Can You Take Your Own Advice?

Sometimes it can be really hard for us to take the advice that we want to dish out to everyone else. I know myself that I am really great at helping other people sort their issues out but I find that it’s somewhat harder when you are closer to the situation to be able to give yourself advice and see clearly what you need to do.

I coach people for a living, part of what I do is to help them figure out their issues because they are too close to their own problems to figure out what they need to do.

I’ve had a lot going on in my life the last few months with me personally and with my businesses. Actually the truth is that it’s not just been the last few months. It’s my life ALL THE TIME. The only thing that seems to change for me through the years is that what I am actually dealing with is different situations. My life is always crazy busy!

So this morning as I was driving my daughter to daycare, I was thinking about how all the things that we deal with on a day to day basis takes a little bit from us. If you can imagine the battery power symbol on your phone and the percentage next to it, this is what I was visualising at the time.

Let’s say that to get the kids ready in the morning to get them out the door uses 10% of that battery, then to run your business for the first few hours of the day takes 25% away.

Then the personal things that you may be thinking about in the background may be another 10% gone. Thinking about what you are going to have for lunch and what you need to get from the grocery store for dinner after work, another 5%.

Running your business in the afternoon, attending to clients and staff, there is another 30% gone! I think you get my point, pretty much everything you do all day every day is taking up a percentage of that little battery symbol.

If all of these things are draining your battery life, how effective are you with brainpower to complete the tasks that you need to do and also just be YOU? Even through to how effective you are as a mum, a business owner, a boss, a hairdresser, a partner and the other big one, how effective are you at just being YOU?

When your phone is flat, you can’t use it and it’s not good to you is it?

If you are doing that to yourself how effective are you being? Does it actually serve you in a positive way?

For me I know if definitely doesn’t.

Like I said before, I was thinking about this all this morning while I was driving and also thinking about all of the things that I needed to do today and compiling that mental list. I realised that I already needed to do a bit of a recharge on myself already, since it was 8am on a Monday morning and I was already flashing with the red light on!

For today my recharge option was that I made the decision to get out of the office and go and work from the beach this morning.

I initially decided to go for a walk along the beach while multitasking and listening to a call recording from a program that I am doing. It gave me the energy and boost that I needed just from being outside and in the fresh air.

I then completed, with just pen and a notebook, more things in 3 hours that I probably would have done all week had I been in my office and distracted by my laptop with emails, Facebook and so many other things.

I’ve recharged my battery even though I was working at the same time, just by having a change of scenery. No distractions and being able to focus was also a big help.

If one of my students was in the same position as me I would be giving them the exact advice I gave myself this morning – I needed to change things up a bit and do something to help me focus.

So what can you do today, or tomorrow or even this week, to get yourself more focused and complete things that you have been putting off?

Tell me, what is it that YOU can do to tick some things off your To Do List?

Emma x

P.S If you are going to go to the beach, wear sunscreen! Even though it is the middle of winter, I am still burnt and look like a tomato! I was obviously too busy madly writing this article to notice that I was getting fried.