Saturday 10 December 2016

Feeling fantastic

Saturday 10th December

I continue to amaze myself (and often my husband) on a daily basis. I don't mean that I've done anything particularly noteworthy, simply faced a situation in a totally different, positive way.  I started writing this entry this morning from a work colleague's sofa bed following our team night out last night.   

I certainly don't want to keep dwelling on the past but certain situations make me realise that I really have overcome my fear.  There is no way I would have ever stayed at someone's house who wasn't a really close friend or relative.  Last night I was totally in her hands (so to speak) as to where we went and what time we went home.  There was alcohol involved, busy bars and clubs, a town I don't know and two teenage children back at her house (one had also been ill during the week).  I had a fantastic night with no anxiety whatsoever.

One step at a time

I have learnt a lot this year and we are now into a time of year where many people can
feel overwhelmed and unable to cope, I thought I would share a strategy that has continued to work for me.

Everything you do can be broken down into smaller, easier to manage, pieces so rather than facing a task that you feel you can never achieve, set yourself smaller targets and praise yourself for achieving them.  This can be personal or work related.  If even the thought of breaking the task down send you into a panic, don't worry, break it into time slots instead. Perhaps allow yourself an hour to complete as much as you can then take a break.  Don't put pressure on yourself to achieve too much, you may actually end up completing more than you hoped for, which will make you feel much better than falling short of an unrealistic expectation.

I train team leaders and supervisors where targets are an important part of managing their own development as well as setting them for staff.  A good way of setting a target is to use SMART.  This is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.  There are other variations but essentially they have the same meaning.  When setting your own personal targets it can be useful to use the same process.  Make sure your target is clear, so that you will know when it has been achieved, think of how you will check or measure that it has been completed, make sure it is something you will be able to ultimately achieve and it is realistic with a time factor.  Don't think that this means you won't be able to achieve something big, just make sure that the time frame is suitable for the challenge.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and New Year, I'll be back to report on my dancing debut in January!


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