Category Archives: Thoughts On Change

My Biggest Professional Regret

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In The Power of Regret, Daniel Pink’s latest book, regret is described as ‘a healthy, universal emotion that, when properly managed, improves decision-making, performance, and life meaning’.

I agree with Daniel’s philosophy and think it’s healthy to evaluate our regrets, not to beat ourselves up but to learn from them and take action to ensure we minimise these regrets going forward.

The corporate world was my professional home for over 25 years and as much as I loved it, I always knew that one day I would leave to focus solely on my entrepreneur work. These thoughts were kept to the back of my mind, mostly out of fear that one day I might actually have to do it!

That one day arrived on 21st October 2021, I left the corporate world and don’t ever plan on returning. Daniel’s book The Power of Regret made me think about what I regretted from my time in the corporate world that I didn’t want to bring into my new world as a full time entrepreneur.

It didn’t take me long to come up with the fact that I wished I had ‘done less and communicated more’.  

As a Lean practitioner, communication was a big part of my role yet I didn’t communicate enough – I didn’t communicate enough to the depth or detail that I could have. 

I didn’t communicate enough about,

🌟 the power of a Lean culture.

🌟 the reasons behind the Lean tools we used.

🌟 the complexity of the Lean systems we had built.

🌟 the problems that were solved and avoided by our Lean culture, systems and tools.

🌟 the enormous amount of infrastructure and work it took to maintain the Lean systems we had built.

⭐️ the autonomy and growth that Lean in all it’s brilliance provided to our people and how Lean enriched their professional and personal lives. 

The above shortfalls in communication came with a price.

One price was that the benefits of the Lean culture we built were never fully realised.

Another price was that I seemed to be always fighting,

🙄 fighting for the development of people to be prioritised over ‘making the metrics’.

🙄 fighting for a better way of working, thinking, learning and creating a better respect for people.

🙄 fighting to showcase how Lean could develop our people to solve so many of the problems we experienced on a daily basis.

It seemed to be a constant uphill struggle against the status quo and the culture of the corporate world. If you’ve spent any time in the corporate world, you’ll know what I mean by this – the same ‘large company’ culture problems exist in most large organisations

This constant struggle left me feeling undervalued and underutilised.

The dreaded 8th Lean waste of underutilising human potential had become my reality. As a Lean practitioner, how could I value and develop people when I myself didn’t feel valued and wasn’t developing to my potential?

This pattern repeated in every job where I practised Lean.

Every time I had this realisation was the moment I made the decision to leave the job. The last time I had this realisation, it wasn’t just the job I was leaving, it was the corporate world.

My regrets in terms of ‘doing too much and not communicating enough’ have given me a road map my full time entrepreneur journey.

I can sum up this entire roadmap by saying I will ‘do less and communicate more’ – this is a bit vague yet it’s where I am and every journey starts from where we currently are.

Communication in the corporate world meant communication to team members, managers, all levels of leadership, customers and stakeholders.

Communication in the entrepreneur world is vastly different – I’ve decided on two streams of communication that I will focus on – communication to myself and communication to others.

🌟 Communication to myself

As an entrepreneur, there are no team members, no managers, no levels of leadership and no stakeholders. I am all of these roles and so communication with myself is important. 

One form of communicating with ourselves is through daily journalling. Daily journalling is a big part of my life, it keeps me grounded and stable in a unstable world. When I am busy or under pressure, this is the first thing that gets dropped from my life yet ironically is what I need the most.

I often think if I could master my daily journalling habit that the rest of my life would just fall into place – the optimist in me finds some truth in this!

🌟 Communication to others

As I now play all of the roles of team members, managers, leadership and stakeholders, the only form of communication I need to do is with my customers, my community and my network.

This requires creating a communication strategy which is going to the top of my ‘to do’ list!

There is much work to do! 

  • What’s your biggest professional regret?
  • Have you evaluated the price you paid for this regret?
  • Are you turning your regret into learnings and actions? 

Want to join my weekly newsletter on all things positive change? Download your free ebook The A-Z of Effective Change below and I’ll see you there 😊

Thanks for reading 🙏

Siobhain

x x

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An Open Letter to UHL and the HSE 

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Exactly one year ago today, on 6th March 2025, I sent an email to you all individually to complain about numerous negligent practices experienced in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) that almost took my mother’s life in January/February 2025.

This first complaint was on negligence experienced with UHL’s prescriptions (6th March 2025), my second complaint was on negligence experienced with UHL’s discharges (18th March 2025) and my third complaint was on negligence experienced with UHL”s accident and emergency department (21st March 2025).

All three complaints are attached as well as a summary outlining the numerous negligent practices experienced by my mother and the compounding effects of same.

I had already complained in detail about these dangerous processes that we experienced with my late Dad’s care in UHL in the summer of 2023. The complaints on my late Dad’s care were never resolved and so these dangerous processes went on to do more damage to patients, almost taking my mother’s life in early 2025.

My mother and my family are yet to receive a written apology from UHL or the HSE and my complaints are unresolved despite consistent follow up with you all over the past year.

What  I have learned about UHL and the HSE’s complaints process over the past year explains very clearly why you (UHL and the HSE) cannot solve your problems and why you both have been plagued by crisis after crisis for decades.

What I learned also explains how my complaints on my mother’s care in UHL and my previous complaints on my late Dad’s care in UHL can all go unresolved.

  • My complaints weren’t just unresolved, they were ignored.
  • Not just ignored once but ignored time and time again.
  • Not just ignored by your HSE’s complaints process ‘Your Service, Your Say’ but also ignored by you all, at the top, who have the power to improve processes and save lives.

Below is your response to my complaints – some of you ignored me completely and some of you corresponded with me and then ignored me.

In the Lean world, there is no blame on people which is why there are no names from UHL and the HSE mentioned here and no names mentioned throughout my complaints. 

Every single member of staff in University Hospital Limerick go above and beyond for their patients every minute of every day. The staff in UHL treated my family with the utmost of care and respect and they are a credit to UHL. My complaints are not against the staff of UHL – my complaints are against the archaic processes and systems in UHL that make it impossible for the staff to give the highest standard of healthcare that they are capable of. 

Whilst there is no blame on people in the Lean world, there is a need for responsibility and accountability by those in leadership positions.

CEO of the HSE:

Your office ignored all my emails – except for one response (after 5 months of emails from me) requesting my mother’s details yet I never received a follow up response after that.

CEO of UHL:

Your office ignored all my emails – except for one response because I asked for confirmation that you received my 3 complaints.

I received the confirmation that your office wishes ‘to acknowledge receipt of your email below and confirm receipt of your 3 complaints. We will bring your email to the CEO’s attention and revert to you.’

I never heard from your office again, even though you had previously corresponded with me on my late Dad’s complaints, which also never got resolved.

REO of the Mid West:

You met with me once and did verbally apologise for what I outlined in my complaints, we corresponded for a while which gave me a glimpse of hope yet your office then ignored my emails.

Your Service,Your Say – the HSE’s complaints process:

I’ve been through the HSE’s complaints process, Your Service,Your Say, twice with complaints on the same life threatening and dangerous practices in University Hospital Limerick (a&e, prescriptions, discharges).

Both times I ended up being ignored with no resolution of my complaints.

Both times I learned what really happens in UHL and the HSE’s complaints process. What I found is shocking, the HSE does have a documented complaints process in terms of the stages of Your Service,Your Say, yet this is not the reality.

https://www2.hse.ie/complaints-feedback/your-service-your-say-stages/

Both times I have got as far as Stage 2 yet never received the report that would complete Stage 2, I was then ignored and my complaints went unresolved. Life threatening and dangerous practices in UHL went unresolved and ignored – twice.

If UHL and the HSE can get away with ignoring me and my complaints, who and what else are they ignoring?

Your Service,Your Say   – the HSE’s complaints escalation process:

On 15th August 2025, through the Your Service,Your Say complaints officer I was dealing with, I requested that my complaints be escalated to Stage 3 of the Your Service,Your Say complaints process as Stage 2 was obviously never going to be concluded.

Despite numerous follow up emails from me, I have never received a response to this request – my emails have again been ignored.

I’d like to point out that the complaints officer that I was dealing with in Your Service,Your Say was always kind, understanding and professional to me yet they are working within an archaic system that literally doesn’t allow them to do what is best for patients and their families.

As advised by your HSE website – to escalate a complaint, I emailed the Your Service,Your Say generic email address twice – yoursay@hse.ie.

I never received a reply to these emails.

As advised by your HSE website I then phoned Your Service, Your Say to escalate my complaints – they had received my emails and they had sent them to University Hospital Limerick.

So the escalation process for the HSE’s complaints is to send the complaints back to the health service we are complaining about – in this case University Hospital Limerick.

This is not escalation of complaints, this is dodging responsibility and accountability.

Whilst the HSE website promotes a robust complaints process with clear levels of escalation and a commitment to resolving complaints, the truth of the HSE’s complaints process is far from this. 

https://www2.hse.ie/complaints-feedback/

We all deserve a problem solving, solution orientated, patient centric complaints process with clear levels of escalation and transparency into the improvements implemented as a result of our complaints.  

This does not exist in UHL & the HSE.

The office of the Ombudsman:

As advised by your HSE website, to further escalate my complaints, I then phoned the office of the Ombudsman.

The office of the Ombudsman advised to send them my complaints, evidence of what I have done to follow up on them, evidence of what UHL & the HSE have done and why I’m not happy.

This is where I currently am, exactly one year after submitting my complaints on University Hospital Limerick’s dangerous a&e department, dangerous prescriptions process and dangerous discharges process.

Outside of UHL and the HSE, I contacted the following people for support,

CEO of HIQA:

The CEO of HIQA sent my complaints to one of their Regional Managers and the Head of Healthcare Services who have been an immense support to me. I am grateful for their consistent correspondence to me and their follow up with UHL.

Unfortunately follow up with our health services by HIQA doesn’t ensure improvement – improvement depends on how much the healthcare service, in this case University Hospital Limerick, wants to improve. 

HIQA doesn’t have any power over our health services which is insane – why does our government create an outstanding regulatory authority of healthcare standards yet doesn’t give them power to implement these standards?

Minister Niall Collins TD:

Niall and Helen in his office have been incredibly supportive by corresponding with me and sending my complaints to the office of the Minister of Health for which I am very grateful. 

Of course we shouldn’t have to contact government Ministers to get our healthcare complaints escalated yet that’s what I had to do.

Minister for Health:

Whilst I am grateful for the response to escalation of my complaints from the Minister for Health, I was saddened to be told to go back to the HSE as

‘there are rigorous processes in place for any individual who wishes to raise a concern regarding their treatment in our health service’.

The HSE complaints processes aren’t rigorous – they are poor and ineffective, they send people around in circles, there is no accountability and responsibility, there is no escalation process, the processes do not lead to improvement and all of this only serves to further frustrate those who complain.

If University Hospital Limerick and the HSE want to ignore you, they will and there is very little we, as members of the public, can do about it. I’m sure I’m not the only person whose complaints have been ignored by our health services.

I no longer have any interest in following up on my complaints with UHL and the HSE.

One year is enough time to complain about life threatening and dangerous practices without resolution. Complaints on my late Dad’s care, on the same life threatening and dangerous practices  (a&e, prescriptions and discharges) are now over 2 years old, without resolution. 

Complaining to UHL and the HSE had been a tedious exercise and I’m tired of trying to get UHL and the HSE to take my complaints seriously and resolve them.

What I do have interest in is keeping my promise to my late Dad.

During the summer of 2023, as advised by University Hospital Limerick’s healthcare staff,  I complained to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). 

The PALS team were kind and professional and we spoke for over 2 hours. The PALS team agreed that nobody should experience the negligence we had done yet advised they wouldn’t be taking any action, that taking action on complaints wasn’t their role. 

PALS advised me to email Your Service, Your Say! 

After relaying this information to my Dad, I made him a promise. I promised my Dad that I would hold UHL accountable for the negligence he endured and their lack of action to mitigate this negligence. Little did I know then that we would experience the same negligence in UHL (a&e, prescriptions and discharges) 18 months later with my mother’s care.

Little did I know then that my subsequent complaints would end up being ignored and go unresolved – twice. 

UHL and the HSE may not want to listen to me yet I’m sure the public will be very interested in what I have to say.

Instead of wasting my time on UHL and the HSE, I now plan to,

⭐️ Publish every word that I have written to UHL and the HSE so that everyone is aware of the negligent practices that they both so easily turn a blind eye to.

⭐️ Share my learnings on UHL and the HSE’s sub standard complaints process, the escalation process that doesn’t exist and the dangerous and archaic way they deal with complaints.

⭐️ Keep my promise to my late Dad and hold UHL accountable for the pain they caused him in the final months of his life, for the precious life they almost took from my mother and the unprofessional and unacceptable way they have treated me and my complaints.

I started sharing my story in The Examiner last year,

Nothing will improve at UHL without a problem-solving culture

I have published this letter as an open letter to UHL and the HSE on my website and I look forward to sharing more detail on all of the above here.,

Open Letter to UHL and the HSE

Regards,

Siobhain Danaher

 

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Strengthening my Foundation (One Email At a Time)

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Bit by bit over the past five years I’ve been dismantling what took me over fifteen years to create. 

This hasn’t been an easy journey yet it was absolutely necessary to create space for what I want going forward

Every entrepreneur I follow online has a mailing list and every entrepreneur says this is the foundation of any business. 

Because of this, they all give the same advice – start a mailing list, develop the discipline to write to your community regularly, nurture your community and engage with them. 

I ignored this advice for over ten years! 

It was never the right time for me to set up a mailing list, I never had enough time to learn how, I didn’t believe I would have the discipline to write regular emails, I didn’t think anyone would read them – I literally held myself back from what I needed to do for over ten years! 

At the back of my mind and at the end of my to do list was ‘set up a mailing list’, yet the years went by and I did everything but set up my mailing list. 

Then in 2020 I took Natalie Sisson’s ‘Launch Your Damn Course’ – setting up my mailing was an integral part of the course and so my mailing list became my number one priority.

Thanks to Natalie’s expert guidance and patience, I set up my mailing list and five years later it is still going strong. 

  • When I finally realised the importance of regular communication to my community, it became my number one focus.
  • When I realised how much work and discipline is required to maintain regular communication to my community, it became my only focus – I literally stopped everything online to focus on this one email a week.

At the beginning of 2021, I set myself a goal – send a weekly email to my community, every week, no matter how busy I am, no matter how stressful or crazy life gets, I will write and send that one email. 

This might sound like a super simple goal yet this one email and the discipline to send iot every week had much to teach me. 

  • My favourite thing to do is write – this one weekly email ensured I dedicated time and energy to writing. I didn’t have much discipline with my writing before yet I certainly have it now, this one weekly email has become a well-established habit and a very important part of my life. 
  • This one weekly email is how I communicate with the most amazing people, people who share my passions and who like what I write – this is humbling and I am grateful to every single person who takes precious time from their day to read what I share. I am so inspired by their replies and they are a huge source of motivation for me.
  • This one weekly email builds my confidence to share more about myself. This doesn’t come naturally to me but my email community is a very safe space and I’m happy to share more about myself there. Ironically the more I share about myself, the more my community shares with me. 
  • This one weekly email is absolutely stress free – it tales time, discipline and patience yet it creates zero stress from sending one email a week. My goal is to continue to build my business with as little stress as this one email creates.
  • Email marketing is the foundation on which any online business is built. This was the reason I set up my email platform but the above personal reasons have overtaken this by a long shot.

What is the foundation of your business?

Are you building a community who share your passions?

What has building a community taught you?

Want to join my weekly newsletter?

Sign up here 😊

https://www.siobhaindanaher.com/free-e-book/

Thanks for reading 🙏

Siobhain

x x

 

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Building by Demolition

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Demolish to build

Sometimes you need to demolish what you have to build what you want.

Imagine buying an old derelict building and you want to create the home of your dreams.

You have 2 options – work with the current structure of the building or demolish it and start from scratch.

Over the past four years I have been demolishing what took me over 15 years to build.

Why would I do this?

Because what I built over 15 years wasn’t sustainable.

I built way too much, I took on way too much work, I wasn’t able to manage everything and I paid a very hefty price.

Where did I start with demolition and how did I know what to demolish?

I started with the end in mind.

What do I enjoy? 
What do I want to keep?
What can I easily sustain?

I started this process four years ago and at the time all I could sustain was my weekly email to my community.

This meant everything else I had built over 15 years was to be demolished. This was a very painful decision but the silver lining was the lesson I was to learn.

This humbling lesson will ensure I never ever find myself in this impossible situation again – building way more than I can manage and stressing myself out with it all.

And so four years ago I spilt my focus in two.

My first focus was consistently sending my weekly email to my community.

This one weekly email has been a most rewarding experience and has brought me an incredible amount of joy.

Through this weekly email I have learned a huge amount about my style of writing. I have built confidence in my writing to share more of myself. I have also built the most rewarding relationships with those who read and reply to my emails.

If you want to join my community and receive my weekly email you can sign up here but downloading your free ebook – The A-Z of Effective Change.

My second focus was demolishing everything I have built over the previous 15 years, this has been so painful and painstaking.

It’s really hard to let go of what took such effort and passion to build but letting go is necessary to create time and space for what I want to build in the future.

Some things naturally stopped and I just didn’t follow up to sustain them.

  • I cancelled the hosting on my travel photography website (where I sold my Fine Art prints) which removed it from the internet – that was a sad day.
  • The Fine Art printing studio that I used closed down and I didn’t find another one.
  • My photography software required an upgrade yet I didn’t purchase one.
  • I unsubscribed from most email newsletters, stopped subscriptions to services I no longer needed and left online groups that I loved being a part of.
  • I took a break from writing blog posts and posting on social media.
  • I stopped listening to podcasts, audiobooks and watching youtube videos.

Bit by bit I demolished every single thing that I had built.

By far the biggest change that I made was leaving my day job without another.

Leaving my day job without another was the scariest professional decision I have ever made yet it turned out to be the best professional decision I have ever made.

Writing all of the above brings tears to my eyes but it also brings a huge relief to my soul.

As a new year starts, I continue to demolish what no longer serves me and I start to lay the foundation of my new path.

Building takes time and so does demolition – just like building something, the benefits of demolishing things is not realised overnight, it takes time to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

If you want to demolish any part of your life to rebuild it, I promise you there is light at the end of the tunnel.

You may not be able to see the light in the dark depths of change but it is there, it is waiting to shine on whatever you want to build for your future.

  • What would you like to demolish and remove from your life?
  • What would you like to build and welcome into your life?
  • Do you need to create room for something new?

Want to join my weekly newsletter on all things positive change?  Download your free ebook The A-Z of Effective Change below and you’re all signed up!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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Building What I Couldn’t Sustain

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I have made many mistakes in my career that have given me many valuable lessons – one of the most valuable lessons I have learned is to always build with a vision of sustainability.

What I mean by this is when I build anything, it’s really important to know how I am going to sustain what I build. 

Building and sustaining are two completely different skills – I learned this lesson the hard way.

Back in 2010 on top of a very busy day job, I decided I wanted to be a travel photographer and so I built everything I needed to become a travel photographer.

I created a website where my fine art prints were sold, worked with a brilliant printing studio who created my fine art prints, .worked with a brilliant framing studio who framed my fine art prints, bought loads of photography gear, bought a new laptop and editing software,

With all of the above I held exhibitions of my travel photography prints in the 4 major Irish airports, created business & greeting cards and took part in travel photography workshops in many fascinating locations around the world. 

Around the same time I also decided I wanted to be a writer and so in 2012 I launched my blog The Photographer’s Guide to Travel where I wrote about travel, photography and my adventures with both. 

In 2017 I created another blog The Art of Positive Change where I write about all things positive change and in 2020 I started hosting webinars and selling online courses.

The amount of infrastructure I had to build to keep all of these plates spinning on top of a busy day job was insane, overwhelming and absolutely 100% unsustainable – a fact I only know with the clear vision of hindsight. 

Something had to give and it did.

🔥 In early 2021 I suffered burnout.
​
For those who haven’t experienced burnout it’s not a physical tiredness that can be fixed with rest. Burnout is an emotional and mental shutdown of the mind, body and soul. Unable to think and unable to do anything, even the simplest of everyday tasks feel like a mountain to climb.
​
In the following months I stopped all of my entrepreneur work outside of my day job – I stopped writing, I stopped using social media, I stopped creating content and I removed myself from all online groups that I was a part of.
​
🔥 I still felt burnt out.​
​
And so I further cleared my plate.
​
I stopped reading physical books, stopped listening to audiobooks, stopped listening to podcasts, stopped watching YouTube videos, I unsubscribed from the many email lists I had signed up to and I put all online courses that I was doing on hold.
​
🔥 I still felt burnt out.​
​
Then my attention turned to my day job where I was absolutely miserable. I had loved my job for many years and it had brought me great joy but Covid changed much of my role. These changes left me feeling like I was just someone checking things off a to do list.
​
I was no longer using my brain or my skills and I was arguing with people more than I was supporting them.
​
I left my day job and only then realised how much of my life I had dedicated to work.
​
🔥 I still felt burnt out. ​

Since late 2021, I have dedicated my life to slowing down and eliminating the effects of burnout, to getting off the fast paced rollercoaster of life and enjoying a slower pace with less highs, less lows and less dramatic turns.
​
A part of this journey is learning the lesson and committing to never, ever again building what I can’t sustain.

This is easier said than done for me – I have a tendency to overwork which I have to keep a very close eye on. 

So how do I only build what I can sustain?

I build with sustainability and avoidance of burnout as part of my main goals.

But what about everything I have currently built?

I’m very serious about being able to sustain and enjoy my work and so I’ve had to deconstruct everything I’ve built over the past 14 years.

This has been a painful and painstaking process yet it is necessary if I want to move forward and sustain what I build.

  • Are you juggling too many plates?
  • Are you overwhelmed by your to do list?
  • What can you remove to give you more time & space? 

Want to join my weekly newsletter on all things positive change?  Download your free ebook The A-Z of Effective Change below and you’re all signed up!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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Annual Review 2025

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Annual Review

Reflecting on the year gone by allows us to see what worked well so we can celebrate & build on our success and what didn’t work well so we can adjust & change direction.  

Hansei which is Japanese for self reflection is an integral part of Lean. I have been using this Lean concept in my personal life for a long time and this is the 13th year I have published my annual hansei (self reflection) online. 

I will be happy to see the end of 2025, it has been a difficult year.

Over the past few years my life was challenged in ways I had not planned for and so working towards my goals has been an uphill struggle. 

I wouldn’t have planned these challenges yet ironically I wouldn’t want to lose the valuable lessons learned or the personal growth required to push through these challenges.

That is life – we make plans and sometimes they work out and sometimes they don’t. 

I have realised that no matter how much we plan, the path that is meant for us will always be the path we travel – not necessarily the path we want!

Whatever 2025 brought you, I hope you find time to reflect on your year, leave behind what doesn’t serve you and bring into 2026 everything that supports and nurtures you. 

I use the Wheel of Life (below) to categorise my life into Sense of Self, Relationships, Health, Work, Finance, Fun/Experiences, Environment & Contribution. 

You can download your Annual Review Workbook here and use these categories or create some of your own.

Here is my Annual Review for 2025

1. Relationships:

The loss of my Dad in August 2023 is something I carry every minute of every day. There are no words to describe the enormous loss Dad is from my family’s lives. The sadness is constant, it feels like a part of me, not something I can remove myself from, etched in my DNA, a part of my soul. 

My Dad’s passing has heightened my awareness of the fact that time is not finite, we don’t have a never ending supply of time.

One day our time with those we love will run out.

One day our own time will run out. 

This is a constant reminder to spend time with those we love and spend our lives doing what we love.

This year brought unexpected and painful endings of some relationships.

Everyone who comes in and out of my life is a blessing yet my family and friends remain the most important people in my life and I am deeply grateful for them. 

 2. Sense of Self: 

A few years ago my personal strategy and personal development stopped working for me – they weren’t improving my life anymore.

I needed something more meaningful and so 2 years ago I added the category Sense of Self to my Wheel of Life. 

  • Sense of Self combines my relationship with myself, my soul, spirituality including personal development and personal strategy.
  • Sense of Self is all about who I am, who I want to be and how I feel about myself and the world around me.
  • Sense of Self is where I work on the concepts of self love, self worth, self esteem, self belief, self trust, self confidence, self respect and self awareness.

Over the past few years, my Sense of Self has been on very shaky ground, chipped away at with every new challenge. 

As a born optimist I find a silver lining in every difficult situation. 

The silver lining of being challenged in the external world is that I have tuned into my inner world and focused on, learned about, got support with and built a more solid foundation for my Sense of Self.

Developing a strong Sense of Self is like building armour for the battles of the external world from the inside out. 

I’ll be writing more about Sense of Self in 2026 as this is the foundation on which everything else is built. 

3. Health: 

There is no truer saying than health is wealth, the quality of our lives is totally dependent on our health. I have always been aware of the importance of physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health yet over the past few years, for many reasons, this awareness has been brought to a deeper level. 

I went backwards in terms of most of my health goals over the past few years. 2025 was slightly improved yet that wouldn’t be difficult as the baseline was low.  

Health is a fickle thing – one day you have it and the next you don’t, one day you don’t have it and the next day you do. 

Physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health ebbs and flows like the tides, it’s never one thing or another and improving health is never a straight line or a consistent forward motion. 

The important thing is to keep working on health, keep learning about it, keep focusing on it, keep prioritising it, don’t give it away for anyone or anything – it is our greatest wealth. 

4. Work:

Over the past 4 years I have spent the least amount of time in this category which is ironic as for the previous 25 years it was where I spent the most time! 

Since leaving the corporate world in October 2021 I have focused on streamlining & stabilising my entrepreneur world and creating precious time to focus on what I want for my future.  

No job or salary can compete with how precious this time has been.

  • This precious time has allowed me to slow down and see my life more clearly without the fogged up glasses caused by racing around at a million miles an hour.
  • This precious time has allowed me to see what elements of my work no longer interests me and is best removed from my life.
  • This precious time also gave me clarity on what work I want to do going forward and how I become the best version of myself to do this work. 

The one constant that has been with me for my entire life is writing. 

Writing has always been there, in the background, part of my daily life, waiting patiently for me to slow down and give it the attention it deserves.

As challenging as the past few years have been, I have consistently sent a weekly email to my community for over 5 years. This one weekly email kept me sane and the replies I received from my readers kept me writing on some very hard days. 

This one weekly email taught me,

  • much about writing and the discipline required for consistent writing.
  • how to be more confident in my writing and share more of myself.
  • that writing is a very powerful tool for connection during hard times. 

People may not speak about the challenges they face yet they will share it through their writing. Anything that allows people to open up about their challenges is an incredibly important human connection tool – such is the power of writing. 

You can sign up to my weekly email here. 

My three simple goals for my writing in 2024 stayed the same for 2025,

I. Write more 

I didn’t write as much as I would have liked in 2025 due to so many personal challenges, I’ll be prioritising this goal for 2026.

II. Learn more about writing 

Ask any accomplished writer how to learn more about writing and they will say – write more and read more

Writing more didn’t work out this past year and reading more also took a hit! 

What I did read taught me how others write, what flows well in writing, how to keep someone’s interest and how to use words to the best effect. 

Through sharing my own writing I have connected with authors, journalists, copywriters, marketers and loads more incredible people who use the power of their words for a living. This has been so enjoyable yet has also opened my eyes to how much I don’t know about writing and have to learn! 

The more I learn, the less I know!

In 2025 I joined a most beautiful group of Lean enthusiasts led by Sensei Michael Balle – being part of and learning from this group was my absolute professional highlight of 2025 ❤️

III. Improve my writing 

Over the past few years I have become unhappy and disillusioned with my writing. 

My writing hasn’t accurately reflected how my life has changed. I want my writing to be richer, deeper, more meaningful, more impactful and more transparent. 

In 2025 my writing definitely became more aligned with who I am yet I am aware it is a lifelong journey to richer, deeper, more meaningful, impactful and transparent writing.

5. Finance: 

The more I learn about personal finance the more I wish it was a subject I learned in school, it certainly would have saved me much trial and error. 

Just like health – finance is a journey of which learning, understanding, ups and downs are constant companions. 

Being without a salary for 4+ years has decreased my overall financial value yet ironically how I manage my finances has dramatically improved. While I watched my financial value decrease further in 2025, I improved many unhealthy spending habits that were not serving me. 

I completed a large financial project which delivered a new revenue stream into my entrepreneur world. I also completed many smaller financial projects that streamlined my finances and moved me a few steps closer to my ultimate goal of financial freedom. 

My top 3 financial learnings over the past few years stood firm for 2025,

1.One of the most important elements of finance is mindset

There are 2 types of financial mindset that dictate our relationship with money and how freely it flows in and out of our lives – abundance mindset and scarcity mindset. 

Someone with an abundance mindset can receive €100 and feel rich yet someone with a scarcity mindset can receive €1,000,000 and feel it’s not enough. 

Someone with an abundance mindset thinks what they have is plenty and that money will flow freely to them even if they are struggling financially. 

Someone with a scarcity mindset thinks what they have is not enough and that money will not flow freely to them even if they have loads of money and have never struggled financially. 

The difference has nothing to do with numbers – it’s mindset. 

I truly believe that having a growth mindset is the first step to reaching financial goals –  Carol Dwecke’s brilliant book Mindset outlines the importance of a growth mindset and how a scarcity mindset can hold us back in all areas of our lives.

2. Abundance is not just about money

When I left the corporate world, my income dramatically reduced but I felt more abundant in so many other areas of my life. Abundance can be about money yet it’s also about love, time, health and freedom which are important elements of life that money cannot buy. 

When we focus on the abundance of love, time, health, freedom and not just on the abundance of money, we can see how wealthy we really are. 

This wealth costs nothing yet cannot be bought – this wealth exists in all of our lives in immense abundance, if we just take the time to see it.

3. Time is more valuable than money

Jim Rohn’s quote about time and money is one of my all time favourites ‘Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time’. 

Every day I am learning the true essence of this quote. Now that I no longer trade my  time for money, I see the true value of time which is priceless – absolutely priceless. 

6. Fun/Experiences:

I didn’t have much of a social life in 2025 which suited me fine as I didn’t feel very sociable, I’m looking forward to more fun and joyful social experiences in 2026.

Travel is food for my soul yet I didn’t travel as much as I would have liked in 2025. I have big travel plans for 2026 – watch this space! 🌎  

7. Environment:

In 2022 I started decluttering our home using the techniques in Marie Kondo’s brilliant book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up – I was still decluttering in 2025 and so I’m pretty sure I wasn’t doing in right! 

I moved house in 2025 which was a much quicker way of decluttering!  

I’m a minimalist so I don’t need much stuff yet I only realised how much stuff I actually had when I decluttered it. 

8. Contribution: 

I continue to support my favourite charities and charities that family & friends are involved with.

Over the past few years I became more aware of the contribution I make to the world in terms of my time & skills and the contributions I make which aren’t monetary. 

We all contribute to the world in so many ways that we don’t even notice – this has been an unexpected education for me!  

That’s my 2025 review – it was a tough year and I’m happy to say goodbye to it. 

If you want to carry out your own annual review, download your Annual Review Workbook below.

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back on 2025 and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to 2026. 

Thank you for reading 🙏  

Siobhain x x

This is the 13th year I have shared my annual review online, see previous annual reviews below

2013   2014   2015   2016   2017   2018   2019   2020  2021  2022  2023  2024

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My 2025 Goals

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Setting annual goals gives us direction for the year ahead. Setting annual gives us purpose and meaning and the more we work on our goals, the more purpose and meaning we bring into our lives. As outlined in Setting Dream Driven Goals I ask myself the following four questions to set my annual goals. 

  1. What are my Dream Driven Goals?
  2. Why are these goals important to me?
  3. How will I achieve these goals?
  4. What metrics will measure progress?

Below I answer these questions for each area of my life,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. SENSE OF SELF:

Sense of Self combines my spirituality, personal development and personal strategy. This category is all about who I am and how I feel about myself & the world around me.

This is where I work on the concepts of self love, self worth, self esteem, self belief, self trust, self respect and self awareness. The success of this category determines the success in all other categories of my life and so it is the most important category of my life. 

What are my Sense of Self Dream Driven Goals?

  • Learn more about myself to bring the best version of my most authentic self to my life, my relationships & the world.
  • Learn more about, grow and stay grounded spiritually.
  • Utilise, improve and learn more about my personal strategy.

Why are my Sense of Self goals important to me?

My Sense of Self has taken a bit of a battering over the past few years and so it’s pretty unstable at the moment. This means my entire life feels unstable – this is not a nice place to be and not somewhere I want to spend too much more time in!

Personal strategy keeps me on top of everything & ensures I get everything done with no stress, strain or pressure! The more visibility & understanding I have in my life, the more peaceful and contented I feel.  When I don’t use my personal strategy I feel disorganised, overwhelmed, under pressure, stressed, less grounded, less happy & less fulfilled. 

How will I achieve my Sense of Self goals?

  1. Learn more about spirituality, psychology and concepts of sense of self
  2. Follow my personal strategy and carry out regular reviews 
  3. Prioritise solitude, reading and journaling

What metric will measure progress towards my Sense of Self goals?

  1. Learnings in terms of spirituality, psychology and concepts of sense of self
  2. Progress in personal strategy
  3. Time spent in solitude, reading and journaling

2. RELATIONSHIPS:

What are my relationship Dream Driven Goals?

To nurture & improve my relationships with Mike, my family & friends. This part of my life is really just about enjoying the company of those I love and who love me.

There is no greater gift! 

My beloved Dad passed away in 2023. Learning to live with my Dad’s physical absence is something that I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to. I don’t even know how my life actually functions without him, it’s just so incomprehensible.  

 Why are my relationship goals important to me?

My relationships with those I love are my greatest source of happiness and I want to ensure my relationships are given the time and attention that they deserve.

How will I achieve my relationship goals?

  1. Navigate the journey of grief for my beloved Dad which brings me much sadness
  2. Spend precious time with Mike, my family and friends which brings me much joy.

What metrics will measure progress towards my relationship goals?

There are no metrics for this category yet I capture the precious time I spend with those I love in photos and journaled memories.

3. HEALTH:

What are my health Dream Driven Goals?

To nurture & improve my mental, physical,  emotional and spiritual health.

Why are my health goals important to me?

My health is the foundation on which everything else is built – without health, nothing else can thrive. Over the past few years, my entire perspective on my health has changed. It is no longer about being healthy because I enjoy eating well, exercising and fitting into my clothes.

My health is now focused mostly on strengthening my mental health which supports all other areas of my health. Health is now about longevity and having fitness, strength & mobility to enjoy that longevity.

Dr Lisa Misconi says ‘Your health in mid life is the biggest determining factor of your health in later life’.

When I feel fit and healthy, I feel more grounded, happy, joyful, more at peace and content with myself & everything. When I feel fit and healthy, I feel less anxious, less overwhelmed and less stressed with myself & everything

How will I achieve my health goals?

I make the same health goals every year and have learned that progress is not linear. Some years I am at my healthiest, fittest and strongest and some years I am not. What matters is not so much linear progress, but what I learn about my health and the continuous work I put in to improve it.

1.Mental and emotional health: 

Prioritise what supports my mental health – mental health is the most important element of overall health as without mental health, nothing else will function optimally. 

Prioritise what supports my emotional life – I’m an Enneagram 4 and so pretty much live on my emotions! Managing my emotions needs to be a daily practise to stay sane! 

2.Physical Health: 

Continuously work on my physical health to be the healthiest, fittest and strongest I can be. I do this through embedding healthy habits for nutrition, exercise, sleep, relaxation etc. Here I schedule and monitor results of health check ups – bloods, scans, optician, dentist etc. 

This element of my health is like a rollercoaster, sometimes it’s going down adn sometimes it’s going up!

3.Spiritual health

This is woven in with my Sense of Self goals above.

What metrics will measure progress towards my health goals?

  • Health metrics of bmi, weight, nutrition, exercise, sleep etc
  • Health checks completed and progress on same

4. FINANCE: 

What are my finance Dream Driven Goals?

To achieve and enjoy financial freedom. Financial freedom is defined as ‘having sufficient income, savings or investments to live comfortably for life and meet all one’s obligations without relying on a salary’. 

In his excellent book Money – Master the Game, Tony Robbins says financial freedom is ‘a long-term plan to build the life of your dreams. Tony also says ‘success is doing what you want to do, when you want, where you want, with whom you want, as much as you want, that’s also financial freedom’.

These definitions sit well with me and sum up my dreams for financial freedom! 

Why are my finance goals important to me?

For me, financial freedom isn’t about having a certain amount of money or having the financial means to buy material things. Financial freedom is using finance to enjoy immense freedom in all the other areas of my life. 

I want the freedom to have as much time as I want for the other areas of my life, to work for joy and not for the necessity of money and to contribute to the world in whatever way I want to

How will I achieve my finance goals?

1.Increase my financial value which is my total savings, investments and pensions (minus debt).

I find financial value is a better metric than earnings as while you could be staying on the same earnings, your financial value could be increasing depending on your savings and investments. 

In stark contrast your earnings could be increasing but if you are not saving and investing, your financial value could be decreasing.

This year I have one large financial project and many smaller projects that will all increase my financial value and move me a few steps closer to financial freedom. 

2. Spend and enjoy spending 

This may sound like an unusual goal yet it’s as important to enjoy spending money as much as it’s important to earn and save money.

I’m not great at sticking to a budget but what I am very good at is monitoring spend in great detail. This ensures I know exactly how much I spend and can adjust my habits accordingly (before they do too much damage!).

Over the past few years I have dramatically reduced my spending, being without a salary is a good motivator to spend less!

3. Increase my income

I left the corporate world in late 2021 and my income dramatically reduced as a consequence. This reduction in earnings has resulted in abundance of another type. I have the abundance of time which brings me more joy than any amount of money ever could.

In saying that financial freedom doesn’t happen on it’s own and so this year my large financial project will increase my income when it is completed.

4. Learn more about finance 

Finance isn’t my favourite subject yet if I want to get better at it, I have to learn more. I haven’t read many books on finance yet the books I have read have made a huge impact on me.and my financial decisions. Finance books I love can be found here, my favourite books. 

What metrics will measure progress towards my finance goals?

  1. Total spend which is detailed, capital and business spend.
  2. Total financial value which is profit, property & pensions (minus debt).
  3. Total earnings and income.
  4. Progress in large and mini finance projects 

5. WRITING/BUSINESS:

Over the past 3 years I have spent the least time in this category which is ironic as for the previous 25 years it is where I spent the most time! Even though I spend the least time here, it is the area of my life that is changing the most. 

Having left my day job in late 2021, I took a break from. he working world for over 3 years and am now ready to return to work albeit in a very different way to before.

What are my work Dream Driven Goals?

  1. Be a writer and build my own business
  2. Practice and teach Lean philosophy
  3. Continuously learn and improve my skills
  4. Enjoy every minute of this process

Why are my work goals important to me?

My favourite thing to do is write and my second favourite thing to do is read which helps me be a better writer. I have always wanted to work for myself and have total freedom over my work, my time and my creativity.  My business will be a channel to achieving financial freedom.

How will I achieve my work goals?

  1. Manage current income stream
  2. Set up a new income stream 
  3. Create more time to read and write
  4. Continue to publish blog posts and social media posts
  5. Continue to send weekly emails  – you can sign up to my weekly emails here

What metrics will measure progress towards my work goals?

  1. Progress in managing current income stream
  2. Progress in creating a new income stream 
  3. Progress in creating more time to read and write
  4. Progress in writing blog posts and social posts
  5. Progress in writing weekly emails

6. EXPERIENCES/FUN:

What are my Dream Driven Goals?

To have enjoyable experiences, have fun and enjoy life.

WHY are my Dream Driven Goals important to me?

Because they bring me joy

How will I achieve my Dream Driven Goals? 

  1. Spend time with loved ones who make me smile, laugh and bring me so much joy.
  2. Plan experiences that bring me joy and make me feel alive.

What metrics will measure progress towards my Dream Driven goals?

There are no metrics in this category although I do ensure I capture fun times in photos and journaled memories. 

7. ENVIRONMENT:

What are my Dream Driven Goals?

Improve and enjoy my environment which is our home on a personal level. Remove everything that doesn’t serve me and only keep what brings me joy. 

Why are my Dream Driven Goals important to me?

Because it makes me feel good and I enjoy looking after & improving our living space.

How will I achieve my Dream Driven Goals? 

Carry out Marie Kondo’s decluttering in our home. Marie’s overarching teaching is to remove anything from our homes that doesn’t spark joy! Marie’s book ‘The Magic Art of Tidying Up’ is a must for anyone who wants more space in their home and life! 

What metrics will measure progress towards my Dream Driven goals?

Progress with Marie Kondo’s decluttering on our home. 

8. CONTRIBUTION

What are my Dream Driven Goals?

To contribute to the world financially and also with my time & skills.

Why are my Dream Driven Goals important to me?

I want to give back to a world  that has given and continues to give me so much. 

How will I achieve my Dream Driven Goals? 

I have been supporting 4 main charities that mean a lot to me for many years. All of these charity direct debits are currently on hold as I’m not working but I contribute financially to charities with once off payments. 

Contribute to the world with my time & my skills – this means different things at different times

What metrics will measure progress towards my Dream Driven goals?

There are no metrics in this category just the joy of giving back!

That’s it, my 2025 goals.

Whatever your goals are for 2025, I wish you success, love, health and happiness as you live your best life every day. 

If you want to follow my journey, you can sign up to my weekly newsletter by downloading my free ebook ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below. 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

 

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Tips on Voicing Discontent

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Discontent can be with anything and anyone – a boss about anything that bothers us at work, a doctor about our care, a coach about our progress, our relationships about a million things!
​
How to voice discontent effectively is something I wish I learned in school – it would have saved me much trial, error & pain!
​

Early in my career I voiced my discontent with the same eloquence as a bull in a china shop on speed!

I quickly learned this wasn’t going to work.​

I naively thought if I just spoke up for myself and highlighted what I wasn’t happy with, I would get the change I wanted.

Not true.

​Over decades of voicing discontent I learned l what didn’t work which led me to learn what did work.
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Below are tips & tricks on effective ways to voice discontent that result in the best outcome (mostly).​
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1. BEFORE VOICING DISCONTENT
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💎 Understand why you feel like you do and work through it
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What exactly happened that you are unhappy about?
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What part of what happened are you unhappy about?
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Why are you unhappy?
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What is the ONE THING you will voice discontent about?
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It’s very important to have crystal clarity on exactly what you are voicing discontent about.

If you say something vague like ‘I’m unhappy about everything’ or ‘I’m just unhappy’ it makes it very hard to have a productive conversation and even harder to achieve a resolution.
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💎 Have one goal that you want to achieve.
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What one goal do you want to get from this conversation?
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Having more than one goal makes it difficult to get anything to change.
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One goal keeps the conversation focused on one specific thing and one outcome.
​

2  VOICING DISCONTENT
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Keep it short, simple and focused on your one goal. ​
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The conversation could go something like this in 3 short sentences,
​
• This is what I’ve observed
• This is what I’m not happy about it
• This is what I want – one goal
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💎 Be firm & assertive yet respectful & calm.

Anything else will diminish your chances of success
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💎 There is no need to apologise at any stage.

You have nothing to apologise for and it sets the incorrect tone for getting what you want.

Apologising gets you off on the wrong foot and suggests you are in someway at fault – you are not.
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💎 Be curious not critical.

Curiosity is an excellent place to start a hard conversation. Asking the person questions about their perspective not only gives them a chance to speak but also gives you the opportunity to learn more before voicing discontent.

Being asked questions will put the other person at ease which will make the conversation flow better.

Being critical usually shuts people down even if it is disguised as ‘constructive criticism’.

Criticism is criticism and it mostly gets people’s backs up.
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💎 Steer clear of making it personal.

Making your discontent personal will not end well.

Instead focus on the process of what happened and/or what you are trying to change.

Focusing on the process and not the person leads to a much more pleasant, open and fruitful conversation.
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💎 Have facts but don’t overload the conversation with them.

It’s good to have facts & figures but don’t turn the conversation into a verbal powerpoint presentation.

Sometimes it’s enough to have facts & figures in your back pocket if you are asked about them.
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💎 Keep to facts not feelings.

Your feelings are your own responsibility so don’t cloud the conversation with them.

I’m an Enneagram 4 (the emotional one) and have learned the hard way that emotions should be kept out of all hard conversations.

You can vocalise your emotions without being driven by them.

For example you can say – ‘I am angry at’ or ‘I am upset at’ without being angry and upset during the conversation.
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TOP TIP:
I have also learned the hard way that articulating emotions instead of showing them is a very powerful tool.

For example you can CALMLY say ‘I am absolutely furious about…’ which can be very powerful in a conversation.

However if you say that like a furious warrior preparing for battle then it quickly loses it’s power!

​Articulating emotion is much more powerful than showing emotion!
​
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3. AFTER VOICING DISCONTENT
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Be prepared to be challenged.
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If you are voicing discontent, chances are you will be challenged.
No matter how you are challenged, keep your eye on your one goal.​
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The challenges you receive may be,
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😡 Gaslighting – where someone tries to deny or distort your reality which can lead to you questioning your own reality.
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😡 Deflection – where someone changes the subject or instead of listening to your discontent, they voice discontent with something you have said/done

😡 Blame – where someone blames you for what you are voicing discontent about

😡 Indifference – where someone doesn’t care about you or your discontent. They probably won’t come out and say they don’t care but you will feel it in your gut
​

These challenges are not helpful and will make the conversation even harder and chances of a resolution will be slim. Personally I wouldn’t spend too much time in the company of anyone who challenges me in the above ways.

What is helpful is 

💚 Acceptance – where someone listens to you,  sees your point of view and wants to support you to evaluate your one goal. 

They don’t need to agree with you and your perspective but that doesn’t matter from once they accept your discontent and support you to evaluate your one goal!
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​After this conversation you will either achieve your one goal or you won’t. Either way, you have done your best and your influencing skills have improved as a result of that.

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❤️ How do you voice discontent?
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🧡 Do you have one goal?

💚 Is your discontent met with acceptance?

​Want to join my weekly newsletter on all things positive change? Download your free ebook The A-Z of Effective Change below and I’ll see you there.

Thanks for reading
​
Siobhain
x x

Here’s a reminder of Susan Jeffer’s amazing book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway  that can help you feel the fear and do it anyway when voicing discontent. 

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Speak Up For Yourself

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Stand up for yourself

Stand up for yourself

One of the most valuable skills in life and in the workplace is the ability to stand up for yourself.

Without this skill we are at the mercy of the direction others set for us.

That direction is a one way ticket to nowhereville.

😊 It’s difficult to stand up for yourself when your level of power and influence is deemed less than the person you are communicating with.

😊 It’s difficult to stand up for yourself when you don’t have the same level of knowledge as the person you are communicating with.

😊 It’s difficult to stand up for yourself when your point of view isn’t agreed with and/or it is dismissed.

😊 It’s difficult to stand up for yourself, full stop.

As difficult as standing up for yourself is, it is a critical skill to develop.

  • When we don’t stand up for ourselves, we are accepting the status quo – someone else’s status quo.
  • When we don’t stand up for ourselves, we are silencing our own thoughts and opinions.
  • When we don’t stand up for ourselves, we are allowing the truth of others to become our truth.
  • When we don’t stand up for ourselves, we lose our own inner power and influence which is much stronger than any hierarchical power and influence.

Recently I was reminded of the importance of standing our ground and standing up for ourselves.

I shudder when I think of the number of times I had to stand my ground and stand up for myself at work especially when dealing with those in a more ‘powerful’ position than me.
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I use the term ‘powerful’ in inverted commas as the only power they had over me was because of where they sat on an organisational chart – nothing more, nothing less.

Everyone in a position above me lost power over me every time I left a job – that’s how fleeting and temporary organisational chart power is!
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Every time I stood my ground and stood up for myself,
• My voice would shake
• My hands would sweat
• I would stutter some words
• My back would go into spasm
• My heart would start beating faster
• My breathing became quick and shallow
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I would do my very best to hide all of the above as I didn’t want anyone to see my discomfort.

As uncomfortable as standing my ground and standing up for myself felt in some situations, these uncomfortable feelings never stopped me – never once

  • It’s hard going against the grain when you have less ‘power’ in a work situation.
  • It’s hard going against the grain when your voice isn’t (deemed) as important in a work situation.
  • It’s hard going against the grain in a work situation when you mostly don’t win.
  • It’s hard to do all of the above in life in general.

💎 Hard is not a reason to not stand up for yourself.

💎 Hard is not a reason for your valuable voice to be silenced.

💎 Hard is not a reason to stay quiet when you disagree with something.
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Most of the times I stood up for myself against those in more ‘powerful’ positions I didn’t win, the power play against me was almost always too strong.
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Yet I didn’t lose, I learned – I learned very valuable lessons.
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Every time I stood up for myself I learned to build my own power from the inside out.

Every time I stood up for myself I built an inner strength and fortitude that supported me to keep standing up for myself.

Every time I stood up for myself my confidence grew so I could keep standing up for myself and also for others.
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The ability to stand up for oneself is one of the most underrated skills in our personal and professional lives.​
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If we taught ‘standing up for yourself’ in school instead of some of the academic stuff, kids would be better prepared for their adult lives.

I wish I had learned this skill in school, it would have saved me much trial and error and would have avoided many a confrontation at work.
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Standing up for oneself is not an easy thing to do yet it brings more innate power than any organisational chart or any other fleeting external power ever can.
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• Stand up for yourself
• Build your inner power
• Build your inner strength
• Build your inner fortitude
• Build your inner confidence
• Practice it over and over again
• Learn how to do it even when it’s uncomfortable
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Let your voice shake, let your hands sweat, let your words stutter, let your heart beat faster, let your breathing become quick and shallow.
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Feel all these uncomfortable feelings yet don’t let them stop you from standing up for yourself.
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If you don’t stand up for yourself, who will?
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Maggie Smith RIP said it best ‘Speak your mind even if your voice shakes’.
​
Want to join my weekly newsletter on all things positive change? 

Download your free ebook The A-Z of Effective Change below and I’ll see you there 😊

Thanks for reading
​
Siobhain
x x

 

 

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Is Busyness Your Drug?

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On one of his recent podcasts Dr John Delony quoted Ian Simkins who said ‘If busyness is your drug then rest will feel like stress’.
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This hit me like a brick to the back of the head.
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Busyness used to be my drug and rest used to feel like stress. 
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I’ve always loved working since I started collecting glasses and cleaning ashtrays in our family pub aged eight.

I’ve always got a buzz from work and this buzz continued for about 30 years until my busy, hectic and stressful day job as an Analytical Chemist (and Lean Practitioner) wasn’t enough for me and in 2012 I took on the journey to be a travel photographer and blogger.
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Adding another blog in 2017 and launching online courses in 2020 I was absolutely overfeeding my busyness habit.
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My mind, body and soul were never going to sustain this forever and in April 2021 my mind, body and soul said enough and they shut down.
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I burned out.​
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For those who haven’t experienced burnout it’s not a physical tiredness that can be fixed with rest. It’s an emotional and mental shutdown of the mind, body and soul. You are unable to think and unable to do anything. Even the simplest of everyday tasks feel like a mountain to climb.
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In the following months I stopped all work outside of my day job, I stopped writing, I stopped social media, I stopped creating content and I removed myself from all online groups that I was a part of.
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I still felt burnt out.​
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And so I further cleared my plate.
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I stopped reading physical books, I stopped listening to audiobooks, I stopped listening to podcasts, I stopped watching YouTube videos, I unsubscribed from the many email lists I was subscribed to, I stopped all online courses that I was doing.
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I still felt burnt out.​
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Then my attention turned to my day job. I was absolutely miserable in my day job. I had loved my job for many years and it brought me great joy but Covid had changed much of my role and I felt like I was just checking things off a to do list.
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I was no longer using my brain or my skills and I was arguing with people more than I was supporting them.
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I left my day job and only then realised how much of my life I had dedicated to work. In hindsight I also only then realised how much the habit of busyness had consumed my life.
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And I still felt burnt out. ​
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Since late 2021, I have dedicated my life to slowing down and eliminating the effects of burnout, to getting off the fast paced rollercoaster of life and enjoying a slower paced stroll with less highs, less lows and less dramatic turns.
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This has not been easy, it’s not easy to slow down.
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Naively I thought that when I left my day job (which took 50+ hours of my life every week) I thought my life would slow down and that it would happen almost like flicking a light switch.
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That was not the case.
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Yes I did have more time, much more time but slowing down wasn’t like flicking a light switch. Slowing down has been a slow, drawn out process of two steps forward and one step back!
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I have had to work really hard at ensuring I don’t get back on that fast paced rollercoaster that no longer suits, supports or serves me.

No matter what type of lives we lead, our days get filled and if we don’t work at slowing down they become so full that we end up on the rollercoaster of life, at a speed that we don’t want to be travelling at!
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Life has its way of keeping us busy and it can be very difficult to get away from the busyness of life especially if this busyness is your drug!
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These days I am very slowly adding things I love back into my life, taking much care not to overload myself and lose myself in the busyness of life again.
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Ironically my weekly email survived everything and I have consistently sent an email to my readers every week since I started over 4 years ago – I am so grateful to every single person who reads my emails and send me lovely replies. 
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💎 The drug of busyness is no longer a part of my life

💎 Rest no longer feels like stress

💎 Rest now feels like rest, proper rest

💎 Rest is now my preferred drug 

  • Is busyness your drug?
  • Does rest feel like stress?
  • Would you like rest to be your preferred drug?

I write a weekly email on all things positive change – if you want to join, download your free ebook The A-Z of Effective Change below and I’ll see you there.
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Thanks for reading,
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Siobhain
x x

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