It doesn’t have to be Spring to have a good old Spring clean! We often get bogged down with too much stuff! Which can simply weigh us down, get in the way of doing the things we really want to do and prevent us from seeing a clear life path? Sometimes we can over crowd our personal and work life that we can’t even see what we do have amongst all that stuff! Then we go out and buy more things, obtain more possessions when we don’t even have the room for what we have now… So how many ‘things’ do we really need?

You might want to take some time to reflect on how many things you actually have and if you get rid of the most basic forms of clutter in your physical environment you can feel not only lighter but a whole lot more free with space. With fewer things in the way you clear a path and create life balance moving towards what you really want and ultimately need.

Most of us are living in a very materialistic world today that possessions can just take over and often don’t make us happy in the end at all.

Here are 7 tips:

• Take a rubbish bin and go around to every room in your house and throw away any rubbish or things that you can simply get rid of and don’t need straight away.
• Pick one room and move everything that doesn’t belong in there and put it in the room that it does. Follow suit to all rooms.
• Do the above at your work desk too, old draft papers etc that you no longer need and send off for re-cycling, put everything in its place.
• Find 5 items in your house that someone else could really be better off with e.g. too many clothes, which could go to the homeless and less fortunate than yourself? Extra kitchen ware that’s really just getting in the way of your cooking. And stop buying more stuff!
• Schedule a plan that suits you to once a week go through at least one drawer in your house! This is easier to fit in than a couple of weekends of pure spring-cleaning and slowly but surely you will have done them all without too much notice and hours on end of effort.
• Schedule a time for this coming weekend to turn up your radio or put your favourite CD on and give your house a good old top to bottom clean!
• Start doing it now and see how quickly your home and office space turn from clutter to spring clean!

For more information contact Jacqueline Pigdon T: +61 (0) 404 362 379 E: jacqueline@jinalife.com

We all know that we can’t get any more time in the day and we sure can’t save it up to use later! No matter what your back ground, if you’re a uni student, teacher, stay at home mum, doctor, senior Executive, Director or CEO we can all be smart with our time. Are you being smart with yours? Here are some tips to find those extra minutes each day to get things done. First you need to recognize them and then start constantly using them. You will be surprised at the results! I call them ‘Windows of Opportunity’, they seem arise each and every day in your lifestyle can and often do go completely wasted if you’re not aware or prepared for them or action upon them. And if you add them all up they can often amount to several hours a week – What was that about not having enough time in the day to do everything you want to do?

Here are 7 Windows of Opportunity to get you started:

• When you’re ready for a meeting and the other person lets you know they will be 5-10mins late it’s not enough time to work on your bigger projects but you sure can quickly go to review your list for an action or two that will take this amount of time and do it
• If you catch the train to work and get really frustrated or stressed when they are delayed or how long your travel time takes everyday, forget that and view it as the perfect time to read those broachers for your holiday, magazine review of your industry news, (that you have with you because you’re prepared) or get to read more pages of your novel and relax longer before you hit home where you need to cook and do the washing!
• When you’re waiting for your kettle to boil – stack or un-stack your dishwasher or clean up your kitchen.
• If you exercise at home or at the gym, schedule your sessions at the same time as the news or your favourite TV program.
• When you’re walking to and from meetings or locations slip in a few quick calls you need to make on your mobile.
• When stuck in traffic jams listen to your CD’s and bop away, a motivational CD or get yourself a CD that relays stories and sit back, relax and enjoy.
• When you have to clean your house, crank up your favourite dance CD and not only get a clean house but master your dance steps and exercise and feel GREAT all at the same time!

The biggest thing is to be prepared for windows of opportunity that you know could pop up in your day and use these times wisely instead of either doing nothing or negatively. I see too many people become annoyed, frustrated and even downright angry when people or transport are late. Chill out, there is nothing you can do about this unless you don’t meet with them ever again or don’t go anywhere, but what you can do is utilise your time better and feel happier and productive instead of frustrated or annoyed.

When you have your tasks and actions right there and ready telling you exactly what you need to do in these windows of opportunity it’s just so easy to get things done that people will start saying where do you get all the time to do that?

For more information about executive coaching contact Jacqueline Pigdon T: +61 (0) 404 362 379     E:jacqueline@jinalife.com

When people think of giving something another shot or doing something they’ve done before or have already done in their lives but now it’s years or even only a moment later they can often view it as just too hard and not want to do that ‘all over again’ or simply give up yet something drives them to think about it and even contemplate doing it again.

What do you do in these circumstances? I’m the first to say no to doing something that I’ve already done as ‘been there done that’ what’s next and new? Yet sometimes what brings you to these thoughts are if you feel you didn’t really give it your best shot or you’ve learnt something since doing that if you knew back then what you know now you know you’d have been even better.

What if you had the chance to go and do that again yet slightly differently because it will never be the same, time goes by circumstances and environments change but so have you. Hopefully you’ve learnt something in your life since the 1st time and it is easy to look back and think ‘gee how did I possibly do that and I can’t imagine being capable of doing that again now?’ But the thing is if you did it pretty well the 1st time around you probably have a natural strength, skill or talent for it, an interest and it was something you loved doing. If you have any of these thoughts, instead of writing it off or trying to repeat what you did last time, adjust your goals, utilise your new knowledge and insight to create something new but yet still runs that common theme of doing it again or giving it another shot.

It might be creating another new business, achieving a sporting goal, getting that senior executive, director or CEO position, or even having a second chance at building upon one of your personal or family relationships. You may like to start with asking yourself why would you do it again now. What are the benefits and drawbacks? What would it mean to you? Your family? How would you know that you have achieved your new goal? What would be different/better this time around? How would you feel if you never did it again??

You might be surprised that once getting into it you’ll love it and be even better the 2nd time around. And don’t forget it’s only ever as hard as you think it is!

For more information contact Jacqueline Pigdon T: +61 (0) 404 362 379 E: jacqueline@jinalife.com