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How to get from where you are to where you want to be?

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What is the BEST use of your precious 3hrs 15mins spread over the next year?

The very best way to get from where you are to where you want to be is to follow this 4 step process – I call it ‘Following the North Star!’

This simple process, requiring minimal time (and is very enjoyable too) will allow you to feel and be in control of YOU!

It starts at around this time of the year, end of the old year or start of a fresh new year. As the spring bulbs pop their new green leaves above the dead leaves and snow, hope springs in the breasts of humans.

So here we go:

STEP 1 – gather dairies & calendars from the previous year

I go through each, highlighting the things I wish to recall and record.
Then I gather them together, this year I did by month, sometimes I gather by topic, any way that works for you. I use a mind map as it is a marvellous tool for gathering and sorting the information, however, lists work as well. Here are my summaries of last year’s diaries and quarterly maps (please see below). I don’t always gather so much, but this year I wanted more of a picture, and the enjoyable and quite often surprising results are worth it!

PHEW!!! It is always surprising the number of things I had ‘forgotten’, or not realised that it was all done in the past year!

These activities may take an hour – it depends on how much you want to walk down memory lane. I set my timer for 45 minutes and gently nudge me to be completed.

STEP 2 – Highlight the most important things to you

Get out your favourite coloured highlighters and set to focus again!
Now you are pulling out the most significant to you, colour coding helps here.
Make your main branches, or list headings as serves you.

To highlight, sort and map is gently another 45 minutes.

STEP 3 – Start to plan for your coming year

I particularly overview my summarised summary and look at ‘What do I want MORE of?’ And ‘What might I wish to change / add / remove?’

I try to keep this simple and doable and motivating.

Then I break this down into quarterly activities, so I may easily keep track of my progress – or lack of it!

This step is probably about 30 minutes – although I may leave it for a day or so, to see if it still sings to me.

STEP 4 – Keeping on track

OK, so all well and good so far, however this is just a paper exercise, and NOW it needs to be turned into reality!

There are two parts to this:
1. A monthly review and
2. Using ‘Change in 8’ from The Change Maker Group to change any habits and attain any goals you wish – magic!

Re 1. Monthly review – around the last day of the month, I take my quarterly map off the board and look at how I have performed! I get a tick if it is good (or even a smiley face!) And I highlight if I need to spend more time / attention on an item. Sometimes I add dates and names to add to the recall at the end of the year!

This activity takes a maximum of 5 minutes for each month of the quarter (times the 4 quarters) so a total of 1 hour.

The first map is of my goals for 2024.

Then I create quarterly maps, again the key branches are what serves and motivates you.
Miscellaneous ideas and new thoughts may be added as you think of them.

Here are my four quarterly maps completed and ready to be used for my 2025 summary and new map, and so the wonderful spiralling process starts all over again!

Re 2. I will not cover ‘Change in 8’ here and now, but stay tuned and you will see a lot about it as the year goes on. This simple 8-minute routine allows you to change a habit or achieve a goal – guaranteed!!!

And as true as the North Star is, this will lead you where you want to go.
Prepare to be AMAZED at what you have achieved by the end of the year, just follow your star and you will get from where you are to where you want to be!

DK Capture Photography in Poole Bournemouth www.dk-capture.com

To request a 15 minute Mind Chi Chat with Vanda 
to explore how Mind Chi might assist you, your group, 
team or company build resilience and joy! 
Please use Vanda@TheChangeMakergroup.com or Vanda@MindChi.com
And for more marvellous Mind Chi blogs:
Want more resilience for your organisation, here:
Here is a short cartoon about ‘Resilience for Change’

Quiet Vacation Days (QVDs) Statistics: Addressing Employee Wellbeing and Work-Life Balance

I won’t ask if YOU do this… but maybe you know someone(s)?  
Please put a YES or NO response to this post.

Do they take ‘Quiet Vacation Days?’ Quiet Vacation Day (QVDs) are when you take a day off without getting permission or letting anyone / boss know.   

An upsetting statistic from a Harris Poll discovered that as many as 79% of people do NOT use their allotted, paid vacation time, and why? Because they fear the consequences! And given the amount of stress, burnout, and lack of work/life balance this is a double disaster. One of the other responses of employees is to do ‘quiet quitting’, where they mentally do the very minimum required.

Employers; there are several  ways to positively manage this:

  1. Make sure that you monitor, and actively assist (meaning put the support in place) your employee to take ALL their paid leave OFF. That is time away, out of the workplace, with NO one contacting them.
  2. Make a company culture of phones off out-of-hours and weekends. Set up a system to block all non-essential emails if necessary. Think twice before you send emails, especially, if you are copying in many people – do they all need to know?
  3. Include celebrating taking vacations and holidays – maybe a photo of what someone did or where they went. Make it the opposite of a quiet vacation – a loud vacation, celebrate! Enjoy.
  4. Be sure to lead by example from the top. I always insisted everyone took a lunch break in my offices, and everyone understood it was because they would be fresher, more productive and happier for the afternoon – their brains would have rested. When one employee went to another company, it wasn’t a week before she called to say that as she was walking out for lunch her boss called out from her desk, where she was eating a yogurt while sending emails, ‘Must be nice to be able to take a lunch break!’ To which my ex-employee replied, ‘It is not only nice, but also imperative for me to give you a good value performance this afternoon’.
  5. Most importantly, is that your company values Being Well and having a work/life balance culture. This must be demonstrated by implementing wellbeing programmes, a very simple one is to take 8-minutes a day to do the Mind Chi routine. 
    I used to have one room with bean bags and low lighting where people could go when they just needed that 10-minute break, in 12 years I never saw anyone abuse it. We also had ‘duvet days’, when you just need to roll over and get some sleep, or have a real down do-nothing day, and again, these were never exploited.

Your work world has changed. According to a Forbes article, if you have many Gen X, Y and Z employees, approximately 71% of them are already taking Quiet Vacation Days, it may be worth putting these few preventative steps in place. The Change Maker Group is poised to assist you to thrive through these changes.

DK Capture Photography in Poole Bournemouth www.dk-capture.com

To request a 15 minute Mind Chi Chat with Vanda 
to explore how Mind Chi might assist you, your group, 
team or company build resilience and joy! 
Vanda@TheChangeMakergroup.com or Vanda@MindChi.com

And for more marvellous Mind Chi blogs:

Want more resilience for your organisation, here:

Here is a short cartoon about ‘Resilience for Change’