However, bad day not a bad life!

I found some inspiring quotes that just might help you and I get back into gear. We might bend but we don’t break right?

Here are some inspirational vibes from the girl boss that started it all: Media mogul and richest black woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey.

When you’re not content

Sometimes, our frustrations can stem from feeling a sense of discontentment about our situation: A job, a marriage, a relationship or even a life. What that does is it opens the door to ungratefulness for the things that we do possess however imperfect and let’s face it, nobody has it perfect.

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.

When you’re afraid to fail

Fear is debilitating and many times, could be the reason you either stay stagnant or unable to grow. I once read a book by actress, Gabrielle Union, entitled: We’re Going to Need More Wine. In the book, she quotes one of her dying best friends who stated that she wanted the world to know that “fear can kill you”. This statement couldn’t be any more true. Maybe the reason you’re having such a frustrating day is your inability to advance or move forward because you are afraid of failure. Well, you’re going to have to understand that failure just comes with the territory. How do you move forward if you never try?

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.

When you’ve stumbled too many times

We’ve all been here. We know the feeling. You feel like giving up and throwing in the towel because surely, a grown woman shouldn’t make these many mistakes. Calm down and breathe. Hear what Aunty Oprah has to say on the topic.

Turn your wounds into wisdom.

“The great courageous act that we must all do, is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams.”

This awareness has brought about a chronic responsibility, enhanced levels of hustle for side jobs due to the increasing lack of job security and a ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude that is all too ineffective in the long term. So the question remains? Is work-life balance in fact a myth or an achievable goal? 

Managing your time wisely might mean forfeiting the Arsenal- Bayern FC game to finish up that report which is nearly due but it might mean you get more sleep later on and are more effective at work with reduced stress levels. Balance could also work in the reverse. It could mean skipping gym to read through your emails when in fact, your brain is probably more alert after a good work-out session and those emails aren’t going anywhere, are they? 

Productivity I’ve found is also greatly enhanced when you’re able to take meaningful breaks. Most of us millennials would rather be out turning up on Fridays, spend all of Saturday recovering only for Sunday to hit you like a ton of bricks and you’ve hardly gotten any rest, neither have you done the research for that brilliant idea you’ve been saying you’d kick start soon. Again, discipline is the common thread that binds everything together. 

Balance could also mean giving back. How many of us millennials are allocating some weekends to doing something for our immediate community? Yet, we are always the first to tweet about all the various things lacking in our society. A Harvard health publication surmised that volunteering not only helps promote mental health by warding off loneliness and depression, it has also been found to help reduce stress levels which could in turn lead to a healthier body. 

Think about it. In the past month, when you aren’t sitting in front of your laptop putting together those reports, what are you doing? 

Photo Credit: LanKogal/shutterstock.com

Many of us have grand career goals. We’d love to get a promotion at work by a certain timeframe. Others would love to get a particular kind of job right after graduating from university. For others, establishing their own businesses is their goal.

It’s really easy to dream big, but without a proper plan for execution, those big career dreams may never materialize.

Here are a few tips to help you create and execute career goals every month.

• Make a ‘Vision Board’: Before formulating a plan to execute your career goals, you must first have an overall vision of the direction in which you are planning to go. And a ‘Vision Board’ helps in defining this vision. A Vision Boardis ‘a tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on a specific life goal. Literally, a vision board is any sort of board on which you display images that represent whatever you want to be, do or have in your life.’ On your Vision Board, you can have pictorial representations of the career goals you wish to accomplish every month. This enables you keep the bigger picture in mind, as you create your specific goals.
• Break down your goals into small tasks: To accomplish your goals, at the beginning of every month, put together a ‘to do’ list of those little tasks you will need to engage in to accomplish your goals for the month. For instance, someone’s goal may be to use social media as a means of establishing themselves as a thought leader in a given field. Let’s give the example of a food enthusiast who is an aspiring chef. This goal of social media prominence can be accomplished by setting targets, and carrying out the following small tasks within a given month to reach those targets. For example:

Goal for the month: To conduct cooking demos to be recorded and published on Youtube and Facebook for a weekly Vlog series. Short clips of the video will be uploaded to Instagram and Twitter.

How do we go about making the vlog series a reality?

1. Set a budget for filming the cooking demos and research cameramen/good, affordable film crews
2. Schedule filming dates in advance. For instance, the four vlog episodes can be shot in one day to save money, and to ensure that the videos can be edited in a timely manner in order to meet the target of having one vlog released per week

By breaking down goals into small tasks in this manner, you will find that the big picture of your goals for the month will be accomplished efficiently.

• Self-assessment: In order to do a better job of accomplishing your career goals at the beginning of every month, it is imperative to assess your performance from the previous months. Ask yourself these honest questions, and give yourself honest answers. What were the things I did right that had great results? What are some things I could have done better? Overall, what are some detrimental habits I need to get rid of in order to be successful? (E.g procrastination, poor planning, etc). What steps can I take to do better this month?

You may choose to conduct this personal Q & A session by writing in your journal. This is a great idea, as you can always go back to review your progress, based on responses accumulated over time.

In a nutshell, you can successfully create and execute your monthly career goals by keeping the big picture in mind, breaking down your goals into small tasks, and honest self-assessment.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

So, how do successful people spend their time after work? Here are a few tips:

Spend some time with yourself

Yes, spend some quality time with YOU.

Think about it, you spend most of your life at work, surrounded by co-workers. And when you come back from work, you probably spend time with your family or flat mates – which is great.

However, in order to feel rejuvenated and mentally prepared for the next day it is essential that you spend a few moments alone doing things that relax your mind.

For instance, if you have the luxury of time, after work, go and get a pedicure. Or a quick massage. Or go see a movie by yourself. But if you really don’t have the luxury of time and need to go home right after work every day to take care of your family, you can still spend time alone. Even 10 minutes spent alone can help calm your mind. Lock yourself in the bathroom if you have to! Just let the silence envelope you. You can do whatever you want within those 10 minutes. If you are the praying type, pray. Want to meditate? alright. Just want to sit in silence? Fabulous.

According to Psychology Today, ‘Being by yourself with no distractions gives you the chance to clear your mind, focus, and think more clearly. It’s an opportunity to revitalize your mind and body at the same time.’

You will find that when your mind and body are refreshed, you perform better at any tasks you engage in both in the workplace, your social life, and at home.

Read

Okay this may sound kind of boring to some of you at first, but hear us out.

While at work, the only information you are bombarded with is work-related. After work, it’s a great idea to get new inspiration and knowledge that isn’t necessarily related to your current job. Do some reading to get insight on how to achieve your dreams.

For instance, if you are working a 9 to 5 job but are looking to run your own business someday, take some time out to do some reading and research about the field you wish to be an entrepreneur in.

Come on girl, your goal of world domination isn’t going to materialize magically. Nope. You need to spend time after work reading about entrepreneurs that you look up to. What’s their business model like? How can you draw inspiration from them and adapt ideas to fit your own business ideas?

Let’s face it, this kind of reading/research isn’t something you can efficiently do at at work – no matter how hard you try to sneak in a few moments of reading here and there.

The only time you will have to do this reading is after work. You can spend 1o minutes a day doing the reading. Do this every day for a month and you’ll be amazed at just how much knowledge you are able to garner.

Reading for pleasure after work is also a great idea, and can be extremely therapeutic especially when done just before bed. If you are the type that doesn’t like to hold actual books, or you dislike staring at your iPad/tablet screen, you can get one of those audio books, and let it read you to sleep.

You will have successful, peaceful sleep, and feel lovely in the morning! By the way, Enid Blyton books are a personal favourite and are great for the soul (who cares if you are over the age of 18 and still love reading children’s books before bedtime? No judgement here!)

Spend quality time with loved ones

You probably spend most of your time at work with co-workers. After work, it is essential to take some time out to spend time with bae, your besties, or your family.

Go on a dinner date. Go see a play after work. Sit back, relax and let your hair down.

After all, you know what happened to Jack when he overworked himself right? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Don’t be like Jack. Make time for play and you will find that your productivity level at work will skyrocket.

Work stress actually takes a toll on productivity. To be successful in any endeavour, play time is necessary.

Photo Credit: www.the-coreport.com

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Have some more tips? Do share in the comments section below.