Tag Archives: Positive Change

The Speed of Trust

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I’ve made the first hire for my new project – my connector!

I have immense trust and respect for my connector. Not just for their skills and decades of expertise but because I have known them for what seems like a lifetime and I have worked with them many times before.

A foundation for working together is rarely more solid than that.

When choosing a team, I’ll always look for trust and respect first. The right skills are very important yet trust and respect are more important to me.

The lack of trust and respect will do far more damage than the lack of skills ever will.

💎 If you have trust and respect every single interaction will be easier and more enjoyable.

Without trust and respect every interaction will be an uphill struggle and will become less and less enjoyable as time goes on.

💎 If you have trust and respect, you can trust what the person says – is there anything more important in every relationship?

Without trust and respect you will never know if what you are being told is the truth – about anything.

This causes all sorts of problems that escalate with every conversation. In the back of your mind you’ll always be thinking – is this the truth or not?

💎 If you have trust and respect, you can trust what the person does.

Without trust and respect you will never know if the work is done or not, if shortcuts have been taken, if the work is to the agreed standard or if anything to do with the work is the actual truth!

This causes all sorts of problems – the less trust and respect that exists, the less gets done and the more frustrating the entire journey will be.

💎 If you have trust and respect you know the people you work with have your back. They will do their very best and will go above and beyond for you.

You can then return the gifts of having their back, doing your best and going above and beyond for them.

Without trust and respect you’ll always be watching your back, the work will never be as good as it can be and the journey will be rocky and difficult.

💎 All of the above highlight why trust and respect are so important to me in terms of who I work with.

In his best-selling book The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R Covey outlines why trust speeds up everything and how the lack of trust slows everything down.

The Speed of Trust is a great read if you want to learn more about the benefits of trust and the exponential damage lack of trust creates.

The A-Z of Effective Change ebook contains 26 ways you can start creating (and embracing) effective change in your life today.

Download your copy below

Thanks for reading

Siobhain

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The Importance of Connectors

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I’m starting a new project and I’ll be working with loads of new people in a field that I have no expertise in.

I’m excited for this as it means I will learn a huge amount. There is nothing like working in a field of expertise that you don’t know anything about to steepen the learning curve!

Currently I’m building my team – it’s a team of tradespeople, all highly skilled and immensely experienced in their chosen skillset.

I know a few of my team personally and a few of them I’ve never met yet they all come highly recommended which is good enough for me.

One of the most important people on my team and the one I have hired first is my connector.

The term connector comes from Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant book The Tipping Point.

Gladwell refers to connectors as those who know everybody; the networkers with large social circles; the social glue.

I love this quote I found online re connectors ‘they always know how to help or if they can’t help they know someone that can and will quickly put you in touch with them’.

Connectors have been defined as ‘confident, persuasive, and relationship-focused. You can always catch a connector mingling and introducing one friend to another. They know how to make those instant connections with others and are often helping others make those connections themselves.’

By being part of so many different worlds and by being a real people person, connectors have the gift of bringing the people in these different worlds all together – what an amazing gift.

My connector has advised me who he works with, who he trusts and respects and who he thinks would be the best team for me to work with.

These are all good enough reasons for me to hire the people he recommends.

My connector is central to the success of my project and I have no doubt that I will have as much trust and faith in those I hire next as I do in him.

Who is the connector in your life?
Who is the connector in your business?
Who is the connector on your project?
Are you the connector?

Connectors are very special people – they make the world a better place to live in and they have immense gifts to share with us all ❤️

The A-Z of Effective Change ebook contains 26 ways you can start creating (and embracing) effective change in your life today.

Download your copy below 😊

Thanks for reading 🙏

Siobhain

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What brings YOU joy and what fills YOUR days?

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I recently heard Mel Robbins talk about how to find the happiness you once had.

Mel suggests you make two lists.

The first list is what brings you joy or what were you doing at a happier time in your life?
The second list is how do you currently spend your days?

You then compare the lists to see if your days are filled with what makes you happy and joyful or not!

If these lists align then great – you already have happy & joyful days.

If these lists don’t align you need to align them to bring more happiness & joy into your life.

Sounds simple right?

I followed Mel’s advice and made 2 lists.

What makes me happy & joyful or what was I doing at a happier time in my life?

That’s an easy list to make – time with loved ones, time alone, reading, writing, creating, learning, travelling, photography, exercise & relaxing.

Are my days filled with these activities?

The honest answer is not as much as I would like.

If I could spend my time doing all of the above my life would not just be joyful, it would be blissful!

This tells me it’s time to make changes.

Ironically what used to bring me immense joy and made up most of my time before was work.

Work no longer brings me the joy it used to which highlights where we find joy can change as we grow and evolve.

I do want to work again in the future but it will be very different to how I worked before.

What brings you happiness & joy or what were you doing at a happier time in your life?
How do you currently spend your days?
Are your lists aligned?

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Siobhain

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You Are Enough!

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There are a few concepts that I keep coming back to year after year, ENOUGH is one of those concepts.

WE HAVE ENOUGH

WE DO ENOUGH

WE ARE ENOUGH!

Movie star Jim Carrey is most widely known for his comedic genius. More recently he is known for sharing his spiritual path which is light years away from the glitzy movie star life he used to lead. In a recent video Jim was talking about retiring from movies, three sentences he said really hit a chord with me and have become a mantra that I carry with me every day.

I HAVE ENOUGH

I’VE DONE ENOUGH

I AM ENOUGH

Imagine having such a sense of fulfilment and contentment within yourself that all you currently have is ENOUGH, all you have done to this date is ENOUGH and all that you currently are is ENOUGH. You can view Jim’s video here,

No matter where we are in our lives, starting from this baseline of having ENOUGH, having done ENOUGH and being ENOUGH is incredibly liberating.

Starting and finishing EVERY DAY with this realisation means that everything we get, everything we do and everything we become is then a BONUS!

WE HAVE ENOUGH

WE DO ENOUGH

WE ARE ENOUGH!

ENOUGH doesn’t stop us from wanting to have more, do more and be more. It does however, allow us to be content with what we have, what we have done and what we are while we pursue all we want.

DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH TODAY?

HAVE YOU DONE ENOUGH TODAY?

ARE YOU ENOUGH TODAY?

Over the past few years my life has changed a huge amount and I’ve experienced more loss in the past 5 years than I have in my entire lifetime.

Even with all this loss, I absolutely know I have ENOUGH, I have done ENOUGH and I am ENOUGH.

Knowing this is hugely comforting, empowering & liberating.

Remember whatever you have, do and are – YOU ARE ENOUGH.

You are enough today.

You are enough every day.

You are enough, we all are.

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Siobhain

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Less is More

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The underlying message in Less is More is that we don’t need more to be happy, we can be happier and more content with less.

For the past few years all my goals have centred around Less is More principles which have brought me so much peace, joy, contentment and happiness.

Every year I add a few more learnings to these principles, this year I’m adding less control and more trust, less frustration and more patience, less resistance and more acceptance as these were my three key learnings this year.

Not in a ‘I’ve learned something new’ way but in a ‘painful, my heart has been ripped from my chest and my soul is exhausted’ sort of way. That’s the thing with learnings, they mostly don’t come wrapped in nice fancy paper, deep learnings are usually accompanied by some sort of deep pain.

Here’s why I’m adding less control and more trust, less frustration and more patience, less resistance and more acceptance to my less is more principles,

LESS CONTROL, MORE TRUST

We control very little in this life yet can spend much time trying to control things. The only thing we really have any control over is ourselves. Everything outside of ourselves, every person and every thing is totally out of our control.

Going a little deeper I would say some of our own lives are also out of our control, there seems to be an invisible force aligning us with what is meant for us and misaligning us with what isn’t meant for us.

The less we try to control, the more we can trust. Trust can be placed anywhere yet the most important place for your trust is in yourself.

🙏 Trust your dreams.

🙏 Trust your intuition.

🙏 Trust your inner compass.

🙏 Trust the divine timing of your life.

When you trust yourself and all that you are, your life will evolve exactly how it is meant to.

That’s how important and powerful self trust is.

LESS FRUSTRATION, MORE PATIENCE

Frustration is a normal human emotion. As normal as it is, it’s usually more of a signal pointing us to deeper, more vulnerable and negative emotions that we are not expressing.

Patience is a valuable skill we can learn to reduce frustration which also reduces all the deeper, more vulnerable and negative emotions hidden behind our frustration.

The more patience we have, the less frustration we feel.

The more patience we have, the more joy we feel.

LESS RESISTANCE, MORE ACCEPTANCE

Resistance causes pain.

The more we resist, the more pain we experience.

There is no end to the amount of things we can resist in our lives yet with everything we resist, we create more pain.

Acceptance is a much lighter and positive emotion and has a magical way of eliminating pain, replacing it with joy.

Eckhart Tolle says,

‘It may look like as if the situations in our life are creating the suffering but ultimately this is not so, it is our resistance to the situations that causes the suffering’.

I find this quote has deep wisdom to it, practicing less resistance and more acceptance is not easy yet it brings much peace.

During the challenging times of my life I have found that some days the only thing I can do is practice acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean I like what has happened yet it does mean I stop resisting it.

Resistance brings a never ending cycle of pain.
Acceptance has a way of easing that pain, the more acceptance the less pain.

Here are my Less is More principles that I have built up over the past few years,

DO LESS, BE MORE

Sometimes I find life is just one big long to do list, this doesn’t bring me joy it brings me anxiety! Having less on my ‘to do list’ and more on my ‘to be list’ brings me peace, joy, contentment and happiness. I want to continue to do less and enjoy being more!

WORK LESS, HAVE MORE TIME

For 25 years I worked in the corporate world which brought me much joy, many beautiful friendships and a certain amount of wealth. I left the corporate world 4+ years ago and my work was replaced with the gift of time. I want to continue to work less and spend my precious time in other areas of my life that are important to me and that bring me immense joy.

LESS EARNING, MORE LEARNING

This will be my 5th year in a row earning less money. This reduction in earnings has given me the gift of time which brings me more joy than any amount of money ever could. Over the past 4+ years I have used this time to learn more, learn more about myself, the world around me, what interests me, what work I want to do in the future, how to create passive income and how to earn more.

I’ll never return to the hours I used to work nor will I ever return to how I used to earn money. Less earning and more learning has taught me a different way that suits me better. In 2026 I am excited to get back to the work I love and the inevitable side effect of earning money again.

ACHIEVE LESS, ENJOY MORE

I’m not a big achievement chaser, enjoyment is way more important to me. In saying that I do have ambition, ambition to work towards and fulfil my dreams. On this journey towards my dreams, enjoyment of every step is much more important to me than achievements.

If I’m enjoying life, that’s achievement enough for me.

LESS SPEED, MORE PROGRESS

In my 20s, 30s and early 40s I lived life at a fast pace, always going, always doing, always striving, moving at the speed of light. A few years ago this all changed and I started to slow down. This slower lifestyle brings me more peace, tranquility and bliss than any fast paced life ever could, ironically I seem to be getting more done.

Dr Wayne Dyer sums up this concept with his quote ‘Doing nothing yet getting it all done’.

LESS RUSHING, MORE RELAXING

Rushing makes me feel under pressure and stressed which is not enjoyable for me.
Relaxing makes me feel happy and peaceful which is immensely enjoyable for me.

I choose relaxing over rushing every single day.

LESS CONSUMING, MORE CREATING

For many years I spent much time consuming a huge amount of content – physical books, audiobooks, podcasts, YouTube videos and scrolling social media etc. That was until I experienced burnout and stopped all content consumption.

I still love consuming content in these ways, I just don’t love or do so much of it. These days I consume less and create more. I write more, learn more about writing, share more of my writing and I am developing more depth, meaning, openness and transparency in my writing.

BUY LESS, USE MORE

In terms of material things I have plenty and enough of everything. I used to love shopping for all sorts of things, clothes, make up, fancy toiletries, household stuff, books, stationery, the list goes on and on. The problem with this constant shopping was that I ended up with many things that I just didn’t use and eventually things that I no longer liked.

The irony is now that I have less, I use (and like) what I have more.

That’s all my less is more principles for 2026, ironically with so much less comes so much more peace, joy and contentment?

What would your less is more principles be?
Do you resonate with any of the principles above?
Could less bring you more peace, joy, contentment?

If you want to join my weekly newsletter on all things positive change, download your free ebook The A-Z of Effective Change below, see you there

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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Setting Dream Driven Goals

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In my blog post ‘Goal Setting Templates’ I mention SMART goals and Brendon Burchard’s DUMB goals.

I use the best of both of these templates to create my own goal setting template.

It’s high level but is detailed enough to give me sufficient direction to set goals,

What are my DREAM DRIVEN GOALS?
WHY are these goals important to me?
HOW will I achieve these goals?
What METRICS will I use to measure progress towards these goals?

I answer the above questions in detail for each category of my life. As outlined in my Wheel of Life below, the categories of my life are Sense of Self, Relationships, Health, Work, Finance, Social Life, Environment & Contribution.

You can use this Wheel of Life or create your own version.

What are my DREAM DRIVEN GOALS

Remembering Brendon Burchard’s DUMB goals

What are your DREAMS for each area of your life?

What would be a DREAM come true?

This is where we DREAM BIG about what we want for our lives.

There are no limits or obstacles in DREAM DRIVEN GOALS – just DREAMS!

HOW BIG WILL YOU DREAM?

WHY are these DREAM DRIVEN GOALS important to me?

Simon Sinek in his highly viewed Ted Talk and bestselling book says to START WITH WHY and that is where I start with goal setting.

Understanding my WHY not only supports the goal setting process but it also keeps me going when times get tough, which they inevitably will.

What is your WHY?

WHY do you want to FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS in each area of your life?

WHY are your DREAM DRIVEN GOALS important to you?

HOW will I achieve these goals?

The HOW is the actions required to move closer to your goals.

What ACTION do you need to take to get closer to your goals.

What do you need to STOP DOING to move you closer to your goals?

What do you need to LEARN to move you closer to your goals?

What METRICS will I use to measure progress towards these goals?

Metrics are incredibly important as without them we don’t know how much progress we are making and whether we are moving towards or away from our goals.

What metrics will you use to measure your progress?

‘WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED’ is a quote by Peter Drucker that is as true today as when he said it 40+ years ago.

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

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If so download my free ebook ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below and you are all signed up!

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Siobhain

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The Power of Procrastination

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In my blog posts ‘The 9R’s to Eliminate Overwhelm’ and ‘Il Dolce Far Niente’ I wrote about ways to eliminate overwhelm, another way of dealing with overwhelm is through procrastination.

Procrastination is defined as ‘the habit of voluntarily delaying an important task usually by focusing on less urgent, more enjoyable and easier tasks instead’.

The internet has many videos & articles on how to overcome procrastination, how to stop procrastination, and how to deal with and how to cope with procrastination. All of these videos and articles have one central theme – that procrastination is a bad thing.

I think procrastination is a good thing and we can learn much from it.

I procrastinate all the time – show me something that’s boring, tedious, takes ages, or that I don’t like doing and I can literally delay it forever.

This teaches me a lot about what I like to do and what I don’t like to do.

What I delay is always, without exception things I don’t like doing.

What I don’t delay is always, without exception things I like to do

This makes procrastination a great teacher.

Procrastination teaches us what we don’t like to do.

Procrastination also teaches us what we do like to do.

In terms of overwhelm there are a few ways to treat procrastination as a friend, not a foe,

1.Delay what you don’t like doing – move what you don’t like doing to tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. The simple act of delaying what you don’t like to do can reduce overwhelm significantly.

2. Delay what you do like doing – just because you like doing something doesn’t mean it needs to get done today! Move what you do like doing to tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. The simple act of delaying what you do like to do can also reduce overwhelm significantly.

3. Outsource what you can. I’m a firm believer in outsourcing everything that others can do for you. This frees you up to focus solely on what only you can do in your life and business.

Note: It’s more enjoyable to outsource what you don’t like to do but you can also outsource what you do like to do. The most important thing is that you free up your time to focus solely on what only you can do in your life and business.

This reduces overwhelm dramatically as your ‘to do list’ become someone else’s ‘to do list’!

My blog post ‘How to Free Up Your Time Using Online Outsourcing’ can support you with online outsourcing.

4. Prioritise what you absolutely have to get done – My blog post The Priority Matrix can support you with this. The simple act of prioritising can reduce overwhelm significantly as you realise everything doesn’t have to be done straight away!

😊 How can you leverage the power of procrastination?

😊 What can procrastination teach you?

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Siobhain

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Il Dolce Far Niente

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Following on from my blog post ‘The 9Rs to Eliminate Overwhelm’ another concept that helps to eliminate overwhelm is Il Dolce Far Niente.

The Italian concept of ‘Il Dolce Far Niente’ translates to

‘THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING’.

When I got injured skiing in Italy in early 2023 I had loads of time on my hands.

I spent this time watching Italians practise ‘THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING’.

The Italians seem to take their time and savour enjoyment of the simple things in life
The Italians spend hours eating many courses of food and enjoying the best of coffee, wine and other aperitifs
The Italians walk as if time is their best friend and as if they have plenty of it
The Italians don’t seem to be in any rush to get to or to do anything
The Italians are intent on the enjoyment of time as just that – time

When in Italy do as the Italians do and so I used this precious time to practise ‘THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING’.

I had long lazy breakfasts & lunches, I had midday naps, I sat in cafes sipping coffee and eating cake, I walked around the area we were staying in with no real direction just aimlessly wandering yet enjoying the journey.

I sat and listened to Italians in conversation, their language is like music. The words I didn’t understand, the changing tone of their voices, their uplifting laughs, their hand gestures. You can hear their expressions of affection even without understanding the words.

I did lots of nothing, lots of just nothing – enjoying THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING.

While my body was sore and in pain from my injury, my mind was slowing down and becoming immensely peaceful.

THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING made me feel good during a very challenging time and I brought this little piece of Italy home with me to savour and enjoy when I need it.

Do you practice THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING?

Do you think THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING would support you to slow down and eliminate overwhelm?

Eat, Pray, Love was made into a film and this clip is where Il Dolce Far Niente is explained to Julia Roberts, Il Dolce Far Niente .

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Siobhain

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What’s In and Out of Your Control?

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Where does your time, energy and focus go?

Is it on what you control?

Is it on what you don’t control?

Over time I have learned that there is only one thing you control in this life and that is yourself.

Everything outside of yourself is out of your control.

Every person, every event, every situation, every single thing outside of yourself is out of your control.

Because of this, wouldn’t it make sense to give the majority of our time and energy to what we can control?

In an ideal world the answer would be yes but we don’t live in an ideal world. We live in a messy, unpredictable, busy world where most of what we encounter during our daily lives is outside of us.

So if we don’t control what is outside of us, how do we change it?

We can try to.change things outside of us yet it’s much easier to just control our reaction to things outside of us.

We absolutely 100% can control our reaction to every single thing that happens.

Easier said than done for sure.

The next time you are in a situation that you want to change, think about the following,

1. How can I accept this?

Eckhart Tolle in my favourite book The Power of Now suggests to accept everything as if we had chosen it.

Following this acceptance, Eckhart then suggests to ask what the situation is trying to teach us.

Acceptance of difficult situations is not easy yet is totally in our control.

Acceptance is a concept that takes a bit of getting used to but absolutely brings much peace of mind.

2. Can I change this?

Yes, then change it.

No, then how can I change how I view it?

Wayne Dyer in his masterpiece book ‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ introduces the concept of changing how we view things which doesn’t change what they are but changes our perception of them.

Wayne’s beautiful quote sums up this thinking ‘If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Again, a concept that takes a bit of getting usd to but also brings much peace of mind.

How we view and think about any situation is totally in our control

3. Do I need to make a long term plan?

If you can’t accept something and can’t change it then the only other option is to remove yourself from the situation.

This is not always straight forward or easy and might take some planning on your part.
While you plan to remove yourself from the situation, acceptance and changing how you view the situation will go a long way to protecting you and your mental health.

Making a plan to remove yourself from the situation will give you something to focus on other than the situation itself.

4. Reflect on your reaction

The more I reflect, the more I learn about how I react in situations that I want to change and how I make decisions, big and small.

Reflection is one of the most powerful things you can do to learn more about yourself.

Do you reflect on decisions you make and how you react to situations you want to change?

Reflection on and learning from every situation is totally in our control.

The next time you are faced with a challenging situation you want to change, I hope the above will support you with acceptance, changing how you view the situation, planning to remove yourself from it and reflection on all of the above.

As mentioned above, here are 2 life changing books that I love and that you might love also..

‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle

By far my favourite book of all time, if you only ever read one book in your lifetime, let it be this one! Eckhart’s follow on book ‘A New Earth’ is equally as good.

‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ by Dr Wayne Dyer

An incredible book on how to change situations by changing how we think about them which is turn totally transforms our lives. Anything by Dr. Wayne Dyer is a transformational read.

The Art Of Positive Change

Grow Yourself, Grow Your Business

Tag Archives: Positive Change

The Speed of Trust

The Importance of Connectors

What brings YOU joy and what fills YOUR days?

You Are Enough!

Less is More

Setting Dream Driven Goals

The Power of Procrastination

Il Dolce Far Niente

What’s In and Out of Your Control?

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.

Where are you on the Emotional Scale?

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