Coach Beth

Hello friends. It’s been a while. Like all of you I have been adapting to my new normal, trying to figure things out for myself and my family. In the coming days, weeks and months my hope is to help provide you with some thoughts or ideas to live in the moment, doing the best that you can with what you’ve got. I want to be sure to communicate to you that I recognize that there is tremendous sadness, fear and anxiety surrounding everything – health, finances the world.  My goal with these blog posts is to give you some tools and maybe a bit of a laugh in your day.

You may have been told to work from home, you may be quarantined or even laid off. If you are like me you may have a set routine that you live by. I get up, have coffee, go to the gym, come home, get ready, go to work, maybe run errands, run kids around, make dinner (wait, no – Jon makes dinner), hang out, read, go to bed. Then repeat.  The past few weeks? Not so much. So now what?

Let’s talk about a plan. What will life look like for the unforeseeable future? You may be asking, “How do I actually restructure my life?” I am a fan of focusing on the positive. Let’s focus on what we can control here and see where that gets us.

If you know me or have worked with me, you will recognize my recommendation to structure your time at home. Often when we have a lot of time and minimal structure it can feel overwhelming and can be hard to know where to start. Additionally – I have had days where I get so drawn into one project that everything else gets neglected. That can feel just as frustrating, to get one thing done but end up with a huge pile of other things. What I am about to tell you is something that I have adapted from Brendon Burchard’s book, “High Performance Habits.” He is one of my favorite influencers (I think that is what they’re called these days). I heard him describe this idea on a podcast that he did with Rachel Hollis. I tried it out and have been hooked. I use it routinely on my days off and on work days.

• Start with a list. Just write it all down. What are all of the things that you want to work on? My process – I write down both a personal list and a business list. Often when I look at these, there are actually about 4 days worth of things that I’d like to accomplish. So this is an opportunity to prioritize.

• Be sure to include your fun things as well as “to do’s”. Think about getting exercise, getting outside and spending time with your kids, spouse, partner or your pet.

• Next – choose which item you’d like to work on first. Set the timer for 50 minutes. Get going. At the end of 50 minutes stop and take a break. Get up (if you’re sitting at the computer), move around, do something else for 5, 10 or 15 minutes. Re-evaluate. Do you want to continue working on the same project? Or do you need to move on to something else.

• Then start again – another 50 minutes. Lather, rinse, repeat. Maybe this is how you structure the first half of your day, maybe your entire day is structured this way.

There are a few things that I love about this process. One – it allows me to really focus on something, knowing that I will get a break. Two – I tend to be a time-optimist, meaning that I think that a 4 hour project will take me 1 hour. This helps me to really tune in to how much time I should actually allot for various projects. This in turn means that I have more realistic expectations and less frustration by the end of the day.

By all means – try it out. See if it works for you. Maybe you’ll come up with your own adaptation that works even better. I would love to hear your suggestions. What works for you?

A huge thanks to those who are working tirelessly to develop testing for the Coronavirus, treating those who have it, and to the people in all of the service industries for continuing to deliver our mail, our packages, stock the grocery shelves, stay at the banks, clean the bathrooms and do all of the behind-the-scenes work that helps us to function and keep moving forward. To individuals and families who have seen illness or death as a result of the Coronavirus – my heart goes out to you.

Please reach out to me on my Coach Beth Facebook page or send me a message through the website. I would love to hear from you!

XOXO,

Coach Beth

Good morning, friends!

So – it’s January 5th of 2020. Who else woke up with sore muscles this morning? My thanks to Megan at Muddy Feet Yoga for the Hot Power Yoga class yesterday.

Let’s talk goals. Or maybe the word “goal” causes stress for you. How about – what brings you joy? What do YOU want to focus on in 2020? Let’s not even get that big. What do you want to focus on this week?

One of my personal goals? Practice yoga and begin a regular meditation practice. The challenge that I face is to slow myself down. Just focusing on my breath during yoga or meditation is the hardest part.

If this is a goal for you too – here are some things that I have found helpful:

• Finding out from friends where they like to practice yoga, then trying them out. There are tons of studios and gyms in town to try many different forms of yoga. (Thanks Jayne for encouraging me to try Hot Power Yoga!)

• Printing the schedule of classes and deciding when in my week I will go to these classes. This sounds obvious – but so often we say that we want to do something but we don’t move forward with when or how we will do it.

• Making space in my schedule to add in something new. This means that some weeks I may have to drop a different workout in order to add in yoga. There are only so many hours in a day.

• Planning to go to class with a friend. We all know this trick – more accountability! A friend may plan on meeting you there or may even pick you up!

• Learning more about the practice. My dad introduced me to the Ten Percent Happier podcast (there is also an app). It is a free podcast with Dan Harris. He interviews all sorts of interesting and knowledgeable people about their work (surrounding some type of mind and body wellness). He has a whole team of meditators/teachers who offer all types of advice and recommendations for people who are practicing meditation – from beginners to “experts.”

There you have it.  Now it’s your turn. Do you have goals for this week? What will you do that will bring more joy into your life?

XOXO,
Coach Beth