Archive for the ‘Change’ Category
Look Younger With a New Year Makeover
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
The popularity of TV shows like ’10 Years Younger’ and ‘How To Look Good Naked’ is evidence of the fact that many people would love somebody to come in and change them for the better.
Imagine a stylist weighing up the contents of your wardrobe or the décor in your living room and showing you exactly what to do to make them more vibrant, colourful, fashionable and take years off. Suddenly you feel more confident and energetic.
In the absence of a TV expert or a fairy godmother with a magic wand, why not take stop procrastinating, take control and give yourself a makeover instead, to drop those years away? It’s not as hard as you might think and working through a few exercises to help you understand what makes you feel good will empower you to change your own life without relying on other people to do it for you.
In my book Walk on the Grass I take readers through a series of steps to help them improve self awareness. Similar exercises form part of my online personal change programme.
To find out what inspires you try collecting images that appeal to your senses and identifying colours that attract you. Choose to wear only the clothes in your wardrobe that make you feel good and remove anything that makes you feel drab and dreary – when you dress in what makes you feel good, you’re ready for any opportunity that turns up and it can take years off how you feel about yourself.
And for once, don’t worry about anyone else’s opinion.
Because the only opinion that matters on what you look like is yours. So look good and feel good.
BBC Look North 4th Jan 2012 – What do you want to achieve this year?
Saturday, January 7th, 2012What do you want to achieve this year?
Earlier this week I was invited to appear on the BBC regional news programme Look North to talk about New Year’s Resolutions and how hard it can be to stick to them.
January is traditionally a month for plans and promises and my advice when I was being interviewed by presenters Christa Ackroyd and Harry Gration was to let go of old favourites and put some achievable goals in place instead. Over the years we have all built up things on our to do list that we’ve never done and probably never will so this year it’s time to have the self-awareness to acknowledge that fact and move forward.
According to the Daily Mail a recent study suggests around 95% of us will have made resolutions with the most popular involving travel, “getting out of a rut” and reading more.
However, before resolving to live better, think better or be healthier it’s important to give some thought to the outcome you are trying to achieve and make that your starting point.
When you have a clear objective and a plan in place you can start to take steps towards making sure 2012 is a year of real progress.
Here’s my favourite Christmas tip…………
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Here’s my favourite Christmas tip…………
On Christmas Eve for the last 3 years we play a game. We allocate each member of the family £5 and a name of another family member. We go to the local town about 3pm and meet in the pub to share a Christmas drink and then set off. The task is to buy as many relevant presents for the person on your bit of paper, as cheaply as possible. The rules are, the present has to be relevant and needed, it can’t be alcohol or drinks, and you can’t spend more than a £1 on chocolate. So it’s no easy task.
We meet back up after an hour with all our purchases. Part of the fun is bumping into each other in the cheapest shops we can find and hiding from each other
We found it put such fun back into the real feeling of Christmas and having to really think about each other and it takes away the materialistic element because you have so little money.
It started 3 years ago when my partner Andy said he didn’t feel he had bought me enough so we decided to have some fun with it. I remember getting a hairbrush as one of the presents because I was always telling him off for using mine. The following year we involved the kids and now we do it each year, the kids have been talking about it for the last 2 weeks and it is such a lovely thing to make Christmas come alive.
Have a go and see what you think………
Are you a Pebble or a Potato?
Friday, December 2nd, 2011Many people are very quick to separate Business Change from Personal Change but I believe that is wrong because organisations are made up of people and if those people are not on board with the change taking place, then ‘shift’ can really hit the fan.
When a change programme is introduced to a business, the temperature of our environment rises, and this is no different when change hits us personally, through job shift, redundancy, divorce etc. We can feel like we are in very hot water.
There are those people who are the pebbles amongst us, so as the temperature of the water gets hotter, they sink to the bottom and stay there, causing a few ripples on the way. They can be identified by the ones lurking about, telling everyone, why it is all wrong and will never work.
Then there are the potatoes, ok to begin with but as soon as it gets hotter they start to turn to mush and before you know it, you have meltdown. They are easy to spot, often absent from work through stress or quiet and unresponsive.
What we really need to be is the coffee bean, the ones that adapt to the water and changes the condition of it so it tastes better. They accept that we are always in the ‘shift, it’s just the depth that varies. And no matter what the depth, they can acclimatise to the change.
To start thinking about being a coffee bean, follow these simple thoughts:
- If you have no control over how hot the water gets then get used to it, sooner or later it will cool down as the change becomes the norm.
- Even coffee beans have bad days but never two in a row, catch those pebble or potato thoughts and rest them, we are at our most relaxed when we have a strong sense of belonging and feel in control of our own lives. Consider whether those pebble or potato thoughts are helping you to gain control or in fact hindering you.
- The deeper the water, the stronger the coffee bean needs to be, so give yourself permission to take time out and recharge your batteries, you’ll come back stronger and feeling healthier.
I hope the water doesn’t get too deep for you, but remember to think like a coffee bean and you’ll get through it.
Are You a ‘What if’ or a ‘Whatever’ person?
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010Try this little exercise before we discuss these two attitudes;
Imagine you’ve left for work and half way there you’ve realised that you don’t have your mobile phone with you. You have left it at home. Now consider, what would you do? What action would you take? Write the answer here …………………………………
‘What if’ People
A great many people fall into this category. The number of ‘what ifs’ could easily build to the size of a mountain. Once we begin with ‘what if’ the permutations are endless, backed up by all the usual horror stories of failure, recession and unwarranted risk. A very close cousin to the ‘what if’ is the ‘I told you so’, always waiting there in the wings to remind you of the uselessness of even attempting to change. If you decided to turn around and go back for your mobile phone in the exercise above, then you are likely to be in this category.
‘What if’ people remain steadfastly rooted where they are. It is virtually impossible for them to move on. They are highly creative in the inexhaustible supply of excuses they can fabricate in order to prevent action. So much so, that if they applied even a small percentage of that creative energy to the finding of solutions, they would probably surprise themselves. Typical examples of ‘what if’ thinking with the mobile phone exercise may be as follows:
- What if someone phones me?
- What if I don’t have enough money with me?
- What if anything happens to me?
- What if anything happens to anyone else?
The truth is that if you have a phobia or irrational fear in relation to anything at all, then you are probably harbouring ‘what if’ tendencies. You may not be consciously aware of them, but they are clearly present within you.
‘Whatever’ people
The ‘whatever’ people reside in an entirely different mental landscape; they have one statement that covers every eventuality.
Whatever happens I’ll deal with it and the thoughts that go with it:
- People know where I am, if they want to contact me
- I’ve taken sufficient money if I need more its unlikely to be essential
- I’ll deal with it – that’s part of life
- Whatever happens, people will find me if they need to.
Their philosophy is that simple, that straightforward. They believe: ‘whatever life dishes up, we’ll take it on board and ‘deal with it’.
Usually ‘whatever’ people have a number of different strategies they use to deal with life and are likely to have a PLAN B, if something is likely to go wrong then they will have an alternative solution. Ultimately they’ll keep going regardless.
What You Can Do To Change ‘What if’ into ‘Whatever’
To get past the ‘what if’ mindset you have to step into and then over the river of discomfort, and really start to notice what is happening in your mind and body. Mentally you may feel stressed and even panicky and physically you could find you have a faster heart beat or sweaty palms. Bringing your awareness to what is really happening is key to change. Start recognising the effects and they start to lose the power and control they have on you.
We regularly run Emotional Intelligence Workshops to build your self awareness, contact us at info@angelawhitock.com to go on the waiting list for our next event..
From the Blog
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Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 - How Does Improved Work Relationships Affect Performance?
Friday, February 10th, 2012 - How To Improve Your Relationships Using ABC
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012