My favourite quotes about Goal Setting.

If you do nothing to achieve your goals, your destiny is coming,

if you take action, your destiny is coming.

There is no escaping the future so make it remarkable

Author unknown

The purpose of goals is to focus our attention.

The mind will not reach towards achievement until it has clear objectives.

The magic begins when we set goals.

It is then that the switch is turned on and the power to accomplish becomes a reality.

Author unknown

About Us
LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. We conduct workshops on ‘Managing your Time’, ‘How to have a Productive Day’ and ‘DeClutter and Take Back Control.’


For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Michele on 0437 311 802.

I am responsible

To release my potential from past restrictive programming of my subconscious,

it is extremely important that I give myself the right to be me and to function as I choose.

It is not possible to have sound self-esteem if I am not true to myself

or give up responsibility and accountability for my own life

as I seek to achieve fulfilment of my needs and goals.

I want to allow myself the freedom to choose

without building a prison for myself with “have to’s”, “can not’s” and “they won’t let me’s.”

I recognise I am functioning from my own free choice and I can either:

recognise myself as important, valuable and interesting as a person,

or see myself as an absolute incompetent, who is unworthy and unneeded.

I can choose to be kind, loving, helpful, loyal and compassionate,

or to be lazy, cowardly, mean and disloyal.

I can choose to be happy, free and succeed in each undertaking

or to fail and feel unimportant and less than others.

If I allow myself this freedom,

I must recognise I am responsible for my decisions and actions

and be willing to accept the consequences they bring.

I know I am the one who will answer for my every action,

and will profit or suffer accordingly.

Therefore, before every important decision, I ask myself:

What ought to be done for me? Will it injure myself or others?

Is this in accord with my beliefs and goals?

Is it in alignment with reality as I see it?

Am I willing to fully accept the consequences?

To be truly free and to grow in self-esteem,

I must not give up my growth, pursuit of fulfilment or happiness to anyone.

I choose to treat myself with dignity

and proceed to move toward full love, wisdom, freedom and joy,

knowing I am the authority over me.

Author Unknown

About Us
LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. We conduct workshops on ‘Managing your Time’, ‘How to have a Productive Day’ and ‘DeClutter and Take Back Control.’


For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Michele on 0437 311 802.

New Habits to Your Responses

To make changes to ensure we have the ‘The Power To Choose’ in our own life we have to develop some new habits. I recommend the following two new habits to start.



Stimulus and Response
Understand that you are choosing your reaction to the stimulus presented to you. You have the power to choose. Pause to ensure you are making the right choice for you, your values and goals.


> Are you going to yell at the driver that cut you off in the traffic or how are you going to react?
> What about that extra bit of work your boss gives you with a tight deadline? Will you spend the next few hours working yourself up because you are annoyed or will you just focus and get it done?


Evaluation
Every choice we make has consequences which can be empowering but if we make a bad choice we should not blame ourselves but reflect on that choice so we are always aiming to improve.


> Will we make a choice to hang out the washing or play with the children?
> Will we make a choice to start that new course or just keep wondering?


About Us
LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. We conduct workshops on ‘Managing your Time’, ‘How to have a Productive Day’ and ‘DeClutter and Take Back Control.’


For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Michele on 0437 311 802.

The Power to Choose – Time to Reflect

We have discussed the power to choose and now it is time to reflect and think about the choices you should be making, lets start by answering the following questions:

> Imagine you are near the end of your life – look back – what do you regret not doing?

> What would you like to change in your life?

> What makes you happy? Really think about this question, it is important. What does make your happy?

> Make a list of the 100 things you would like to do?

From the list of what makes you happy you can you begin to see what some of your choices and goals may be?

Take the time to ponder what lies ahead in your life journey.

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you.

Taking Action with out Choices!

We now recognise we have the power to choose so the steps to take ACTION are as follows:

Know your outcome [Set your goals]

We often know what we don’t want. Know your outcome and you have a target. Be clear about what you want to achieve today. Don’t leave life to chance.

Take Action

You have the power to choose. You can choose to act today - go for that walk, eat that apple, call that friend, join that program, finish that book, clean out that cupboard, and give away those clothes …

You don’t have to be great to get started,

but you have to get started to be great.

Les Brown

Evaluate

Evaluate and answer honestly. Notice if what you are doing is moving you in the direction of your goals or away from them. Are you on track? We need to be aware, ask questions and be honest about the answers

Be flexible

If we are off track we have to have the behavioural flexibility to get ourselves back on track by changing direction. We may need to:

> Stop

> Tweak

> Get advise

Being flexible makes a big difference to achieve out goals by adjusting, tweaking and improving.

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you.

For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Michele on 0437 311 802.

The Power to Choose

All you need is within you now.



You have the resourcefulness you need for whatever you decide to choose. You REALLY do have the:
> Courage
> Passion
> Determination
> Fire


We can do anything if we have a compelling reason and the focus. We will conquer all fears; if we have a big enough reason we would get it.


Some of my favourite action quotes

“An ounce of action is worth a tonne of theory.”

Friedrich Engels

“Action will remove the doubts that theory can not solve.”

Tehyi Hsieh

“It’s not what you know, its what you do with what you know.”

Author Unknown

There is always a way
Even if it is not true, act like it is and usually you can find a way to achieve what you want to achieve.
> You can push through the tough times
> Persist a little longer
> Search a little harder
> Keep going
> Failure is giving up
> Everything else is progress

By believing there is always a way you give yourself every opportunity to experience success!

About Us
LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you.

For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Michele on 0437 311 802.

Want to give up - think you are too old to try something new?

Age isn’t always a factor in your success or failure. Consider these famous examples:



> Actor George Burns won his first Oscar at 80


> Golda Meir was 71 when she became prime minister of Israel.


> At age 96, playwright George Bernard Shaw broke his leg when he fell out of a tree he was trimming in his backyard.


> Painter Grandma Moses didn’t start painting until she was 80 years old. She completed over 1,500 paintings after that; 25 percent of those were produced when she was past 100.


> Michelangelo was 71 when he painted the Sistine Chapel


> Physician and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer was still performing operations in his African hospital at 89


> Doc Counsilman, at 58, became the oldest person ever to swim the English Channel


> S.I. Hayakawa retired as president of San Francisco State University at 70, and then was elected to the U.S. Senate.


> Casey Stengel didn’t retire from managing the New York Mets until he was 75.


Sourced: Glenn Van Ekeren, The Speaker’s Sourcebook, Prentice-Hall, New York, NY


> Bryce Courtney the well known Australian author did not write his first book until his was 55. On his website it states “At the age of 55 I decided to take the plunge. I had been telling stories since the age of five and had always known I would be a writer some day, though life kept getting in the way until I realised that it was either now or never.”


> Mary Wesley was in her 70s when she published her first novel. She went on to write several bestsellers, including The Camomile Lawn


About Us


LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you.


For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Michele on 0437 311 802.

Dust If You Must!

“A house becomes a home when you can write, “I love you” on the furniture.”


I can’t tell you how many countless hours that I have spent CLEANING!


I used to spend at least 8 hours every weekend making sure things were just perfect – “in case someone came over.”


Then I realised one day that no one came over; they were all out living life and having fun!


Now, when people visit, I find no need to explain the “condition” of my home. They are more interested in hearing about the things I’ve been doing while I was away living life and having fun.

If you haven’t figured this out yet, please heed this advice.


Life is short. Enjoy it.


Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better to paint a picture or write a letter, bake a cake or plant a seed, ponder the difference between want and need?


Dust if you must, but there’s not much time, with rivers to swim and mountains to climb, music to hear and books to read, friends to cherish and life to lead.


Dust if you must, but the world’s out there with the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair, a flutter of snow, a shower of rain.


This day will not come around again.


Dust if you must, but bear in mind, old age will come and it’s not kind.


And when you go – and go you must – you, yourself will make more dust!


If’s now what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.


Author Unknown


About Us


LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you.


For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Michele on 0437 311 802.

You Can Be In Control - Part 2

How have you gone the last couple of weeks? Have you taken note of the times you have not been in control?

Have you considered how you reacted to different situations and recognised the times when you could have reacted differently?

Have you tried to stop yourself when others are trying to take control?

Here are the steps!

Making the choice to be in control can be empowering you only need to control yourself.

> Recognise that you have the power to choose how you react to a situation

> Recognise when you are not taking responsibility for your life

> Practise stopping yourself when you are letting others control you and take responsibility

This is a new behaviour so practise is really important. But keep practicing.

“If you don’t run your own life, someone else will”

John Atkinson

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. We are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you.

For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Michele on 0437 311 802

Is your planning system up to scratch?

I have personally had a really busy 6 week period and my routine has been totally changed by what has been going on. I was asked to project manage a project for a firm which would take 3 to 4 weeks. This meant working full time for the firm then in my spare time chipping away at what needed to be completed for the business.



Well how did it all go?


Firstly, I love managing the project and whilst all did not go according to plan the delays were elements way beyond my control. I was waiting for shipments from India and China to come in and they were not arriving at the anticipated time this extended the project to a 5 week period.


Then on week 6 when I was to get back on track with all my other work my 5 year old daughter has been sick and has not been able to go to school for 3 days. Whilst I loved the time we got to spend together it meant another delay to getting back on track.


Is my life now chaos?


Actually, no by using my planning system of ensuring I get the most important tasks done I have been able to stay “on top” of most tasks. It has been an incredible freedom not to be completely stressed and frazzled by the change in routine and the almost impossible task of keeping everything going.


I am wrapped and actually excited to have tested my systems to the maximum and not everything has fallen in a heap. I am not saying that I didn’t have a couple of nights where I was utterly exhausted but the overall big picture is positive. Every client meeting I had I kept, every workshop I was still able to deliver and some of the other tasks were done.


I guess that is the benefits of practicing planning on a weekly to daily basis. Tasks can be moved and flexibility is really important as well as understanding what the top priorities are.


Planning is really freedom!


About Us


LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

You can be in control!

When we let other people control our life we are passing control of our thoughts, mood, and experiences onto other people who are out of our control. When this occurs we are living a reactive life. The benefit of letting others control us is that we have someone else to blame – and that feels good.

The alternative action is that we could take responsibility for our self.

Are you living your life according to what others want?

We can automatically spend our lives living up to the standards of others instead of taking the time to work out what we want. For example:

 The man who has spent 25 years working as a lawyer because his father was a lawyer. He never changed his profession even though he had the ability, skills and drive to be a professional tennis player

 The mother of five children who feels that she’s less successful than other mothers because she is not a career woman and takes on board what the media says about stay at home mums

 The young adolescent who exercises and diets because the models in the magazines constantly remind her she’s not a size 8 and therefore not a beauty by today’s standards

 The musician who has a regular government job in finance because his parents told him to “get a real job” yet his passion was and always has been music

 The young basketballer who never reached her full potential because her parents focused on her mistakes in the game rather than all the really good plays she made

 The 45 year old father of three children who is still hoping one day his father will congratulate him on what he has achieved rather than point out what his failings are

Take some time and think about times when you have let others control your life?

How did it make you feel?

Do you still let others control your life?

What steps can you do so that you are in control of your life?

Who is going to have the biggest effect on your future?

About Us


LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

1,440 Minutes per Day

We all have the same 1,440 minutes per day – how we utilise that time determines our ability to have a productive day.



So focus on doing the really important and high priority tasks first, usually 3 to 4 tasks each day. Once you have completed those tasks, then you can start working on the smaller stuff.


At the very least if you only get the 3 to 4 high priority tasks done then you will feel like you have achieved something in your day. That’s such a fantastic feeling.


One of my favourite quotes from Stephen Covey is:

“I can not get it all done but I can get the most important things done.”

WHAT ARE YOUR MOST IMPORTANT THINGS?

About Us



LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Time Tracking Exercise Follow Up

Did you complete the time tracking exercise? How many days did you track your time for? What method did you prefer the planning method or the recording method?



Congratulations on investing the time to save time. Seeing as we invested in tracking time it is important to evaluate our recordings. We want to do the following:


1) Analyse the way we used our time, what can you see from looking at how you spent your time?


2) What are some better ways you can use your time based on the analysis?


3) What are your wasteful tasks?


4) What are your unproductive tasks?


5) How can you reduce or eliminate your wasteful and unproductive tasks? It is okay to do this one step at a time.


6) How can you consolidate your time so you have large chunks of time for your most important work?


What will this achieve?


> make us more aware of adding “quick” tasks into our day


> allow us to slowly eliminate time wasting


> allow us to eliminate unproductive work


> allows us to find chunks of time for our most important projects


> ensures we question what we are doing and when we are doing it


About Us


LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Time Tracking Exercise

Last post we focused on time wasters this time I would love to introduce to you a time tracking exercise that I really recommend. The objective is to think about how you are using your time, identify useless or non productive activities and eliminate them this also provides you with a better guide for how long a task actually takes.



In his excellent book "The Effective Executive," Peter Drucker identifies that effective executives follow three key steps to manage their time better:

1) They analyse the way they use their time and think about better ways of using it
2) They find wasteful and unproductive uses of their time and reduce them systematically
3) They consolidate their time into large chunks that they can use for their most important work.


So over the next two weeks I would highly recommend you attempt one of the two activities below:

This has 4 columsn which you record your activities in what you plan to do, what time you think it will take, what you actually did and how long that activity took.

TIME TRACKING OPTION 1



Time             Activity Planned    Est. Time   Activity Completed   Actual Time


6.00 – 6.30
6.30 – 7.00
7.00 – 7.30
7.30 – 8.00


In the above we plan our day and estimate how long an activity will take. Then we actually record what we did at that particular time and how long a task actually took. This achieves the following:


> Identifies whether we stick to our plan
> Identifies what we do when we vary our plan
> Identifies if we are accurate at estimating how long a task will take
> If we are not accurate, it provides us with a real life estimate of the actual time a task takes


TIME TRACKING OPTION 2

In this activity you record what activities you have been doing and then consider whether they were an essential activity or a non-essential activity.

TIME                                        ACTIVITY


                                    Essential          Non-essential


6.00 – 6.30
6.30 – 7.00
7.00 – 7.30
7.30 – 8.00


This exercise follows a similar example however this time we are reviewing whether tasks are essential or non-essential and identifies how much free time we would have each day if we could eliminate or reduce the non-essential tasks.


It is recommended you try either option 1 or 2 for 5 days however to get real benefits it is even better to do it for two weeks.


Good luck and enjoy your learning experience I personally got a lot of useful information from this exercise.


About Us
LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Time Wasters

Part of being human is that we are all time wasters. Sometimes time wasted can be productive, it gives you a break, releases tension, however most time wasted causes extra stress because what you know you should be doing is being put off.


The aim is to identify when you are wasting time and whether it is a welcome break, or whether changes should be made?

Some time wasters:

> Disorganisation

> Procrastination

> Social Interaction

> Perfection

> Visitors

> Telephone calls

> Television

> Mail

> Email

> Computer activities – facebook, twitter, games …

Take a moment to consider what are your time wasters?

Activity

I found this fantastic exercise that I recommend. Now that you have identified what your time wasters are, split your time wasters into two groups, those within your control and those beyond your control.

TIME WASTERS

Within My Control                                                                   Beyond My Control

Take a moment to consider what will you do with the time wasting activities that are within your control?

What should / will you do with the time wasting activities that are beyond your control?

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

New Habits to Manage Time

With any improvements in life it is often our own habits that have to change to be able to move forward. Once I have written on a subject I like to reflect on some new habits or attitudes that we should be developing so that we can move forward. Therefore based on this I would like to propose the following:



Ask yourself “What will make the biggest difference?”
Are you making the best possible use of your time? Do you find yourself being reactive rather than proactive? Are you managing to do what you want to achieve? Therefore each day when planning ask yourself – “What is it I want to achieve today?” and “What will make the biggest difference in my life right now?”


Don’t be late
Lateness is rude and often seen as a lack of respect towards the other person.


1440 Only
We all have the same 1,440 minutes per day – how we utilise that time determines our ability to have a productive day. Remember Pareto’s Principle – the 80 / 20 rule, therefore do the 20% of really important things in your day, the other smaller stuff; the 80% will take care of itself.


Building Solutions
When you’re next thinking of a solution to a problem, make a list. Draw a line down the middle of a page; in the left hand column list things you can control and in the right hand column, list things you can not control.


Be pro-active about what you can control – that’s where you get the most power, don’t waste time on what you can not control.


About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Respect Time

Someone once said “Time is a great equalizer. We all get the same amount of hours each day. Some people are able to organise their lives with consistently high results and successes in many dimensions of their lives whilst others never seem to be able to accomplish what they want.”

Which category do you fit into?

Do you need to develop new habits to plan your day as you are one of the few people who understand that you can not get it all done but you can get the most important things done?

What are the most important things in your day today?

If you have scribbled a “to-do” list on a bit of paper take a moment to look at it and rate it in order of importance then tackle task number 1 first as that is the most important task that you have identified for today, once you have completed that move onto the next task. By doing this small exercise each day you are on your way to making better choices in your day to how you spend your time.

There are further processes to ensure you have a life of balance and fulfilment which I will address in future blogs but this first step is a great way to start prioritising so you can be productive each and every day.

Remember the fantastic statement “I can not get it all done but I can get the most important things done.” Author Unknown

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Starting the Year Successfully

Happy New Year, we wish you a year filled with abundance, happiness and success.

Ideally you have reflected on the past year and are making plans for the year ahead which is a really positive start to the year however it is important to write your goals down.

We set goals all the time:
§ I have 1 hour to do the grocery shopping
§ Today I will get the washing done
§ Today I will do the ironing
But we want to set “life goals”.

Why do we need to set “life goals?”
Your brain is programmed to look for what is important for you so by setting life goals in the important areas of your own life your subconscious will be on the look out for opportunities and this is where it finds things you may never have noticed if you only had a vague idea of what you were looking for.

The clearer your goals are the more likely you are to achieve them.

A goal properly set is halfway reached.
Abraham Lincoln

Study at Harvard University
A study was done at Harvard University. Students were asked who writes down their goals, and 3% said they did. The researchers went back to the students 20 years later. The 3% who wrote down their goals had a net worth that exceeded the 97% who did not.

Goal setting is not all about the dollar benefits it is about achieving. So take time to write down your goals. Enjoy the process and experience the success.

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to

www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.