I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching recently and I’ve read a lot of blogs and emails and books about what things you can do to make yourself happy and to realize your dreams. Well, maybe not soul searching but more focusing on what I want to do and going for it. From everything I’ve read, there are so many courses and good ideas to implement but having the time to do it all is another thing entirely. After a lot of trial and error, I’ve narrowed it down to my favorite 8 as follows:
1. Writing a diary. In a diary, there’s no protocol on how to write it and what you can write or even worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar. You can just write and that’s it. No-one else needs to see it. This is just yours. But you have to write, even if all you write is I am sitting here writing. Eventually, your writing will flow.
2. Meditating every day. Just 10 minutes a day using the Headspace app really seems to help. It took me a long time to even find 10 minutes a day but if you can find the time, I would definitely recommend doing this. This idea was taken from Nicola Rossell of Rossell Fitness.
3. Making a list of 25 things you want to do, putting them in order of preference and then taking the top 5 and focusing on that and that only. So far I’ve got a list of 28. I still need to cut it down and put it in order but I like this idea of listing everything I want to do, however impossible it might seem. This technique is called the Warren Buffet’s 5/25. However, the most important thing once you’ve chosen your top 5 is to completely avoid the other 20 you didn’t choose.
4. Making a list of 10 ideas a day. It can be any ideas but purposely sitting down to intentionally make an ‘Ideas’ list. Even if you don’t use them or implement them just the process of doing it will help generate new ideas ad surprise yourself.
5. If you want to do something you love, just start doing it without expecting anything in return. Do it, just for the joy of it. This was taken from the book ‘Big Magic’ by Elizabeth Gilbert.
6. If you are doing something but want to get clarity and become a specialist in a chosen field then the ‘5 Why Technique’ is good to use. In this case, you keep asking why to the last question you answered, at least 5 times starting with something like ‘Why am I doing a certain clients accounts?’ This was taken from The Go To Expert by Heather Townsend and Jon Baker.
7. Another way of getting clarity is to go the opposite way and focus on you. Who are you in 5 words? What are you good at? What do you find easy to do? What do you find the most difficult to do? This point was taken from a webinar by Amanda Alexander for ‘workingmums.co.uk’
8. Finally, once you have found your focus or your specialism then you need to ‘Study and practice it – years of it’ as it finally dawned on Dr Strange. I’ve not watched the film but I’ve taken this on trust by an email I received from Nicola Rossell of Rossell Fitness.
I know I got point 3 and 4 from the same person but I’ve no idea who. When I google, for both of them a person called James Altucher comes up but I’ve no idea whether I got this from him.
These are my 8 easy to do tips that even if I can’t do every day, I try and do them as often and as close to every day as I can. One final thought to leave with you is something I read that dreams choose you but whether you do anything with them or not is your choice.
An accountant and a Mum 