How to follow through

“Oh, this is the start of something good
Don’t you agree?”

– Gavin De Graw, Follow Through –

If you’re anything like me, you like bright shiny things. I get excited about new projects and ideas, start a whole bunch of things and then sometimes struggle to prioritise or complete them.

However, I am equally, very good at following through, when I want to. I just have to decide. I really do love finishing things that I start. And last year was a perfect example.

Last June I decided that I was going to start my own business in Australia and sponsor myself to stay, and 6 months later, come 12th December, I had done just that.

So, the question is, how do you follow through? 

Well a very simple set of tips to follow are

1. Pick one project

2. Commit to it

3. Set a deadline

4. Focus all of your energies on completing it

Another couple of tips for following through as well are

• Set an intention at the beginning of the week to complete a project by the end of it
• Set an intention to complete at least one task relating to your project every day

For example, this week I set the intention of completing my website by the end of the week and every day this week I have made sure that I have taken action to make this happen every day.

Tomorrow I will be handed my website in order to make final copy amends to it. I will pass it to people for feedback over the weekend and I should be ready for it to go live on Monday.

I have also found a great video by the lovely Marie Forleo which includes her top 3 tips on following through.

So, the question is, what are you going to commit to following through on and completing next week? Set the intention, so you know what to focus your energies on from Monday.

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Marie Forleo’s video on How to Follow Through

The music video for Gavin De Graw’s – Follow Through

Don’t over think stuff

“I believe in not over thinking things too much. When the right thing comes along, you really don’t have a choice.”

– Jason Schwartzman –

So I’ve started a 5 day intensive Business & Marketing course today and it is awesome.

I’ve been running my own mentoring, marketing and branding business for nearly a year now, and I still love learning more about how to improve it. Or even better, be reminded of the stuff that I already know deep inside.

The especially brilliant thing about the course is that it is really hands on. There are a lot of courses out there that will teach you a bunch of stuff, you’ll leave and then fail to implement, because you’ll conveniently not find the time, or bottle it, or just not have the self-discipline to get stuff done. Whereas Kerwin is really committed to ensuring that you leave the course having actually created some really awesome things. Content for your website, content for your blog, ideas for new products, the list goes on . . .

More importantly he doesn’t give you the time or space to over think things. He’ll just teach you the theory, give you a task to do, a small amount of time to complete it and then move on. Which is awesome! And I think this is perfect for entrepreneurs, because sometimes we can be the best procrastinations at time, especially when we don’t have anyone or a boss standing over us with a deadline for us to complete something by.

It’s fine if you’re doing some work for a client, but when it comes to creating your own website, or creating something new or special for your own business, that’s sometimes when it can get popped on the back burner or de-prioritised.

So, my thought for my second post today is, don’t over think stuff. And better still, find someone in your life to hold you accountable to actioning something that you’d deep down really like to cover off. And it doesn’t have to be in business.

I’m sure you have a list of things that you’ve been putting off, that secretly you’d really like to do in your business or your personal life.

So I would say, write this list down, and then pick at least 3 things off of the list, give yourself a deadline to action them by and share this list with a friend, other half or family member. This means that by sharing it, you have committed to making it happen and they can hold you accountable to it. It might be getting a hair cut that you’ve been putting off, having a massage, taking a horse riding lesson, going to see a movie, calling someone you’ve not spoken to in a while and asking them out for a drink, the list is endless.

All you need to do is write the list, don’t over think it, and just start taking action to make some awesome things happen in your life. And most importantly, make them happen for you.

Lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Kerwin Rae

Eat that frog

“When a decision has to be made, make it. There is no totally right time for anything.” 

– General George S. Patton –

Todays blog post will be short and sweet and is for anyone out there procrastinating about something.

I read a great book a few years back called Eat That Frog, by Brian Tracey. He refers to Mark Twain who once said that if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen to you for the rest pf the day.

There is a great 90 second You Tube video which explains the idea.

In his book he talks about the 80/20 principle which says that ’20 percent of your activities will account for 80 per cent of your results . . . And this means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth as much or more than the other eight items put together’. He then goes on to say ‘Each of these tasks may take the same amount of time to accomplish. But one or two of those tasks will contribute five or ten times the value of the others.’

And finally, ‘Often, one item on a list of ten tasks that you have to do can be worth more than all the other nine items put together. This task is invariable the frog that you should eat first.’

He also talks about the Law of Forced Efficiency, which says that ‘There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.’

So, what I set out to do every day is ensure that I choose at least one big, important task and commit to covering it off by the end of the day and resist the urge to clear up the small things first.

So, what frog do you need to eat today?

Inspiration for this post

Brian Tracey’s book ‘Eat that frog’

Eat that frog image – Sophia Designs 

JFDI (Just flipping do it)

“And every day that you want to waste, that you want to waste, you can
And every day that you want to wake up, and you want to wake, you can
And every day that you want to change, that you want to change, yeah
I’ll help you see it through ’cause I just really want to be with you”

– Foster the People –

I’ll admit that I can be an awesome procrastinator. In fact, if it was an Olympic sport, I’d definitely make it to the podium. However on the flip side, I’m also really good at committing to a task and a deadline and just deciding to do something.

There is something really special and exciting about throwing caution to the wind, asking yourself ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ and deciding to do something that you’ve always wanted to do, but have been putting it off for some reason.

Recently a good friend of mine from the UK came over the Australia for a holiday and while he was here spent a bit of time with us in Sydney. He’d been toying with the idea of moving to Oz for a while, not 100% happy with his job or living situation, but a little uncertain or overwhelmed with the idea of moving so far away from home.

After being in Australia for just a week or so, and before he even came to see us, he’d decided that he was going to move here, which was awesome. And today, I received a message confirming that within a week of getting back home he had organised a Working Holiday Visa and a one way ticket to fly out here in September. So exciting, so fantastic, so brilliant!

Yet another person in my life who has decided to take action, make a positive change in their life and do something different.

So the question is, what thing have you been putting off in your life that you’d secretly really love to do, but are a little frightened to, or you think it’s too hard or too difficult?

What thing do you just need to decide that you’re going to do, commit to and give yourself a deadline by which to complete it?

Life’s pretty simple and awesome when you decide to JFDI.

Inspiration for this post

Waste by Foster the People