Inspiration Blog

It is almost impossible to be your best and to give your best when you are running on empty. We all know people, and perhaps we are the type, that try to ‘do it all’ and ‘be everything to everyone’. Whilst noble in intention, this is unsustainable for long periods of time. You must take care of yourself to live authentically and help others in a significant way. Therefore, it may help to take time to review your key needs and the priority that you will give to them. These may include taking time every day to connect with yourself through meditation, prayer, reading a book, a cup of your favourite tea or coffee or an exercise class. These things shouldn’t be sidelined to put others’ needs ahead of yours. Ensuring that you get adequate sleep and rest, as well as healthy and sufficient food should be absolute non-negotiables. If you have small children who interrupt sleep, set aside times in the day when you can catch up on some rest by enlisting the help/taking turns minding children with a friend or relative. If you struggle with eating healthy food in appropriate quantities, it may be a good idea to enlist the help of a food delivery service – make sure that they are not ‘microwave meals’ as much of the nutrition is lost during reheating. You may even incorporate a fresh daily ‘super juice’ to enhance your vitamin and mineral intake. All in all, it is vital that you take care of yourself as a priority with your key investments made a top and inviolable priority in self-care.

For many of us, work takes up a significant chunk of time in our lives. If we don’t intensely enjoy what we do and find a state of ‘flow’ – a mental state where you are challenged, engaged and thoroughly excited by something – at all, we may find ourselves resenting our work and feeling disengaged and even depressed for a significant amount of time in our lives. At LLUMI, we have worked with many people who have now successfully released themselves from the rut or treadmill of a job that does very little for them emotionally. They now work for themselves, doing what they love but for a fraction of the time that they used to spend working for others. The key step is to first identify what brings ‘flow’ to your life – is it playing or listening to music? Is it a certain sport? Is it cooking? Is it socialising? These areas sound like leisure activities, however there are enormous industries that surround each one and your skills and talents would be a unique and necessary contribution to that field. Essentially, if we deny ourselves and the world of our time in a ‘flow’ state, we risk robbing ourselves and others of critical discoveries, personal enlightenment and a sense of satisfaction that is missing in too many people. Yes, it is scary to exit a situation in which you get a set pay-check and you know the job well. Isn’t it scarier to know that you will only make that amount of money in your life, you will not experience change and you will feel that sense of dissatisfaction for much longer than necessary? Not one of our clients has regretted their change. Yes, they were scared to take the leap and to start building their own companies, but none of them experienced the grand failure that they feared. So, what have you got to lose? Apply for a new role – see what happens. Set up a Facebook page offering your flow service – see if it motivates you to get started on more tasks. Talk to that person that you know in the industry that you are interested in, see if you can get involved or volunteer for a day. The opportunities are out there and they don’t require you to drop everything right now – tentative and careful steps are possible and preferable, and they can lead to great things.

December is usually a time of year where our social calendars are packed with events, parties, buying gifts, attending festivities and getting out of the house (in Australia, it lands during the height of Summer). It can be hard to stay on target with work, health and financial goals. As with everything, however, preparation is key. In November or early December, draw up spreadsheets of people that you need to buy gifts for and how much you can spend – then you can shop for bargains early, online or in store, and ensure you aren’t rushing in a panic and paying top Christmas dollar with heightened levels of anxiety and stress. You can even research crafty ways of making gifts if you have the extra time and limited funds, too. Similarly, place the work that you want to get done into manageable chunks on a timeline for December, considering the extra social and familial commitments that you will be attending. Mark off the tasks once you have done them and you will not see your productivity decline. With health and fitness, this is usually the most difficult area – we reinforce the ideals that our clients have and how they are ‘part of their identity’. If you are wanting to be a healthy person, you then ‘aren’t a heavy drinker’, ‘will be getting up early for a run, so I won’t have too many’ or ‘would prefer a lighter meal’ instead of the deep-fried foods being passed around. Some great ways of staying on track are to eat a light and healthy meal before attending an event where unhealthy food will abound, so you aren’t starving. Don’t deprive yourself – enjoy the tastes of this ‘treat’ food, but you don’t need to gorge on it to enjoy it. Ensure you go at least one or two glasses of water for each alcoholic beverage you consume (if any). Dehydration is a major component of a hangover! Remember how good exercise makes you feel and avoid viewing it as a limitation or burden – the Summer months are a great time to vary your workouts; stand up paddle boarding, surfing, walks along the coastline, swimming in the local pool – you name it! Make it a social event to catch up with friends, if possible! December does not need to be a ‘write off’ – keep making each day count!

More and more studies are being published about the harm that our modern society is inflicting upon our bodies and minds – in the form of processed food, screen time, inactivity and a lack of a sense of connection between people. Without sounding like a hippy, perhaps it is time to focus on ‘reconnecting’ a little bit – with the natural world around us, with real food and in real relationships with people (giving them your undivided, one-on-one attention). Try waking up for a sunrise one morning this week and simply watching it. Don’t take a photo and share it on your social media platforms (#blessed), just watch it with no other intention than to start your day with something beautiful (warning, you may get addicted to this, every sunrise is unique and beautiful!). See what a barefoot walk in the park at lunchtime does for your stress levels and peace of mind one day at work this week. Eat a really healthy meal made mostly of raw fruit and vegetables and lean meat (optional) and see if your energy levels boost temporarily. Meet up with someone to go for a walk in a natural environment and leave your phones in your bags/at home/switched off. Really listen to each other and enjoy the time you have dedicated to that person. These experiments could kick start something within you to seek a more holistic and healthy existence. Which ones do you think could benefit you?

Hindsight it a beautiful thing – we see our past with clarity and simplicity that we often lack when we are living in the moment. An effective tool in keeping on track with your goals is to ‘feign hindsight’. We look at your life as your story – you are the sole author that dictates your decisions, actions and reactions in life. Each day, you write a new page of your story and it becomes immortalised as your history. When making decisions, it can be very powerful to think about how this affects your story – will you be proud looking back on this moment and this decision when it comes to re-evaluating your behaviour and goals? Is this behaviour in keeping with the type of person that you wish to be? How can this decision be something that you recognise as a powerful step towards living your dream life? Your answers to these questions should make your decisions a lot easier to answer, especially if the ‘heat of the moment’ and external pressure are getting to you. It also helps you to build your own integrity and sense of morality when you continuously align your decisions and behaviours with your ideal version of yourself. So, today is a new page – what would you like to write on it?

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As touched upon in yesterday’s post, attitude is key in developing the mindset, habits and personality that is required to meet goals. We are sure that you have heard the phrase, “fake it ‘til you make it”, but what we recommend is going beyond that. With your constant visualisations each morning and week as you set and reflect upon your plans, actions and goals, you are aligning your attitude with the certainty of fulfilling these dreams. What we tend to advise is a clear visualisation of how you would feel when you arrive at the moment when you recognise that you have accomplished a goal. Then you bring that emotion into the present and you allow that confidence and assurance to remain in your mood-set for the day. You have the knowledge that this is a part of your plan and your story – thus, your confidence, satisfaction, self-esteem and anticipation all build to support a new ‘you’ that is already borrowing that excitement from your certain future. It mirrors the feeling of booking a well-deserved holiday a few months in advance; every time you think about it, you feel lighter, happier and certain that you will enjoy it. The anticipation brings so much joy, relaxation and happiness for that longer period of time. Harness this practice with your goals and you will see a marked improvement in your moods and sense of motivation in your journey to your goals.

Around this time of year, life can get stressful – there’s a lot to plan for Christmas, you may have friends and family visiting, shopping for gifts and festive catering can be stressful both financially and time-wise. Children may be finishing school and are home a lot more, you may go on vacation and living in each other’s pockets could be a source of new tensions. Whatever your scenario, this time of year brings challenges – however, it is also a great opportunity to check in with how your perspective alters your experience of your life. If you focus on the negative elements – of how annoying a certain situation is – rather than choosing to allow the positive to have a stronger influence upon your mood and behaviour (appreciating how warm the Summer is, or how magical it is to have the snow falling – depending on your location in the world!), you run the risk of rushing around and doing the busy work that we have been talking about and not enjoying the season for what it is – a time to relax. Yes, there may be lots to be done and disagreements or tensions are bound to arise, however if you have given yourself time to plan and organise yourself, asked some people in your life for help at key stages and you haven’t unnecessarily overcomplicated things by planning too many events, you can free up some of your mind to sit down and enjoy the new company, the time off, your loved ones. Just make sure that your focus is on the positive, and not a constant to-do list or resentment spiral.

As the end of the year approaches, the feeling of a fresh start and New Year Resolutions begin to dawn on us. With a new year, the opportunity of creating a new ‘you’ arises. However, it has become almost cliché that these resolutions, and the motivation that fuels them, die after an initial surge of enthusiasm. So, how can you safeguard your plans to become a healthier, more profitable and happier version of yourself? The two keys are visualisation and planning. Many of us have areas in our lives that we would describe as weaknesses, things that we struggle to maintain self-accountability for and often find ourselves self-sabotaging. When planning to conquer obstacles in these areas, it is often best to outsource and invest in an accountability partner or program. One example of this might be to ‘lock in’ to a fitness challenge or group that requires bookings and minimum attendance (usually with someone who will notice that you are not there and will contact you for a no-show), organise the delivery of fresh, healthy groceries or meals to reset the craving habits of your body, create a morning schedule with an accountability tick off list or app to help get you going in the day, etc. It also helps to sit down and write how you expect to see yourself going through these tasks on a day-to-day basis from the feeling of waking up in the morning and looking at your day plan, to the pain of the last repetition of exercise in a set. Visualise the mundane tasks and the beauty of the reward at the end – buying a new piece of clothing in your ideal size, waking up with more vitality, finishing a half-marathon, finishing a project at work – the list goes on. If you do not have a solid plan that feeds into habits to take you to your goal, you risk repeating the same mistakes and ‘losing’ motivation among the crowds of other resolutionists. What will you do to prevent this?

We all have ‘busy tasks’ – things that we must do each day that are essential, but aren’t tangibly linked to our bigger goals. These things may include cleaning the house, laundry, paperwork for bills, personal emails, etc. We all must do these things, but they can be frustrating and drawn out if not put in your schedule consciously. Our advice is this: Deal with it once, deal with it once and deal with it completely. For example, I clean the house every evening after putting my two sons to bed (a wipe down and vacuum, dishes, put away laundry). I set my sand timer (1 hour) and get to work, knowing that I will not do more housework after that sand timer has stopped. Surprisingly, knowing that this is the time limit gives me more momentum to get the task done and I often finish with lots of time to spare. With the toys or things I use through the day, they get put back as soon as we finish using them – so the stress isn’t big at any point in time. If you are more of a ‘once-a-week-cleaner’, then set aside a scheduled time each week to give your place a clean. This helps as you don’t potter around at many times during the day or week cleaning so you feel like you are ‘always’ cleaning the house. Keep the task contained and free your mental space from that tasks for the rest of the time. The same goes for emails; I set two times of the day to check personal and business emails and deal with them instantly – if it is a bill, I pay it or set a reminder in my phone for when it is due and any other information and then I delete/file the email out of my inbox, if it is something that needs a response – I respond instantly and write any action points in my diary if necessary, and the email is deleted. In this way, I don’t feel as though I am ‘always’ available on my email, but I know that I am on top of things and I don’t need to worry about them at any other time. What tactics do you have in your household or are there any ideas that you think could improve your productivity and mental space?

Image Credit: Lorna Jane

In recent consultancy dealings with people looking to build their businesses, there is a general hesitation in the people that we are dealing with to charge adequate or premium prices for services and goods. They feel that their time, effort and products are not ‘worthy’ enough of the price tag suggested. There is a fear that they aren’t as good as the others on the same market. However, these are often people will years of experience, attention to detail, a passion for their craft and a real enthusiasm to succeed in business. So, why do we undervalue our time? The reality is, if you undercharge for your great service, you will usually attract a clientele that do not necessarily appreciate quality, but will look around constantly seeking the cheapest service. Since these people are often not invested in brand loyalty, they are the most likely to cancel, rearrange and complain at the same time. However, if you set your prices at a premium, people will recognise the value of what you are providing, are far more likely to respect the time that you have allocated to the task and also recommend your great work to others. This is not just the case for business. If you perpetually make yourself available to friends and family to do whatever they request, laying no boundaries or limits, you may find yourself being taken advantage of – your time and effort not being valued or made a priority. This is not always the case, however if we know someone will ALWAYS be there, we don’t rush to see them and ensure that the time we set aside is free no matter what, do we? The central message is not to rip people off or tell people you can’t see them, but create appropriate boundaries and conditions in your life. Give people your ideal availability to see them, ask others in the industry to set your price point and follow through with that. Your time is valuable and you are valuable.