Hello ,

If you find yourself getting caught up in the day to day of busy life, it might be good to take a little time out.

This weekend is a long Bank Holiday weekend (in the UK) and for many it's the start of school half term.  We're also rapidly approaching the middle of the year and it's not long before the Summer holidays.

When you get a few days to relax, take stock, think about what's important in your life and what you'd like to change.

With warmer days and longer daylight hours to enjoy - spend less time at work and more time getting out to enjoy the fresh air, sunshine and having fun.

What do you want to change about your life?  Drop me an email and let me know.

How Much Do You Love Your Job?

"Success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." Albert Schweitzer

Quite a few of my recent calls and sessions have been based around career change - either because people are unhappy in their existing job or career or they’re looking for a change or progression.

Your work priorities change as you progress through life.

When you’re young you’re focused on the short-term, enjoying life.  Perhaps thinking about a career path, maybe just interested in the pay-check at the end of the month, so you can go out, have fun and socialise with friends.

As you get older, responsibilities kick-in, you now have a family and lifestyle to support - bills, mortgage and pension to finance.  Your career path is more clearly defined - even if it is just taking one step after another up the career ladder.  It may be a career you chose, it chose you or you just fell in to it.

You reach retirement age and finally have time to enjoy what you do without the daily commitment of work.

If you work an average day, you spend roughly 50% of your waking hours travelling to and from or at work.  More if you work 60-70+ hours a week.

Do you enjoy what you do?  Are you excited to get up and go to work each day?  Perhaps you don’t even notice when the weekend comes and goes because you’re spending your time catching up on work.

Does your current role make the most of your skills and abilities or do you find you're working at odds with the people around you?  Stress, tension and work dissatisfaction can result from a role or organisation not fitting with your *core values.

What do you want from work? Does it give you the salary you need to life the lifestyle you want or are you spending all your waking hours at work?

Are you looking for a promotion, salary increase or a complete change?  Use your experience and knowledge to get you where you want to be.

Create a development plan - personal or otherwise that will help you get there with the right training and qualifications.

Work with a mentor (or coach) who will challenge you, give you the advice, support and fresh perspective you need to get you where you want to be and keep you accountable.

Keep your longer-term objectives in mind so you keep sight of your goal and your reasons behind why you go to work.

Know your limits - what are you prepared to put up with?  Many people are finding their hours are getting longer and longer or they’re taking on more and more work without either any acknowledgement or compensation.

Do you need to take a step back and re-define your working hours or do you want to switch to a more flexible way of working?

Take control.  If you don’t like where you are or what you do, change it.  If something isn’t working, find ways to make your current job more enjoyable, more interesting or more fun.

Look for opportunities either to develop where you are or to move into a different role or profession.  It takes courage to make a move but what’s worse - to stick with something that causes you stress just because it’s comfortable or what you’re used to or to find something you love that brings you a greater sense of achievement each day?

Remember:  there’s more to life than work, so if work is getting you down or causing you stress - do something to change it.

Get in touch if you’d like to improve or change your working environment for the better.

Clare

*Not sure what your core values are?  email me for the free worksheet.