Hi Everyone, really hope you’re doing well at the moment. Over the last couple of months I’ve (thankfully) been kept busy with business and freelancing work. But I’ve also been busy getting my own self organised. Whether it’s Covid-19 or not – I’m not sure -but there are certain parts of my life and business that I’ve felt needed some organisation and overhaul. I’m sharing quite a bit in this post – some things that I don’t often talk about, but I thought I’d share a few things that I’ll be focussing on during 2021 and why! I love a good New Year’s resolution but I’m also a big believer that you can re-start any time of year and any day of the week. We all fall but we have to pick ourselves back up instead of beating ourselves up that we haven’t done what we wanted to or achieved what we thought we would. The list below is a work in progress but here’s a few areas that will be my focus this year.
- Finances
Continuing on the trend for the last two years or so, I’ve completely rehauled my finances and my relationship with money. It’s a work in progress but I’m in such a different place to a few years ago. A combination of three factors has led to this work. My mother dying I realised, I needed to protect myself financially if I got sick. My fiancĂ© leaving who I had placed my future in, I realised that I’m responsible for minding me, so I better do so! And finally, I met a lovely financial money coach, who combined meditation, mindfulness and money together making me much more aware of money and how I was handling it. Here’s her website in case you’re interested! (this is not a follow-link btw – no advertisement – just sharing something I think people would benefit from!). Over the last few years I’ve really organised myself financially. And 2021 I’ll continue to work through this. It’s a huge area, and I’ll write more on this again!
2. My own vision
I used to do vision boards, or at least write out some goals at the start of the year. I really like that process and used to do it most years. But I never fully finished the boards or writing out the goals and never really committed to it. The last few years I have been getting through grief, and quite frankly that’s enough of a goal. This year, I watched a fab webinar with Louise Henry about project management and she talked about goals and vision boards. So I did my one for 2021. It’s up on my desktop, my mobile wallpaper and on my office wall. So I subconsciously see my goals all the time. It’s definitely working. I’ll tick off one thing this month and another thing next month already! A third one is a massive goal but the preparations of it are underway already.Â
3. Time off
I work a lot. It has always been my default modus-operadi. Since starting a business, I literally never stop thinking about work. Over the past weekend, I put my laptop away for three days and it was so weird turning it back on today. I noticed the break. Work smarter not harder is a term brandied about a lot. But there is merit to this for a reason. The first three months of 2021 have been flat out for me – some corporate work, some virtual sessions, working on the business in the background, and then lots of TV work as there’s just not enough work for the business due to Covid. While I am so grateful for the work during a pandemic, when Easter arrived, I was operating on fumes. “Work smarter not harder” is on my vision board, but three months in, I’ve done the opposite. Quarter two will be managing this a bit better. I have so much to say about this but I’ll have to write about it at a later stage as I learn more about switching off, saying no and balancing it all.
4. More online work
For the business I will be trying to move more online and producing some online and virtual work and training. I have been in media since I was twenty four years old and I feel very pushed towards combining my love of organising with my love of media. And I think Covid pushing things all online, has made this even clearer for me. So stay tuned for some changes and for some offerings that I think you will love!
5. My fitness
This one I am slow to get going on. In August 2019 I was diagnosed with a slipped disc that is lying on my sciatic nerve. I went from tennis and Pilates a few times a week – the fittest I’ve ever been – to lying flat on my back. This when you’re running a business that requires a high level of physical movement when decluttering, isn’t ideal! 2019 led to a fortune spent on my health – see finances above! Anyway, I’m doing a walking challenge now with my friends, so that gets me out walking every day and it has now become a habit – I remember to go for walks, and factored it into my schedule and day. Aside from that I’m very weak, so I need to get back into some online gym classes and Pilates…so I eventually get back to tennis!
What area of your life do you feel out of control on? What things could you be focussing on? What could you do to stop, think and re-start? Where do you feel that there is no space?
