All tagged Tip of the day

The Importance of Knowing Your "Why?"

The Importance of Knowing Your "Why?"

Dawn Fiske
Knowing Your Why, Why?, The Power of Why, The Power of Why?, Motivatation, Motivators

Many of us take advantage of this time of year to start new things, stop old habits, work towards new stretch goals, or aim to improve ourselves in some way or another. For me, it is dry January (which I do most years) but also and for the first time, this year I am trying Veganism for the whole of January. As a meat-eater that feels quite a monumental leap and trust me, it has taken a lot of time researching and educating myself leading up to 1st January. Although I am only on Day 2 (!) I do feel much safer knowing what I can and can’t eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and what snacks I can have on the bad days - so I am armed and fully prepared with the right ingredients in the cupboards, a full plan in my head, and lots of preparation in terms of menu ideas and recipes.

I know that we are all much more likely to achieve our goals if we make them realistic and achievable so I have only set myself a month. If I had told myself I was turning a vegan forever, it would have felt a much more overwhelming aim and one I suspect I would fail to achieve. Now, I am safe in the knowledge that it is only 31 days and will then review how I feel about my future eating habits once I reach February 1st. Make your goals achievable and don’t over-promise - if you do, you are far more likely to set yourself up for failure and that never makes anyone feel good.

Planning has also been critical to my success, as it is with any of us. If we think about the “how” and put everything in place in advance, we massively increase our chances of success.

But the biggest and most helpful element for me though, and always has been in every goal I have ever set myself, is to know my “why?” For example, when I trained for an Ultramarathon (don’t be too impressed, it was a walking Ultramarathon, not a run!), whilst at the same time struggling horribly with the painful condition in my heel known as Plantar Fasciitis, I had to keep reminding myself why I was doing it. We had received a huge amount of very generous sponsorship pledges from friends and family for a phenomenal cause and I had to keep reminding myself that that was why it was worth pressing forward. So if any of us waiver with our New Year goals and resolutions I strongly recommend tapping into the 'why'. Why do you want to achieve this goal(s)? What made you aim for it in the first place and what does achieving it bring you? What will success look and feel like and what does that bring to your life? I know my reasons for trying Veganism are strong enough to keep me going if or when I struggle (particularly when cooking familiar foods for the rest of the family), and I know from working with so many clients on their goals that the overriding key to success is to regularly draw on your ‘why?’

So be realistic with your achievable goals, plan and prepare your ‘how’ and regularly remind yourself of your ‘why’. Good luck and enjoy the great sense of achievement when you achieve want you are working to achieve. Enjoy every bit of your success!

What Do Your Two Wolves Tell You?

What Do Your Two Wolves Tell You?

Dawn Fiske
Negative Self Talk, Self Doubt, Overcoming Self Doubt, Pushing Through Fear, Well Being

The North American Indians believe that we all have two wolves in our head; the good, helpful, empowering and encouraging wolf, and the unhelpful, critical, disempowering, negative wolf. Each go with us wherever we go. Each talk to us and try and pull us into their way of thinking, battling with each other to win. Here is how the story goes:

An old Cherokee grandfather is telling his grandson a story. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said. ”It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil — he is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, resentment, lies, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The wolves are fighting to the death.

Wide-eyed, the boy asks his grandfather which wolf will win.
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

This is so true. We must decide which one we want to “feed”. Listen to the internal chatterbox that is trying to help you, push you forward, encourage and develop you and feed it, and we must ignore and override the voice that is trying to keep us in a little prison, too scared to try anything, fearful of what others might think, catastrophising and worrying. We need to starve the bad wolf, ignore it and refuse to let it win.

An incredible human feat - prepare to be impressed!

An incredible human feat - prepare to be impressed!

Dawn Fiske
Life Coaching, Inner Strength, Human Strength, The Strength of Women, Human Feat, Time Management Tips, Time Management Advice

I have today been listening to an interview with an incredible woman. Jasmin Paris, a record breaking ultra marathon champion was chatting to Simon Mundie on the “Don’t Tell Me The Score” podcast about endurance, time management, and achieving your goals. Why? Well, when you hear her story, you will understand why she is perfectly qualified to discuss these topics.

Earlier this year, Jasmin took part in the 268 mile Spine race across the Penine Way National Trail, widely regarded as one of the toughest endurance races in the world. Jasmin, became not only the first woman to win the race outright, she also smashed the men’s course record by a staggering 12 hours.

As if this wasn’t incredible enough, Jasmin was also expressing milk for her 14 month old daughter along the route. In addition, whilst training for The Spine, she was not only juggling the demands of being a Mum to a young baby during the day, she was up in the night feeding her baby, then getting up at 5am to complete a long training run, and all this on top of working as a vet.

I was desperate to find out how she managed to fit it all in, particularly from a time management point of view. Jasmin stressed that we first need to love what we do and when we find that it gives us purpose and drive. She described that her goals keep her focussed and they help her to decide where to focus her attention and what to spend her time on. She doesn’t watch TV! She occasionally watches the odd film and only looks at social media approximately 3 times a week. Jasmin explained she is able to juggle everything by spending time on 'worthwhile tasks' only - tasks that underpin and support her goals. She uses her time well, not losing hours on YouTube, Social Media, or TV. Jasmin's trick to time management is to carry out valuable tasks only, each with a real purpose and each connected to helping her achieve her goals, or for her family, or her career. A tip I for one am going to draw on a lot more to see the results for myself. How could this help your time management, too?