Women in Business – How are you with change?

It’s a pretty unpredictable business world at the moment. To be honest, for most of my adult life it feels like it’s always been a pretty unpredictable business world; this time around the stats are telling us that women in business are getting the worse end of the financial crisis, (somewhat ironic in light of a new book published on neuroeconomics, highlighting how if women had been in charge we probably wouldn’t be in a downturn!)

However, we are where we are and our attitude to change will be a significant factor in how we survive.

How do you React to Change?

There are two ways of responding – try to ignore and resist it and adopt the ‘if I stay quiet it won’t notice me and will go away’… stance. Of course, it won’t go away and you will feel weak and powerless and a victim of circumstances. This victim mentality will not help you deal with whatever life is throwing at you. Although for a while it can be a comfortable place to be as we rant and rave at the powers that be, frequently quoting how different it might be if women had been in charge! Be warned, the apparent comfort of moaning is a terrible trap to fall into….it won’t help and it may harm you.

And the second option? Don’t give away your power. Life throws rubbish at us from time to time but we always have a choice – recycle or drown in garbage. Recycling is so much better!

Keep the End in Mind

It might not be exactly what you want because you’re making it from what you’ve actually got, not what you’d choose, but it’s better than the alternative! Even when times are tough there are solutions, you just have to look a bit harder.

Don’t stop looking ahead and making plans for your future. Don’t stop investing in your career. Perhaps you can’t afford a course but you could could get a good career relevant book or an on-line course. Tap into all your resources., including friends and colleagues and give back too.

Know where you want to be ultimately, even if for a while circumstances mean you need to do a bit of fancy footwork. and make some compromises. If you can keep those longer term aims in sight it makes the interim stuff much more bearable.  See it for what it is, a deviation on your route which might mean the route takes longer. Keep your eyes fixed on the end goal and one day you will be doing just what you want to do!

Photo Credit: Dieter Joel Jagnow

Change Your Future with This Simple Exercise

When you look back, what will you see? Will you be looking back in anger, sorrow, or joy?

The future is yours to create, right now.

Your Personal Development Exercise

Take a few moments to imagine yourself five or ten years from now. You’re sitting in a cafe, with a friend and you’re both reminiscing. Maybe you have a glass of chilled wine, or a mug of coffee or a cup of tea.

You’re really happy with what you’ve achieved over these last few years. You listen contentedly to your friend describing her life and now it’s your turn. What are you going to say? What do you want to see when you look back and share some significant events in your life? What would make you proud of yourself?

Focus for a few moments on the following key areas in your life and consider what, if anything, you want to change:

• Significant Others?
• Career?
• Where you live?
• Friends or family?
• Places you have visited?
• Hobbies or pastimes?
• Add your own…

What do you have to do now, this week, this month or this year to make those reflections become a reality? To allow yourself to look back in JOY, to be proud, content and fulfilled in your life?

Photo Credit: Ivan Freaner

Eddie Izzard on Being Good, Very Good!

If you have watched the recent documentary on Eddie Izzard you will probably already be an admirer of his tenacity and drive. If you haven’t, I recommend that you do. It’s entertaining, inspirational, and very moving. Quite brilliant.

I was already a fan but listening to his story I was struck again by how high achievers in any field are never overnight successes. They work hard at their craft for their great moments and they know their stuff; they have served their apprenticeship.

And Eddie Izzard certainly knows his stuff. He knew what he wanted and he went for it. And when he went to break new ground in the US he went with humility. He didn’t expect to be an ‘overnight success’;  he applied the same strategy he’d used before. Start small, get a following, learn the US audience, work hard and believe in yourself.

There was one comment in particular that I wanted to share with you. Eddie had always wanted to act and was able to use his comedy platform to get into acting. Someone said to him (I’m paraphrasing as I was too riveted to take notes!):

“But why be an average actor when you are an outstanding comedian?”

And he replied:

“I was once an average comedian”.

Take a leaf from Eddie’s book.  Most of us can get to average; it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be outstanding. Set your goal and go for it! Be outstanding! And if you need any inspiration, I thoroughly recommend a copy of Eddie’s DVD, Believe, The Eddie Izzard Story. It works for me!

Who inspires you to be outstanding?

Create 50 Ways to Change Your Life!

Sounds like a tall order I know, but you can do it and here’s how!

Find yourself a 30 minute slot (Yes, you can change your life in half an hour!). Take yourself away from everything electrical, no screens, lap tops, or phones, etc although do play music if you want as that can help the creative juices flow.

Taking a blank sheet or three of paper and a handful of coloured pens, answer this question ‘What would change my life for the better?’

You need to keep your answers short as you only have half an hour from now to get it all down! Put down everything that comes to you, mad, bad, good and seemingly unachievable.

At first it will be difficult and you’ll struggle but once you have released your inner creativity, after about 10-15 minutes, the ideas will flow thick and fast. Think about people you admire, careers you would like, places you’d like to be, people you’d like to be with, consider everything about your life.

Stop after 30 minutes. Go and get a drink, you’ve earned it. Once you’ve had a wee break, visit your list again. How many ideas did you generate? Don’t look at it and think ‘too much to ever do’, but instead look at it and think ‘My life is full of possibilities! I am amazing!’ Because you are! You are fabulous!

No 1 You Can Be Fabulous in 2011!

Welcome to the first in a series of tips for being fabulous in 2011! You are probably already more fabulous than you realise (check this out); but as the old year draws to a close I suspect you may end up berating yourself for all the things you didn’t do in 2010, or didn’t do as well as as you wanted.

Review Your Year – Positively!

When I’m running my personal development courses for women there is one thing all are universally good at – listing their faults and telling me what they can’t do! Faced with the question, “tell me what your strengths are” the room falls uncharacteristically quiet…

And so when you review your year, with the aim of setting yourself some goals and resolutions for 2011 try and resist the urge to focus on what didn’t work. Don’t waste your energies on negative stuff. Instead, take five minutes now to think about what DID work well for you in 2010 and plan to do more of that!

List all your successes in 2010, small, large, and medium! Think across all areas of your life: love, home, friendships, hobbies, education, personal development and career. And remember, it’s your definition of success that counts!

Only when you have done that can you begin to think about your new year resolutions for 2011!

There is a longer exercise to try here.

Got Any Apples Needing Picking?

It’s autumn and I LOVE this time of year. It always feels like a time of great renewal for me when I plan my year. I do also have winter hibernating tendancies and I love to stock up the larder and freezer and generally bustle around ‘playing house’.

It’s also a time of plenty in the garden. This year in particular my two apple trees have produced a huge glut of fruit which have been hanging over me somewhat reproachfully, as I haven’t actually made more than a couple of pies. Apples are so plentiful here in Somerset that it’s almost impossible to find someone who hasn’t got masses, or access to them.

Of course, in a month or two they won’t be so abundant, so I feel compelled to do something with them now. But the sheer scale of the operation is so daunting that up until now I have just had it on my ‘should do’ pile.

Which is a bit like life in general isn’t it? Sometimes there are just too many possibilities, or a task seems so huge, that we just never get around to making a start and the apples go to waste (or to the birds and wildlife).

However, my choice isn’t a stark one between make hundreds of apple pies or none, although in my head it had become that. I don’t have the time or the energy at the moment to make my over ambitious number pies using all my apples so (in the spirit of the 30 minute rule) today I am going to make three. One to eat, one for my Mum, and one to freeze.  And having made a start, I may make a few more later in the week. The important thing is just to start…

Got any ‘apples’ that need picking this week?