“If the first thing you do every morning is eat a live frog, nothing worse can happen to you that day”, wrote Mark Twain. In terms of our day-to-day lives, you can easily relate that frog to the most difficult item on your to-do list. Eating up that difficult – or unpleasant – item should be done first, this saying is seeming to tell us.

Avoiding a task that needs to be accomplished, or leaving a task until the “last minute” and letting panic drive it through, is called procrastination. This can take hold of any area of your life, not just a task on your daily to-do list. It may include putting off cleaning the stove, repairing a leaky roof, seeing a doctor or a dentist. You may wish to delay making a phone call that you believe will be unpleasant or breaching a stressful issue with a partner.

More importantly, for us, is this question: where does procrastination come from? What are the root causes and what can we do about it? I will be unpacking this issue this month but, if you would like to chat about your procrastination issues now, simply give me a call.

This morning I woke up excited for no reason at all. There is nothing special planned. It is not a special day. It is a normal Monday with a normal diary and normal things to do. I woke up excited, excited for what the day is going to bring. I can honestly say that I have not felt this way in years, if ever. Just excited for no rhyme or reason.

I have found a modality, QEC, which through a series of sessions over the last three months has enabled me to do that. Those benefits and more are available to you too. Contact me to set up your first session.

“I define vulnerability”, says Brené Brown, “as emotional risk, exposure, uncertainty.”

Vulnerability, says Dr. Brown, is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change. To create is to make something that hasn’t been there before and therein lies the vulnerability…

To really understand, to really appreciate the relationship between vulnerability and courage, to move forward to make changes and be creative, we have to talk about shame.

Shame is a focus on your inner self as a result of a self-limiting belief you formed – at a given moment in time – during your lifetime. Guilt, on the other hand, is an emotion felt and stored, based on our behaviour in a particular event.

Guilt says: “I did something bad.” Shame says: “I am bad.”

Shame is our inner voice, stopping us from doing what we want to do and being who we want to be: “I am not……………”

I have a simple process in my toolbox called QEC which is a great way to change these beliefs we have about ourselves.

See what your responses are to the following questions or statements:

Where are my beliefs holding me back? When I am forced to step out of my comfort zone, to a place that I envisage as my worst nightmare, how do I react to it? What strategies have I developed? Do I run, take substances, isolate myself, call in sick, avoid it, suggest someone else for the task or justify and rationalise? When that huge fear steps in, what happens?

What would you prefer that picture to look like if you had a magic wand?

Perhaps you are in freeze mode. You stop doing the thing you were going to do. You stop that project, that creation and that change, because you either believe you’re not good enough or you don’t think you deserve it. You limit yourself, at that point and at that time, sadly perhaps forever.

Let’s assist you to get to the point that you are able to step up in your own story at any given opportunity without the self-critic. Call me to make an appointment for an intro session. And what’s more, if you respond to this newsletter before 30 April 2018, you will receive a 15% discount for a two hour session.

Kindest regards,

Marléne