It all adds up, stay consistent!

Today I’m bringing you lesson number 3 and it’s short and sweet!

One of the speakers at Content Live was a brand expert (Phil Pallen), and he was talking about Pinterest. Now, I love Pinterest! I’m really visual and I love vision boards and seeing my goals laid out in pictures. As a bit of a foodie I like to see recipes and the finished article too, and it’s also a bit like window shopping at times, great to get ideas for outfits or home furnishings. Oh and pets! I have a pet board too, full of pictures of the elusive and much wanted puppy! Seriously, if you’re not on Pinterest, why not?! There is literally something for everyone.

Anyway, one of the things that Phil said really struck a chord with me. He was talking about Pinterest and the power of repinning, but it really applies to anything you want to do, and his message was simple. Just spend five minutes every day doing whatever it is you need to do (in this case repinning), and your efforts will accumulate and you’ll progress consistently towards your goal.

I think most of us have things we want to achieve, whether in business, work, or life, and I thought this was such a great lesson for all of those areas. Finding an hour a day, or half an hour a day, can often be challenging, especially on those days where you need to travel or seem to have endless commitments, or the days when you have poorly children (like I did yesterday!), but finding five minutes is so much more manageable.

The thing is this. All of those five minute chunks don’t seem much on their own, but put together they turn into hours and then days. Never ever feel like five minutes isn’t enough. Do what you can with the time you have and give yourself a big pat on the back for fitting it in. And if you have longer one day, then spend longer, that’s great. Just don’t fall for the voice that tells you it’s not worth you doing something for five minutes because it absolutely is!

So that’s the lesson for today, give yourself five minutes per day to help you achieve your goals, and do it consistently so it all adds up.

Think, Do.

Last weekend I had a lovely day out with some of my fabulous relatives. We catch up as regularly as diaries allow and it’s always good to see everyone and hear the latest news from them all. 

We arranged it a few weeks ago and then a week before we went realised that we were quite a large group and didn’t have anything booked, so we all swapped a few messages about where we might go.  

I had a quick think about what might work and decided Italian was a good option but it was important it felt special given it was a rare day out, and I settled on a restaurant that I knew would have really good food and great service too.

Whilst I was thinking about it I picked up my phone, googled them, and called to check they could fit us in. Happily it was a yes, so I messaged everyone to say I’d booked something and would be happy to change it if they preferred something else but to look at the menu and let me know. 

And that’s essentially Think, Do. When you think about something, take action on it. I read about this around twenty years ago and I’ve been doing it since then and I find it really works for me. 

If you think something, but don’t take action on it, it takes up vital space in your brain, with your brain trying to push it to that front of your mind at the right time. Which it rarely does, how often have you meant to do something and realised too late? Not a reliable resource I’m afraid!

So next time a thought pops into your head and it needs action, do something with it. Whether it’s taking the action, or setting a reminder to do something, get it out of your brain and into a system that means you won’t forget it. Which will free your brain power up to use on something more important instead! 

Anyway, the day out was a resounding success, the restaurant was very good and the food delicious, and we had lots of giggles too. We also made a new plan, which was to always arrange our next get together while we’re on the current one so we can coordinate diairies more easily and always have our next catch up booked in.  How super-efficient are we?!

Give Think, Do a try and see how much more efficient it makes you. And if you’re in the middle of something and need to set a reminder, Siri is a great way to do this quickly. Try it and see, I’d love to hear how you get on.