Personality tests – Myers Briggs.

I completed the test on a course and then also did it online here.  www.16personalities.com Myersbriggs.org

During my course the instructor really helped explain each section.

I or E -Where we direct and receive our energy.

Extrovert (like being with people, get energy from people.) / Introvert. (get energy from alone time)

 

S or N – How we gather data and the kind of information we like and trust.

Sensing (practical, actual, real)  and intuition (possibilities, the big picture.).

 

T or F – The way we make decisions.

Thinking (logical, want to solve problems, treat people equally, want recognition at the end of the project.)  /

feeling(want to support and listen to people making decisions based on your values and belief system, how will this impact people. Treating people based on what they need. Constantly want recognition throughout the work they are doing)

 

J or P  – How we live our lives

Judging (do you like to organise things, make decisions, get on with it,  are you a list maker and planner) / Perceiving (go with the flow, like to be spontaneous takes a while to make a decision.)

I struggled with a couple feeling I was more in the middle and not one or the other.  Our instructor said that this is what tends to happen the older we get and the more skills you have.  So I am a INTJ or ISTJ

 

Goal setting

Heaps and heaps of the literature I have read about goal setting, talks about SMART goals and push goals, and stretch goals and crushing your goals.

Then the last book I read talked about 4 simple steps.

1. work out where you are now
2. work out where you want to be
3. work out what you have to do to get there.
4. Do it!

from David Taylor – the naked leader.

and the HUGG pyramid   Copyright David Hyner)

The huge unbelievably great goal goes at the top and then you start from the bottom up filling in what your going to do to achieve it.  Plant some rewards along the way to encourage you.

But then Chalene Johnson works on decomposing your PUSH goal, taking the big goal and breaking it down into smaller and smaller bits until you have daily tasks you can do to achieve it.

Then I found a goal planner today in the book shop

With this charming diagram.

This one really speaks to me, it’s pretty, simple, and clear. I’m giving it a try for next year along with Chalenes push goal journals. 🙂

And then there is the new way of thinking that seems to say SMART goals are no longer the way and we need to think strategic goals instead, it seems to focus more on agile way of goals:

Start with the main idea that you want to achieve.

then do some tasks to drive you towards that goal,

then checking in and adjusting your tasks and maybe even your goal as life changes.

It’s an interesting perspective, I can see the benefits of adjusting but I also think it would be too easy to say “oh that’s too hard now I’m just going to adapt my goal” and then you won’t achieve anything big and brilliant, just a whole lot of little things, which seem mediocre and who wants that? 🙂

 

When I accept myself just as I am, then I can change, blindly pursuing our goals, we often miss unexpected and wonderful possibilities.  Opportunities knock often, sometimes softly.

 

Tips for giving feedback for change proposals.

Our division is currently going through a restructure. As such a proposal has been put forward and we are currently in the consultation phase.

I confess I was not that impressed by the new structure. There were several things I didn’t agree with and didn’t understand the logic behind.

I wanted to put in feedback in a way that it would be taken in to account and not instantly dismissed.

After talking to several people I have the following tips.

1. Create your vision / story for the team and tell your story as often as possible through many channels.
2. Be positive. Work out how you can make the structure work maybe with a few tweaks.
3. Don’t wait to be told how it will work. Tell them how you see it working.
4. Offer suggestions or ideas for them to consider that they might not be aware of.
5. Make sure you align your story with the powers that be. How will your story help theirs.
6. Tell them what you can do to help and add value.
7. When disagreeing, keep it positive. Say that could work, however have you considered this……

I am ever hopeful my story will get through but in case it doesn’t I’m looking for ways I can help the directors fill their buckets so they in turn will fill mine.

Yearly Review – Action plan part 3

Creating an action plan.

Now look at those goals and there should be one that really stands out as the 1 goal that is going to help you achieve the others.  That is your number 1 goal.  Write it big and bold and keep it somewhere you will see it every day.  Make it SMART (specific/ stretching, measurable / meaningful, achievable/ action orientated, realistic / results orientated, time based/ trackable)

Write it in your diary every week.  And write your top 3 tasks that will move you towards that goal every week!

Now look at that goal and break it down, what can you do now that can start you laying the foundation for this goal  …..……………………………………………………..……..

What resources will you need ……………………………………………………………..

What people will be able to help? Do you need to go out and meet new people to help?

……………………………………………………………….

When are you going to achieve this goal by…………………………………………..

How will you measure success? …………………………………………………………….

 

If you are still feeling scared and thinking this is just not going to work consider this:

1. Write down all the negative feelings that you have about this goal and why you won’t succeed. What is the worst case scenario. Expose your negative beliefs and catch yourself.
2. Come up with strategies for the excuses you come up with. How are you going to mitigate against these negative thoughts / feelings.
3. Now imagine you can’t fail. – How would that feel, what would that look like. What is success going to look like? Make it measurable.  Affirm and repeat the belief that is the opposite to your limiting negative belief
4. Find proof. Open your mind and search for the facts that deny the limiting negative belief.
5. Choose an action.  Be responsible for your beliefs and behaviors. List your first action step to making this goal happen.
6. Then when you have achieved that write down what that outcome was. – learn from your mistakes and celebrate your successes. Keep this is your success book for when you need some encouragement and motivation that you can achieve what you want.

Choose a mantra that will give you the inner courage to keep going when things get tough.  This can be a word or a phrase or even an affirmation. Mine is:

Amazing opportunities exist in my world. Everything always works out for me.

Parenting my strong willed daughter

I want to be on her team. For her to know she can trust me, rely on me. But we are two very different people. I am a goal orientated and very organised person. I abide by the rules. She pushes all rules and authority. She walks to the beat of her own drum. If she can’t see a reason or value why she should do something she won’t do it. Just because it’s what you should do doesn’t work for my little Miss.

I have to keep reminding myself that I am not trying to create a mini me. She is her own person. I have to keep in mind what my end goal is for her. I want her to be honest. A good friend. Have empathy. Caring and considerate of others. Confident. Independent. Responsible. Make good decisions. Happy and capable.

I need to help her have control over her life. So often I am constantly telling het what to do next. I am organising her life.

Yesterday she came to me and said ” mum I think I’m falling behind in my reading.” I asked her how that made her feel? She said not good. I said what would make you feel good? She said doing better in reading. I said is there anything you need me to do to help? She said listen to me read. It was the best conversation we had had where she made the decision so often she just says I don’t know.

Another tip I need to remember is convince me. For me to try and say yes to what she asks for. Just to get her to convince me. To let her know my concerns and why I might be more prone to say no. And make sure the consequences are well know in advance.

To make sure I am spending that one on one time with her everyday. She is a child that needs quality time, it’s her primary love language.

To remember my calm voice. Be open and honest. Give encouragement and positive communication. To reduce my directing and controllong. Ask her what her plan is? How she plans to get what she needs done.

To invite cooperation. I have this big job. Anything you can do to help __________ would be awesome.

I hear what your saying. Doing dishes all the time is a pain. I used to hate it too. But when you do that it really helps us out.

Remember that when she is rebelling to see things from her perspctive. To check in on what else could be going on.

Change my energy. Put a smile on my face. Be fun. Be vibrant. Be avilable. Be there.

Maybe then, just maybe we will survive the teenage years…..

 

Yearly Review – Looking ahead Part 2

Looking to the year ahead.

Some questions to get you in the right frame of mind.

• What do you want the overarching theme for your year to be?
• What do you want to see, discover, explore?
• Who do you want to spend more time with?
• What skills do you want to learn, improve on?
• What personal quality do you want to develop or strengthen?
• What do you want everyday life to be like?
• What habits do you want to change, cultivate?
• What habits do you want to get rid of?
• What fun things do you want to spend more time doing?
• How do you want to remember this year 20 years from now?

Start with your vision. – close your eyes and think about what would make next year the best year you have ever had.  Don’t worry if you think of crazy things, just put it all down, imagine yourself in this ideal year, feel the feelings, see yourself experiencing what you want to do, see yourself succeeding.  Think about if you knew you couldn’t fail, what would be one thing you wanted to do but didn’t have the courage.

Think about the various area’s of your life when thinking of your vision and goals.  How would you rate each area from 1- 10 , if you give is a low score, why? What would make you give it a higher score? What would you like to accomplish in each area?

1. Personal growth. What do you want to learn, develop
2. Health and Fitness how is your health and fitness? Are you eating right? Exercising?
3. Career – are you in the job you want?
4. Fun and recreation how you spend your free time.
5. Family – relationships and connections
6. Friends – relationships and connections
7. Marriage / relationships – hubby
8. Parenting – what areas do you need to learn about / improve on?
9. Spirituality / mental health – mediation, happiness, mindfulness, religion,
10. Finances – budget, debts, savings, retirements, investments.
11. Travel – where do you want to travel to? What about family holidays?
12. Hobbies – what hobbies do you want to continue? Or develop or learn?
13. House / living location – are you happy in your current house and it’s location? Where do you want to be?
14. Organisation / home making – do you have the right strategies in place for cleaning, organisation, decluttering, time management, routines.
15. Traditions – what traditions do you want your family to celebrate, or remove from your life.

Write it all down, anything and everything.  Try for 5 ideas in each section.

Now number each item in a list in order of importance and complete for each category.

See if you can bring your list down to 10 goals for the year.  These are your crazy stretch goals.  They should scare you, they should seem impossible

. You can make the impossible possible.

Becoming a Professional Scum Master 1

** this post contains affiliate links ******

I spent a week studying to pass the Scrum.org PSM 1 scrum master test. –

the best book I found was this one. Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide: All-in-one Guide for Professional Scrum Master (PSM 1) Certificate Assessment Preparation

In addition I also went through this UDEMY course

scrum certification prep + scrum Master + agile scrum by Paul Ashun

https://www.udemy.com/scrum-certification/learn/v4/t/lecture/2043888?start=0

My notes took up 6 A4 pages and I still googled 1 question. I completed all the open assessments on Scrum.org multiple times, so many times that I could almost do it in my sleep.

The result. I sat for 60 minutes, I went through each question and I worked out what I thought it was and if I was confused or not 100% sure I went through all the other options and worked out why it wasn’t the correct answer. I finished with 8 minutes to go and went back and checked out my bookmarked answers. I googled to get more checking on those ones. Then submitted and WOOHOO! I passed with 98%

Tips for presenting – your style.

Be memorable. Tell a story to humanize your presentation and bB aware of your body language.

Keep your feet planted to the ground and your core strong. Use your arms. Use expression and be passionate.

Be clear with your voice. Project and be confident. Be in the now!

Be aware of what you do that could irritate your audience,

1. using must instead of have
2. we and our instead of you and your (we don’t want to seem like we are blaming)
3. umm
4. nervous movements
5. acronyms and lots of technical talk.

Dress appropriate to your audience and your topic.

Practice so that you know what your key take away message is. Practice so you have the right speed. Know what your 3 main points are and what you are going to say.

Fake it until you become it. – go into the presentation with the belief that it will be great.

Prepare your elevator speech and practice it often. 60 sec. What you do. How you do it and why you do it.

 

 

Reviewing your year part 1.

Although this is reviewing your year, you can do it at any time of the year. I have just completed it for my 6 month review to see how my thoughts have changed and how I am going with keeping what’s important top of my mind.

Looking back on Last year.

Looking back at the last 12 months (at any stage during the year)

Focusing on what went well and what you’d like to leave behind. – check your diary, photos, journal, and calendar to prompt your memory. 

Experiences and accomplishments – things to keep focusing on.

1. What are your favourite memories from last year?
2. List 5 great things that happened?
3. What events will you tell your grandchildren about?
4. What 3 words described last year?
5. what new things did you discover about yourself?
6. What did you accomplish or complete?
7. What single achievement are you most proud of?
8. What was the best news you received?
9. What was your favourite place you visited last year?
10. Which of your personal qualities turned out to be the most helpful last year?
11. Which new skills did you learn?
12. If someone wrote a book about your year, what genre would it be?
13. What was the best compliments that you received this year?
14. What little things did you most enjoy during your daily life?
15. What cool things did you create this year?
16. What topics did you most enjoy learning about?
17. What new habits did you cultivate?
18. What had the biggest positive impact on your life?
19. What was your most common mental state?
20. What experiences would you love to do all over again?
21. What was the best gift you received?
22. What were you doing when you had the most fun?
23. What was the funniest moment that still makes you laugh?
24. What purchase turned out to be the best decision ever?
25. What do you deserve a pat on the back for?
26. What activities made you lose track of time?
27. What made you happiest as a child and you are still doing part of that?

Relationships – those who are important

1. What was your favourite moment spent with friends?
2. What five people did you most enjoy spending time with?
3. Who was your number 1 go to person that you could always rely on?
4. What or who are you most thankful for?
5. What relationship improved the most?
6. List 3 people who impacted your life?

Goals

1. What major goal did you lay the foundation for?
2. What were your top 3 priorities this year? Did you spend time on them?
3. Did your life feel balanced? if not, what area’s need more emphasis?
4. What goals did you accomplish?
5. What goals are still left undone?

Challenges – lessons to learn from

1. What was your biggest challenge this year?
2. What would (or wouldn’t) you change about how you handled it?
3. What was the most important lesson you learnt?
4. Which mental blocks / obstacles did you overcome?
5. What held you back this year?
6. What was your biggest break through moment career wise?
7. How did your relationship with your family evolve?
8. What book or movie affected your life in a profound way?
9. What did you think about more than anything else?
10. What advice would you give your early last year self if you could?
11. Did any parts of yourself or your life do a 180 last year?
12. Was there anything you did for the first time in your life?
13. Which worries turned out to be completely unnecessary?
14. How did your overall outlook on life evolve?
15. What was the biggest problem you solved?
16. What was the biggest risk you took?
17. What one thing would you do differently and why?

 

Lessons learnt

1. List 3 lessons learnt from any struggles or challenges this year?
2. Because of last year
3. I realised how much I care about….
4. I feel more like myself in these ways…
5. I now believe….
6. I understand why….
7. My skills and talents are………
8. What do I do easily and effortlessly……..

 

Things I am leaving behind.

1. What did you choose to let go of because it wasn’t working?
2. What bad habits are holding you back?
3. List 10 things that you don’t want to take into the New Year? (Consider beliefs, harmful habits, feelings, thoughts, relationships that aren’t working. )
4. List 3 things you like to START, STOP and CONTINUE in the New Year.

 

Articles of interest – August.

Each Month I will share some articles that I am finding interesting and learning from.

*** this post contain an affiliate link ***

5 minute journal review

I don’t have the actual 5 minute journal, I use a little book and write in the bits myself, I have been doing this every morning or almost every morning since February 2017 and I think it is amazing, the change it has bought to my mental health has been really profound.  It’s quick and easy and so beneficial.

Morning Beauty routine.

I really admire Allie and love her blog and courses. She is promoting making over your morning. I plan on reviewing this content and making over my morning and evening routines again – hopefully this time they will stick a bit better.

How not to turn discussions into arguments. 

This is a great reminder that I want to go through my coaching notes and make sure I have these documented on this site. – Keep me honest on this one. 🙂

How to choose a mindfulness meditation.

I need to be adding meditation to my daily routine, the benefits are invaluable. I will be reading (or listening) to the Little Book of mindfulness Little Book of Mindfulness: 10 minutes a day to less stress, more peace (MBS Little book of…)

That I think is enough to start with.  – I’ll have to add reviewing my reading list to my end of month tasks.