music is the soundtrack to my life. I grew up listening to music. My parents enjoyed music and I remember their vinyl collection of records we played that included Elton John, The Beatles and James Taylor. They also listened to folk music and we were often taken along to small concerts with them. I remember the radio always being on. Making space for the things that make you happy is one of the key concepts of Intentional Happiness.
Over the past few years, research has proven what we have known for a while, that people who don’t take things for granted but consciously express gratitude tend to be happier and less depressed. Although simple, gratitude is such a highly powerful technique that I include it as one of the main steps in my Intentional Happiness Circle.
