Tag Archives: Positive Change

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. 

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

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Where are you on the Emotional Scale?

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

 Our emotions, whether consciously or subconsciously drive every single thing we do.

Emotions are not only in the driving seat, they’ve got Google Maps! 

Our emotions set the direction & determine our each and every move.

They determine what we say & how we say it, determine what we think and subsequently determine what comes in and out of our lives.

Pretty important yeah?

Well worth some time to evaluate and understand!

So, for today, tomorrow and beyond, where do you want your emotions to take you?

The image above is the Emotional Guidance Scale. This is attributed to Abraham Hicks and is a scale of emotions going from the highest of joy, empowerment, love, freedom to the lowest of  fear, powerlessness & depression. 

Take a look at the emotional scale, create some quiet time for yourself and have a think about where you currently are on this emotional scale, what are your underlying emotions each and every day?  

Of course our emotions can fluctuate during the day but at a high level we will find ourselves in and around a few numbers on the scale.

Are you on the upward spiral where you are feeling hopeful, optimistic, positive, enthusiastic & content?

 Are you on the downward spiral where you are feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, disappointed, doubtful, worried, angry & discouraged?

Wherever you are on this scale, ask what is contributing to your emotions and what changes can you make to move yourself up the upward spiral.

Every one of us should be aiming for & moving towards the pinnacle of the upper scale spiral of joy, knowledge, empowerment, freedom, love and appreciation. I smile just thinking about  these words! 

After taking on way too much work & many steep learning curves last year, I was hovering around overwhelmed, frustrated, disappointed & impatient and had much work to do to climb back to the upward spiral of hopeful, positive, enthusiastic and content! 

Where are you on the Emotional Scale?

Where would you like to be?

How will you get there?

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

Want to read more about Positive Change?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below.

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3 Steps To Your Annual Review

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Another year has whizzed by and it’s time for your Annual Review – how fast did that year go?

That’s the thing with time, it literally flies by which is why it’s so important to live and love every single minute you have.

How do you make the most out of every single minute?

You plan for it which you can do by setting intentions & goals.

What else can you do?

You can look back and review your progress to learn what works for you & what doesn’t work for you and change your direction accordingly.

It is through personal reflection that we learn the most. 

We are our own greatest teachers and so reflecting on our experiences brings us so much wisdom. 

The 3 Steps to Your Annual Review’is easy to follow – no jargon, no fancy words and will take as much time as you want to dedicate to it.

Here’s a few tips on preparing for your Annual Review.

  • Print your Annual Review Workbook (you can download it at the end of this blog post you can also use a journal/notebook or an online document. I document my Annual Review in Moleskine journals and use Google Suite tools for online documentation throughout the year.
  • Schedule time in your busy calendar – I usually take about 3 days to do this. That may sound like a lot of time but it is time well spent when you think of the amount you will learn. No matter how long this takes you, the most important thing is that you schedule and take this time for yourself. 
  • Refer to your Wheel of Life as you answer each question – keep in mind the key areas of your life in your Wheel of Life. If you haven’t created a Wheel of Life, you can use mine below. The areas of my Wheel of Life are Sense of Self, Health, Relationships, Work, Finance, Social Life, Environment & Contribution.

Step 1 is reflection on what went well in 2025

1: What worked well for you in 2025? 

What did you enjoy?

Did your plans work out how you wanted or better? 

There are so many blessings in our lives each and every day.

If you focus on the small stuff first you may see that life goes your way more than you may realise – the small stuff really is the big stuff!

 2: What did you do that supported this success?

How did you bring success into your life? 

There are so many things in our lives that we cannot control and so it’s best to just focus on what you can control.

The only person who has control over your life is YOU and the only life you can control is YOUR OWN. 

Did you work hard at something and then reap the rewards?

3. What brought you joy and happiness in 2025?

When were you at your happiest in 2025?

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you? Knowing what brings us happiness allows us to bring more happiness and joy into our lives.

You want to be spending as much time as possible with those who bring out the best in you. The more you bring out the best in yourself, the more you can bring out the best in others.

4. Are you happy with where you spent your time in 2025?

Time is so precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have!

This realisation always makes me so determined to live life to the fullest every single day and that means spending my time where I am happy spending it.

Where did your precious time go in 2025?

Are you happy with where your time was spent in 2025? 

Did you fully enjoy every minute of every day?

That’s Step 1 of your Annual Review done!

 Step 2  is reflection on what didn’t go well in 2025

1. What didn’t go well in 2025?

When did your plans not work out in 2025?

What happened that you didn’t enjoy?

No matter how much we plan, no matter how much we try to control our plans there are times when things just don’t go our way. 

In his book ‘Green Lights’, Matthew McConaughey talks about the fact that if we only had green lights in life, if there were no amber or red lights, then life would be very boring and we would never grow and evolve.

Such truth and wisdom in that.

2. What challenges got in your way?

Were there challenges that got in your way in 2025?

Challenges can turn into opportunities for success if we take the time to evaluate and learn from them.

What can you do to eliminate these challenges?

If you can’t eliminate the challenges, how can you think about them differently? 

We all have compete control over our thoughts and just reframing things in our mind can turn challenges into opportunities for success.

3. What didn’t bring you joy and happiness in 2025?

Happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand – no human life is devoid of unhappiness.

Acceptance of this goes a long way to find out what exactly makes us unhappy.

When were you at your unhappiest in 2025? 

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you?

Knowing what makes us unhappy allows us to think deeper about the role certain people, situations, interactions and places play in our levels of happiness.

What did you do to understand and alleviate your unhappiness?

4. Where would you have liked to have spent more time in 2025?

As mentioned above, we all know time is precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have.

Where would you have liked to have spent more time in 2025?

Think about all of the key areas of your life from your Wheel of Life – did you spend too much time in some areas and not enough in others? 

What areas would you have liked to have spent more time in?

How balanced is your life in terms of where you spend your time?

That’s Step 2 of your Annual Review done! 

Step 3  is reflection on learnings in all areas of your life in 2025

The only way we grow and evolve as humans is by learning more and by turning these learnings into action that propels us forward. 

Work through the categories of your life in your Wheel of life and ask yourself the following questions,

Sense of Self – what did you learn about yourself? How did you grow and evolve as a person? Did you dedicate enough time to personal development?

Relationships – what did you learn about your relationship with yourself? Has your relationship with yourself improved? What did you learn about your relationship with others? Has your relationship with others improved? 

Health – what did you learn about your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health? Did your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health improve or decline?

Work – what did you learn about your work? Are you growing and developing in your work?  Does your work improve your life? Does your work disimprove your life?

Finance – what did you learn about finance? Did your financial situation improve? Did your financial situation disimprove?

Fun/Experiences – what did you learn about socialising and recreation? Did you have enough fun & recreation?

Environment – what did you learn about your environment ? Did your environment improve or disimprove? For me, environment relates to my home and also our planet, both are of immense importance to me and bring me happiness and joy.

Contribution – what did you learn about contribution? Did you give more to the world in terms of your time, money or skills? Did you make the world a better place by giving more? Giving doesn’t have to be grand gestures, giving in the smallest possible way can often be the most impactful.

That’s your 2025 Annual Review done!

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the year gone by and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the year ahead.

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

Thanks for reading,

 Siobhain 

x x

 

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Zzzzz

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Thanks to the brilliant Andy Kefford for the above image

“The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change”

This quote from Heraclitus suggests change is constantly happening and is inevitable. As we change and evolve every second, minute, hour and day of our lives it is essential that we find time in our busy schedules to rest and recharge our body, mind and soul.

Whatever we do for rest and relaxation, whether it’s reading, listening to music, spending time alone, spending time with others, exercising, meditating, sleeping or just being, it is so very important to schedule rest and relaxation into our calendar each and every day.

Resting, relaxing, reconnecting with ourselves will not only replenish our energy levels, keeping our mind and body and spirit healthy, it will also keep us sane!!!

My basics for resting and relaxation are spending time with family and friends, solitude,  reading, writing, meditating, journaling and exercising.

As we are all different and unique, only you will know best how to bring rest and relaxation into your life. Only you will know how you best bring rest and relaxation into your life – do you make time for this in your life during times of change?

What are your basics for rest and relaxation?

Do you make enough time for rest and relaxation? 

‘We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.’ Thich Nhat Hanh

Want to read more?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below. 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x 

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You

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Thanks to the brilliant Andy Kefford for the above image

All change starts and ends with you.

No matter how big or small, no matter how long it takes, no matter how crazy it sounds, no matter how many doubts and fears you have – all change that you want to see and bring into your life starts with you.

We may think that we need external factors to bring change into our lives and be happy with such change. We all know the saying ‘I’ll be happy when….’. This may be true for short term unsustainable change but for real long term sustainable changes in life and in business it is internal factors that determine success.

How much do we want change and how hard are we going to work for it?

When it comes to change, Mahatma Gandhi summed it up when he said 

‘Be the change you want to see in the world’.

How can we expect the world around us to change if we remain the same? 

How can we expect more from life without changing ourselves?

What change do you want to see in your world?

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”  Gail Sheehy

Want to read more?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below. 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x 

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Xtra Effort

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Thanks to the brilliant Andy Kefford for the above image

No matter what type of change you are going through or implementing you will need strength.

Strength to ensure you follow through on what is required for change, strength to be able to support yourself through change, strength to support others through change and strength to ensure you keep going no matter what external factors and obstacles may come your way.

If you put extra effort into building your Physical, Mental and Emotional strength, nothing will get in your way of change. Keeping your mind, body and emotions strong and healthy will make everything along the path of change is that little bit easier.

How do you put xtra effort into your physical, mental and emotional strength?

Are you putting in xtra effort towards the change you want?

‘No matter what kind of challenges or difficulties or painful situations you go through in your life, we all have something deep within us that we can reach down and find the inner strength to get through them.’  Alana Stewart

How do you build your physical, mental and emotional strength?

Want to read more?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below. 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x 

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Work

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Thanks to the brilliant Andy Kefford for the above image

As outlined in my previous post, having a grand vision is critical to creating and sustaining positive change in your professional and personal life.

When you have determined what your vision is, then it’s work – consistent work, hard work, and focused work that is required to realise your vision.

Sustainable change is a step by step process. Each step towards change requires a different type of work. A new skill may be required or you may need to re-energise  the skills you already have, it may be research or planning that is the next step, delegation of work may be the best way to go or asking for the help and the support of others. You may require inner work to build up your confidence, bravery, patience, resilience and motivation, all necessary elements for change.

One of my favourite quotes by Brendon Burchard comes to mind when thinking about the amount of work required for change,

‘When you knock on the door of opportunity, do not be surprised that it is work who answers.’ Brendon Burchard

What work do you have to do to implement the change you desire?

What new skills do you need?

What personal development will support you?

Want to read more?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below. 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x 

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Vision

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Thanks to the brilliant Andy Kefford for the above image

In order to bring Positive Change into your personal life, professional life or business you will need a VISION.

As defined by the Oxford Dictionary, a vision is the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom, a mental image of what the future will or could be like, a vivid mental image, especially a fanciful one of the future.

A favourite quote of mine from is

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” Norman Vincent Peale

Shooting for the moon is indeed a grand vision but why would you shoot for anything less?

The above quote is so true and something to keep in mind when you are creating your own grand vision.

A grand vision will stretch you personally and professionally to work towards it.

A grand vision will ensure you either reach the moon or do indeed fall among the stars.

A grand vision will keep you on track, keep you centered, keep you focused on your goals and will bring clarity and comfort when times get tough.

In the world of Lean we use the term True North to describe where we are aspire to be and what we are working towards.

True North like a vision becomes the compass that continuously shows you where you are going and if you are on or off track.

When you are clear what your vision is you can take the action required to bring your vision to life.

What is your personal vision?

What is your professional vision/vision for your company?

Are you working towards this vision every day?

‘Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others’ Jonathan Swift

Want to read more?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below. 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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Unknown

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Thanks to the brilliant Andy Kefford for the above image

All change requires taking a leap of faith into the unknown.

We know we want to change, we know we need to change, we know what we have to do to change, yet the path to change is unknown and mostly the destination of change is also unknown.  

Leaping into the unknown may create feelings of stress and anxiety but those feelings will soon pass as the journey to change commences. With every step we take along the path of change, we become more comfortable with change, more comfortable with the unknown that lies ahead and sometimes we learn to enjoy the journey into the unknown.

The unknown is more common than we realise.

Every day we wake up we are faced with the unknown, nobody knows what the day ahead holds. We may know where we are going every day (work, school, college, holidays) but nobody knows what will happen or what the day holds in store for us.

When we become familiar and comfortable with the unknown, it becomes less of a scary concept.

Instead of stressful and anxious feelings we start to feel excited and inspired by the unknown which allows us to take even bigger strides towards positive change.

‘The challenge of the unknown future is so much more exciting than the stories of the accomplished past’  Simon Sinek

Want to read more? Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below. 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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Time

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Thanks to the brilliant Andy Kefford for the above image

As mentioned in previous posts, sustainable change takes time, lots of time.

If you want to make change you will need to protect your time like a lioness protects her new-born cub! Your time belongs to you, it is solely yours and only you can decide where your time goes.

Sometimes we give so freely of our time that it becomes someone else’s and we are left wondering where it went!!

Would you give your money away as freely as you give your time? I didn’t think so!!

One of my all time favourite quotes is by Jim Rohn, 

‘Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time’ Jim Rohn

This quote is so true and is especially pertinent when you are going through personal or professional change.

Take time to think, time to plan, time to ensure your decisions are the right ones for you, ensure your time remains your own and is spent wisely on bringing the change you are working towards into being.

Who uses your time?

is it the same person who uses your money?

Something to think about!

Want to read more?

Download your free e-book ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below. 

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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