New years resolution have garnered a bad reputation for being unreliable and not living up to their expectations.
And so instead we call them goals or intentions (or whatever else we can come up with). But as Shakespeare said ‘a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet’. We call it something else but it’s really not that different.
When you get down to the crux of it it’s simply just something that answers the question, ‘What would you like to do this year?’
When sending emails do it from a place of generosity.
How will this benefit the receiver?
As much as you may want to generate sales, bombarding a customer with emails is a poor tactic.
It doesn’t make a person want to read the emails let alone make a purchase but it might lead to them unsubscribing.
There are exceptions to this rule which generally apply to those that aren’t trying to sell anything. Those that make it clear how many emails they intend to send and actually stick with it.
Emails from these kinds of people or brands work well because it feels generous and the intentions are made clear from the start.
When teaching someone how to do something, you have to let them get it wrong.
It may be easier to jump in just before the mistake, error or failure occurs and rectify things. But this brings little benefit in the long run.
In the short run, the person may feel supported which is a good thing. But too much support leads a lack of independence and self-reliance. Instead they become reliant on you being there.
It teaches the person that they don’t have to work things out for themselves because someone will come along to make things right. It may also lead to this person not trying because you’ve showed them that you won’t allow them to fail.
The reason you step in before things go wrong is because you want them to get it right. However, you have to give people space to learn things for themselves and that includes getting things wrong.
Something I read in a book about NLP.
Sometimes I’m a little hesitant to embrace every aspect of NLP because using methods to influence people in your favour is potentially unethical or at least comes across as manipulative.
But other times I find that NLP can provide a useful guide on how to word things when you want your intentions to be clear.
When asking for what you want just blurting it out can sometimes be too aggressive. You need to approach things gently. You need to pace, pace, lead.
Check out changing minds for more information on exactly how it’s done.
If you set any sort of goals, plans or intentions for 2021, now is the perfect time to check in.
You’ve had a month to live the year so far and maybe what you thought you wanted to do or ahcve has now chnaged.
The ‘magic’ of the new year has now faded, perhaps your thoughts on what you want have become much clearer.
Read through what you wrote last month and see if it still fits with the your overall vision for 2021.
Perhaps you’ll find that you were putting too much pressure on yourself to make up for 2020, maybe you haven’t been ambitious enough or it could just be that you made plans that you’re no longer interested in pursuing.
It would be fair to say those that write and those that are writers probably pay much more attention to words than most.
A writer is intentional about the words they use based on what feelings they want to evoke or how they want to portray the subject.
And sometimes that act of choosing words wisely trickles over into how the words of others are perceived. Except the writer forgets that other people aren’t always so picky with their words.
So, sometimes the writer receives words not quite as they were intended.
One thing I’ve notice is how busy we all seem to be. We’re constantly going from one thing to the next and wishing for more hours in the day.
But how often do you consider that it’s a choice?
Do you ever consider that you can stop, slow down and do less?
We fill our days with meetings, social media, main projects, side projects, shows, music, YouTube, socialising and so on.
But what if instead you decided to be a little more intentional about how you spend your time.
Instead of filling up your day with a bunch of stuff, why not be more selective? Why not pick and choose what is actually worth doing?
Furthermore, you could even block out time each day or week to do specific things or even just time to do nothing.
If you have something bad to say about something but have nothing to say when it comes to how it could be better. I think that it’s a useless criticism.
It’s easy to be a critic or to complain about the way that something is but what’s the point if you can’t even offer a solution.
It’s far more useful and far more helpful to say ‘I don’t think this works very well but here’s what I think would work better…’, rather than just saying ‘That’s not a good idea’.
I think what a person says comes down to their intention to speaking up. Do you just enjoy complaining or do you want to try and find a way to make things better?
I was recently asked about whether I write for myself or for readers.
It’s something I think about every now and then but it was interesting to be asked.
On one hand I write for myself because I love it but on the other hand I write for my readers too.
I’m thoughtful about what I share and my intention is to always add value in some way.
I don’t expect anyone to read every single post I write but for the posts you do read I’d like it to feel like time well spent.
Whether it’s 100 words on friendship, career development or overcoming fear, I do my best to add some kind of takeaway.
Social media makes it really easy to keep up with everything going on in the world around us. From crises happening across the globe to personal details about people we’ve never met.
And on an average day for many, I don’t think I’d be wrong in assuming that little thought goes into it.
How often do you find yourself questioning whether you need to know all this information you’re consuming?
I’m guilty of clicking on trending topics out of curiosity but on reflection I know that this information isn’t something I need to know.
The goings on of celebrities (and even just people we’ve never met) has always been a popular form of entertainment which is why gossip magazines were so popular. I guess those magazines have now changed to social media, something that is free and consumed by even more people.
And as much as you control who you follow, you can’t control what they post, tweet, re-tweet, like or share on their stories.
But what you do have control over is your active consumption. As much as knowing certain things might tickle your fancy, upon reflection would you really choose knowing details about a strangers personal life over reading a book, working on your craft, writing, planning ahead etc.
Of course you can make time for both (if you so wish) but this is more about being intentional with what you consume rather than getting swept up in it all.
If you leave the twitter thread, video or post feeling fine that’s great but if you feel like you’ve wasted time then maybe you need to start making some changes.
The Daily Gemm 