Hannah Braime's Blog, page 27

#72: How to Create a Personal Creed with Matt Cooke

In this week’s podcast episode, I’m talking to Matt Cooke from Creative Warrior Living about creating a personal creed (Matt’s secret sauce to being a boss) and living consciously.

Topics we discuss include: What a personal creed is and why it matters The neuroscience of intentional living The key components of a personal creed When and how to use it to live a conscious and intentional life

…and much more! Share the Wisdom

Build a bridge towards the virtues and ways of being you want to embody.

Click To Tweet

“Today is probably not going to be the greatest day of your life, but why not shoot for that?”

Click To Tweet

Create something that feels so right for you that other people probably wouldn’t agree with it.

Click To Tweet

Useful Links

How to Write a Personal Creed from Matt’s blog

Say Hello

Matt

Twitter: @MattCookeYoga

Website: Creative Warrior Living

Facebook: facebook.com/creativewarriorliving

Hannah

Twitter: @becomewhour

Website: becomingwhoyouare.net

Get your free ebook on how to overcome the 5 most common blocks to authenticity.

Subscribe to the Podcast

Intro and outro: Stephanie Murphy

Image credit: Sergey Zolkin

The post #72: How to Create a Personal Creed with Matt Cooke appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

               

#71: The Science of Money with Jason Stein

In this week’s podcast episode, I’m talking to Jason Stein from Heart of Business about creating a healthy relationship with money, why we’re wired to earn less, and how to turn that around.

Topics we discuss include: Some of the most common money blocks How we find the balance between wanting to contribute to others and needing to pay the bills ourselves. How to turn around money-related resentment How to take care of your community and your own needs as a business owner

…and much more!

Share the Wisdom

The number one human need in the world is needing to be of contribution to others.

Click To Tweet

People who give and don’t allow themselves to receive end up slowly hurting themselves.

Click To Tweet

Indecision is the destruction of creation.

Click To Tweet

Useful Links

Jason’s free gift: How to Say What You Do

Marketing for Hippies

Say Hello

Jason

Twitter: @IMJasonStein

Website: heartofbusiness.com

Facebook: facebook.com/heartofbusiness

Hannah

Twitter: @becomewhour

Website: becomingwhoyouare.net

Get your free ebook on how to overcome the 5 most common blocks to authenticity.

Subscribe to the Podcast

Intro and outro: Stephanie Murphy

Image credit: FJ Contreras

The post #71: The Science of Money with Jason Stein appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

              

The Art of Compassionate Self-Motivation

We’re deep into a time of year when many people are trying to make changes in their lives. I don’t know about you, but it feels like every time I’ve logged onto Facebook or opened an email over the last 4-6 weeks, I’ve heard about planning and goal-setting left, right and centre.

Don’t get me wrong, I love treating the new year as a chance to dream and scheme. If I didn’t set goals for myself, I don’t think I’d be nearly as intentional about how I spend my time (and wouldn’t get as much fulfilment and enjoyment from life as a result). As we all know, however, there’s a huge difference between planning to do something and actually doing it.

First of all, you want to make sure your goals actually involve things you want (for more on creating authentic goals, check out this podcast). Even when we’re working towards something we truly want though, we’re still going to reach that point where the novelty wears off and we need to start relying on our self-motivation to keep going.

This is the test; not just of how much you want to do something but of your relationship with yourself.

Something I talk about a lot with coaching clients is how to be disciplined about inching closer to what we want without resorting to negative self-talk, withholding self-acceptance and summoning our internal dictator. Here are a few suggestions for compassionate self-motivation as we embark on our next journey around the sun:

1. Ask yourself: “Who do I need to become in order to do this?”

When we start a new project or habit, we usually focus on what we need to do to make that habit or project happen. A more important question is “Who do I need to become in order to do this?”

Imagine yourself a year from now living a life where your goals and/or resolutions have come to fruition. How does that version of yourself behave? What kinds of thoughts do they have? How do they feel? What changes have they made in other areas of their lives? Who do they hang out with? What are they really passionate about? Build up a picture of that person you are becoming in as much detail as possible.

You’ll also find it helpful to think of a compassionate role model who has done what you’re trying to do, embodies the qualities you’d like to embody or who has the kind of lifestyle you’d love to have. While you don’t want to become their clone, you can study their actions and attitude and take inspiration for your own life.

2. Make your environment work for you

For every behaviour or habit we want to add to our lives, we need to identify a behaviour or habit to replace. In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor talks about the 20-second rule. This involves taking the habits or projects you want to replace and creating an environment where it takes you 20 seconds longer to do those things (and easier to do the things you want to do instead).

For example, if you want to read more after work but you get distracted by TV, put the TV remote in a different room and put a book on the sofa in its place before you leave for work in the morning. Although going into a different room to get the remote doesn’t expend a huge amount of energy, it’s enough to break the habit of mindlessly channel surfing and remind you of who you want to be.

3. Notice your energy patterns

Throughout the day, our energy ebbs and flows. Start tracking when your energy is highest and lowest, and the factors that have a positive or negative influence on your energy levels.

Then, make two lists. One list contains tasks and activities for when your energy is at its highest (i.e. those that require brain power and creative juice), the other contains tasks and activities for when your energy is low (brainless, admin tasks).

For more on energy and productivity, I recommend reading/listening to The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working by Tony Schwartz.

4. Remember your “big why”

With any new habit or project, we reach a point where the novelty has worn off and we feel like we’re back to doing grunt work. During these times, we can keep ourselves motivated by looking beyond feelings of day-to-day drudgery and reconnecting with our “big why.”

What excited you about your business or this particular project?

Why did you start doing this in the first place?

What do you really want to get out of it?

How will success with this particular habit or project positively impact other areas of your life?

5. Get support

Nobody says you have to do this all on your own.

Click To Tweet

You don’t get a gold star for going it alone and chances are you’ll fare a lot better if you have support.

This might be in the form of an accountability buddy, a mastermind group, a friend who is great at asking perspective-shifting questions, or someone who is willing to listen when you need to vent. Identify which kind of support you need and actively seek it.

How do you motivate yourself in a compassionate way? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Thanks for reading. If you know someone who might be interested in this post, please share it using the buttons below.

Want a rock-your-socks self-coaching toolkit and a weekly dose of authenticity? Enter your email below to get access to all this plus The Tribe, our private community for people who are passionate about living more authentic lives.

Get your weekly dose of authenticity here

Image: Jeff Sheldon

The post The Art of Compassionate Self-Motivation appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

               

Holiday Permissions

You have permission… to honour your boundaries.



You have permission… to honour your energy and to spend the Holidays in a way that nurtures, rather than drains, you.



You have permission… to make peace with the last 12 months—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

You have permission… to spend most of your time in the company of the people you love, rather than in a car or a kitchen.

You have permission… to use NORAD’s Santa Tracker if you want to (even though you’ve known for decades that Santa is not real).

You have permission… to celebrate the Holidays in a way that aligns with your values and priorities.

You have permission… not to go to church if deep down you know you’re not really religious.

You have permission… to create a cheese-tastic Christmas mix and play it as much as you want.

You have permission… to say yes to the things you want to say yes to, and no to the things you want to say no to.

You have permission… to feel how you feel, even if that falls outside the realm of joy, goodwill, and merriment.

You have permission… to show up as yourself, wherever you are and whoever you’re with.

You have permission… to have a thoroughly low-key Holiday Season, if that’s what’s calling you.

You have permission… to not worry about making things perfect or meeting other people’s expectations.

You have permission… to enjoy the opportunity to just be.

Wishing you and yours a beautiful holiday season! :)

Thanks for reading. If you know someone who might be interested in this post, please share it using the buttons below.

Want a rock-your-socks self-coaching toolkit and a weekly dose of authenticity? Enter your email below to get access to all this plus The Tribe, our private community for people who are passionate about living more authentic lives.

Get your weekly dose of authenticity here

Image: Ali Inay

The post Holiday Permissions appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

               

#70: How to Set Truly Authentic Goals

In this week’s podcast episode, I’m talking about how to set truly authentic goals in a compassionate way. Goals are super useful for translating dreams, intentions and ideas into reality, but the word “goal” can also feel pressured, heavy and un-fun. In this episode, I’ll share a few ideas around how you can set goals that feel truly authentic to you and that are based on feeling good, rather than feeling “not enough.”

Topics I cover include: Why it’s important to approach goals from a place of love, rather than a place of fear The one question we need to ask ourselves that is even more important than “What do I need to do to reach this goal?” Why we need to fall in love with the reality of reaching a goal, rather than just the idea How your behaviour in other areas of your life will make or break your goals

…and much more!

Share the Wisdom

Do you set goals that move you away from pain or move you towards pleasure?

Click To Tweet

Are you in love with the idea of reaching a goal, or with the reality?

Click To Tweet

Who do you need to become to reach your goals?

Click To Tweet

Useful Links

How to Shift from Scarcity to Abundance

Discover Your Values

Say Hello

Hannah

Twitter: @becomewhour

Website: becomingwhoyouare.net

Get your free ebook on how to overcome the 5 most common blocks to authenticity.

Subscribe to the Podcast

 

Intro and outro: Stephanie Murphy

Image credit: Matthew Wiebe

Editing help from Tilley the cat.

 

The post #70: How to Set Truly Authentic Goals appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

               

How to Get Out of a Creative Rut

We are all creative.

Even if you’re not a writer/painter/dancer/designer/involved in some other directly creative pursuit, we all use creativity to problem-solve, create goals, opportunities, and, well, live.

Our creativity is like a muscle and we can get creatively drained if we don’t manage our energy properly. If you’ve found yourself in a creative rut recently, here are five ways you can get your mojo back.

1. Stop making it about you

We rarely do things that just impact us. If you run a business, you have a direct impact on your customers. If you write, you have a direct impact on your readers (and likewise for any other kind of creative pursuit with an end user). If you’re an office manager, you have a direct impact on other people’s experience of their work environment. If you parent—yes, parenting is a creative act—you have a direct impact your kids and a small part of the next generation.

Sometimes, we get stuck in a create rut because we’re too busy focusing on “me, me, me.”

“I don’t know what to write/paint/create/etc.”

“I’m worried people won’t like this.”

“What will people think of me if I write that book?”

One of the simplest and most effective ways to kickstart your creativity is to stop making it all about you and start focusing on how other people will be impacted by your work. Who do you want it to move, inform or entertain? What kind of an impact do you want to have on the lives of other people around you (even if only because you’re a nicer person to be around when you’re in the creative flow)? What legacy do you want to create with your work? What do your audience want you to write/paint/create/etc.?

Creativity is self-expression, and self-expression is a path to service.

Click To Tweet

Focus on how you can serve other people with your work.

2. Change your scene

If you’re stuck on a tricky problem, question, or situation, changing your environment will help you see the situation at hand in a different way. This could be as simple as leaving your office and going to a café, it could involve holding a potentially challenging conversation outside the boardroom or home and in a park or during a walk, or it might mean printing out that chapter, article, or proposal and reading it off printed paper rather than on a screen.

Changing your scene is a simple, but effective, way of seeing something from a different perspective and could provide the possibilities or solutions you’ve been looking for.

3. Do something creative, but completely different

As I wrote above, creativity is a muscle. Just as runners who only run, without incorporating other forms of exercise or cross-training, end up injured sooner or later, using our creativity in just one way can lead to burn-out.

If you’re stuck on a particular creative problem or noticing that your creativity in a certain area is running low, take a break and indulge in some creative cross-training for fun (and by “fun” I mean not resulting in income, qualifications, etc., but just for the love of it).

4. Ask other creative people what works for them

This can be especially helpful if you do creative work for a living and need to balance paying the bills with maintaining your creative energy. Different solutions work for different people, so try asking friends, mentors, bosses, and role models how they manage this balance, experiment, and find a routine that works for you.

5. Create a ritual around your creative time

Rituals are helpful for training our mindset. As the saying goes, “neurons that fire together, wire together,” so when we get used to starting our creative time with a specific ritual, our minds get used to entering creative mode when we engage in that particular ritual.

Your ritual doesn’t have to be complicated (in fact, the simpler, the better), but it does need to be consistent. Whether you’re writing, painting, working on a tricky business issue, or figuring out how to use your budget in a more creative way, create boundaries around your creative energy with a ritual that signals to your brain “Now it’s creative time.”

How do you return from a creative rut? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Thanks for reading. If you know someone who might be interested in this post, please share it using the buttons below.

Want a rock-your-socks self-coaching toolkit and a weekly dose of authenticity? Enter your email below to get access to all this plus The Tribe, our private community for people who are passionate about living more authentic lives.

Get your weekly dose of authenticity here

(Image: Ali Inay)

The post How to Get Out of a Creative Rut appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

               

#69: Creating Communities in Business and Life with Cristina Roman

In this week’s podcast episode, I’m talking to Cristina Roman from One Woman Shop about how we can create communities and find our “right people” in business and life. Cristina is the founder of One Woman Shop, a community and resource hub for solopreneurs and freelancers based on the principle that going it alone doesn’t have to be lonely.

Topics we discuss include:

How and why Cristina came up with the idea for One Woman Shop
Some of the challenges we all experience as we step up into a leadership role
The key ingredient that encourages people to stick around as a member of your community
A way of reframing negative feedback

…and much more!

Share the Wisdom

When you decide to start something, you are willingly getting on a roller-coaster of emotion.

Click To Tweet

Whatever you’re doing, you’re never truly doing it alone.

Click To Tweet

Switch your focus as a leader from “What can I get out of this” to “How can I serve?

Click To Tweet

Useful Links

One Woman Shop – Cristina’s community for female solopreneurs

Say Hello

Cristina


Twitter: @cmroman


Website: onewomanshop.com


Facebook: facebook.com/onewomanshop

Hannah


Twitter: @becomewhour


Website: becomingwhoyouare.net

Get your free ebook on how to overcome the 5 most common blocks to authenticity.

Subscribe to the Podcast

Intro and outro: Stephanie Murphy


Image credit: Desi Mendoza

The post #69: Creating Communities in Business and Life with Cristina Roman appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

               

14 Holiday Gift Ideas For the Introspectives in Your Life

If you’ve yet to finish (or start) your Christmas shopping, here are a few gift ideas for the people in your life who love to keep it real.

P.S. Gift for yourself? Totally counts.

The Q and A a Day: 5-Year Journal by Potter Style

 

 

 

When I Loved Myself Enough by Kim McMillan

 

 

 

You Are Here: A Mindful Travel Journal by Emma Clark

 

 

 

 Spirited by Rachel Macdonald and Tara Bliss

 

 

 

 The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte

 

 

 

Truthbomb Card Deck by Danielle LaPorte 

 

 

 

Kelly Rae Roberts Prints

 

 

 

All About Me – Philip Keel

 

 

 

Create Your Shining Year 2015 by Leonie Dawson

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Open Heart Project Membership

 

 

 

Yoga Download membership

 

 

 

You could also pick up these awesome books— because why not ? :)

The Ultimate Guide to Journaling

 

 

 

From Coping to Thriving

 

 

 

P.P.S. If you’re looking for home-made gift ideas, Tara Leaver has a lovely selection of tutorials over at her website.

Image: Kevin Dooley

The post 14 Holiday Gift Ideas For the Introspectives in Your Life appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

               

#68 Do You Want to Be the Hero of Your Life or the Victim?

Welcome the first solo episode I’ve done for a while! Today, I’m asking an important question: do you want to be the hero of your life, or the victim?

Topics I cover include: Signs that we might be living as a victim and prioritising other people’s needs over our own Why connection trumps validation How to cultivate radical self-acceptance How we can reframe our relationship with our inner critic

…and much more.

Share the Wisdom

Nobody else has power over our lives unless we give it to them.

Click To Tweet

Instead of asking “What am I going to do?” ask “What can I create?”

Click To Tweet

Useful Links

From People-Pleaser to Superhero (a recording of last week’s webinar)

Be Your Own Hero, the brand new e-course (get 75% off until 6th December).

Say Hello

Hannah

Twitter: @becomewhour

Website: becomingwhoyouare.net

Get your free ebook on how to overcome the 5 most common blocks to authenticity.

Subscribe to the Podcast

Intro and outro: Stephanie Murphy

Image credit: JD Hancock

The post #68 Do You Want to Be the Hero of Your Life or the Victim? appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.

               

Recommended Reading – November 2014

Here are my favourite reads from November:

My favourite? It’s a tough one this month as all these books have their own beautiful strengths… it’s a tie between Spirited and Playing Big, which are both books that encourage us to grow into ourselves and expand our sense of what’s possible.

What books have you enjoyed reading this month? Leave a comment and let me know.

The post Recommended Reading – November 2014 appeared first on Becoming Who You Are.