Target Your Happy

✨ Introducing, Target Your Happy!

I’ve had an exciting re-brand to reflect the core of what I do - Happiness Coaching 💫

For me, it’s all about helping brilliant people like you, work towards a Career and Life you love.

If you’re interested in 1:1 coaching, then head over to TargetYourHappy.com (link in bio) and see how we can work together 🙌

✨ What does great mean to you?

Is there something you’d love to do in your career but it seems too risky or impossible to go for it?

Seeking Career happiness doesn’t mean having to drop everything and dive in. It could do (if that’s what you wanted) but you can also take a slower, more bitesize approach:

✨ Get clear on what career happiness means for you

✨ Consider the main steps it would take to get there

✨ Now think small - what is the smallest thing you could do each day to start working towards it?

✨ Do that thing!

Don’t let fear and risk stop you from pursuing greatness in your career 🌱🌳

🌼 It’s the first day of Spring here in the UK! 🌼

With that in mind, this morning I’m thinking about what helps us to grow and bloom.

Can you think of a tough situation you’ve handled in your career?

Tough because you’d never done it before and it was hugely outside of your comfort zone.

Or maybe tough because you never thought you’d have to interact with people in that way.

Whatever it was, I would take a guess that you grew from that. You probably learnt from a multitude of lessons:

🍃 I didn’t think I could do that but I did!

🍃 If I have to work with a person like that again, I know what to do

🍃 I didn’t trust my skills but I’ve shown I can!

🍃 I took a risk and it was worth it!

The powerful thing about growth is that once you’ve shown yourself you can, you’re more likely to push yourself out of that comfort zone again…win win! 🌼🌼

🌱 Have you begun?

What have you been planning to do but not done?

Perhaps you wanted to think about it a bit more before doing it.

Learn some more before applying for it.

Sometimes it’s great to plan and learn and wait. But if you never actually move into action, you won’t know the extent of your capabilities.

And it won’t always go your way but you can learn from those experiences too.

So, what can you begin? 🍃

👏 Happy International Women’s Day! 👏

Go forth and be career happy with inspiration from the epic Maya Angelou!

🍃What action have you taken towards career happiness?

It doesn’t need to be big or fast actions - taking change slowly and small is great.

Doing something small everyday will gradually add up and become the change you want to see.

🌱 Reality Alert 🌱

If you’re facing bumps along your journey to career happiness, you’re not alone and it certainly isn’t unusual.

If it wasn’t for the tougher times, we wouldn’t appreciate the good times.

Without the sadness, how would we know what career happiness means to each of us?

Some of my greatest successes and excitements have followed huge dips, risks and times of fear.

So if you’re traversing a tricky bit of road, remember Dolly’s words, that to get to the rainbow, you need the rain 🌈

You’ve got this!

🍃 How much balance do you have in your life?

Take a look at this post to help you find out…

🌱 Are you in your career comfort zone or growth zone? 🌳

If you are in your career growth zone, then you might find yourself thinking things like:

⚡️What have I done?

⚡️There’s no way I can do this

⚡️They’re going to realise I’m a fraud

⚡️I’m going to fail

If any of these sound familiar, remember that you’re not alone. A whopping 3 in 5 people are battling the pesky imposter at work (whether they talk about it or not) and it has been found that women are more likely to experience it.

Here are some tips for supporting yourself through the growth zone:

🌱 Remember that no one ever learnt anything by staying in their comfort zone

🌱 Don’t bottle up your feelings. Share them with those you know and trust and they can give you a different perspective

🌱 Do something rather than aiming for perfection

🌱 See failure as learning - what could you do differently next time? How have you grown as a result of the experience?

🌱 Celebrate you! Each time you do something new, that’s a huge step - well done! It takes courage to be in the growth zone and you should celebrate yourself each step of the way 👏

🍃 How much are you living in the moment?

It can be so easy to wish time away.

I just re-watched the whooooole of the US version of the series ‘The Office’ and by the last episode the tears were flowing.

They make an extremely salient point about not realising you’re living in the good old days until they’re gone.

What a great reminder to live in the moment and remember that the journey is as much a part of life as the destination.

Whatever you’re working towards right now, enjoy the ride 🎢

✨ Does your work ignite a fire inside you?

The average person will spend 85,000 hours of their life working. Pretty alarming when you see it like that!

So shouldn’t we get as much happiness from our careers as we can?

Whatever your aspirations are, you can make changes big or small to bring more joy into your work:

🍃 Revel in the parts of your work that you enjoy

🍃 Have a soundtrack - listen to your favourite music or a podcast

🍃 Work through that to do list!

🍃 Learn something new

🍃 Connect with people

✨ What would you be if you could be anything?

Whatever it is and however much of a leap it is from where you are today, take it step by step.

What is the smallest thing you could do today to work towards it? ✨

🍃 Do you aim for perfection?

If the answer is yes then how do you feel if you don’t meet your own expectations? What if you don’t have time to deliver something perfect?

Do you feel like you’ve failed?

I am a perfectionist and I learnt a life lesson in a role where there wasn’t time to be perfect. I was given brilliant advice by my leader at the time, “Done is better than perfect.” If I waited until my work was perfect, people who needed the content would have nothing while they waited which was worse than an imperfect something.

Don’t let the need for perfection stop something being created.

And if what you do doesn’t work 100%, then learn from it 🌱

🍃 And just like that, February is here!

And with a new month, come new opportunities to pursue your dreams.

Fear of failure or rejection is hard but what if you succeed!

See what happens ✨

🌱 What are you focussing on at the moment?

Whatever it is, keep your momentum with a little bit of activity everyday.

Keep yourself motivated with daily / weekly / monthly goals that are achievable and realistic and that might mean breaking those goals down into smaller chunks.

Keep going and before you know it, your efforts will really mount up! ✨

🌱 What opportunities are you seeking right now?

What have you done to try and reach those opportunities?

Have you ever experienced those moments in life when a great thing comes your way and you think, how lucky that I was there / made that big change / spoke to that person when I did!

It’s not just luck. You were there / did make that change / spoke to that person because you chose to.

If you don’t put yourself out there and make yourself discoverable, the opportunities may pass you by so get on that dance floor! 💃🏻

🌱 What brings you happiness to your soul?

For me it’s:

✨ Family
✨ Laughter
✨ Authenticity
✨ Freedom

When I’m making choices about work, I use this knowledge to keep my work life aligned to me:

🍃 Work-life balance - so that I can spend time with my family

🍃 Genuine colleagues - to build authentic work relationships and laugh as well as work

🍃 Choice - freedom over my work hours and / or where I work

💫 How do you keep work aligned to you?

🍃 Facing decisions that seem impossible to make?

It’s so much easier when you’re clear on what matters to you. So if you’re not sure, why not start there.

🍃 List the top 5 things that matter to you in your life

🍃 List the top 5 things that matter to you at work

🍃 Review your decision again with those two lists and see whether you gain the clarity you need

🌱 4 Steps to STAYING YOU when work overwhelm strikes 🌱

What do you find helps when you find yourself overwhelmed at work?

🌱 Are you debating going for that new job / exciting opportunity / new experience?

If it’s the fear of what could happen by going for it holding you back, then remember…if you don’t try, nothing will happen!

💫 So, what will you go for this week?

🌱 How do you talk to yourself?

Is your inner dialogue supportive and caring? Do you talk to yourself like you would a friend or loved one?

If you do, well done and keep it up!

If you don’t, you’re not alone.

Self-criticism can slip in all too easily and stop you from doing the things you really want to do or being your full self.

So next time you hear yourself saying, ‘You’re not good enough’ or ‘Of course you can’t do it’, catch yourself and be kind.

You ARE good enough and you CAN do it!

🍃 How true to yourself are you?

Over December, I spent some time reflecting on 2022 and I found that the word ‘Alignment’ came up repeatedly - I want more…:

🌱 Alignment in my work
🌱 Alignment in my environment
🌱 Alignment to my core values

So 2023 will be my year of Alignment!

✨What are you hoping for in 2023?

🍃 Do you let yourself properly rest?

This weeks posts are all about taking things more slowly and letting yourself relax.

Whatever you have planned over the next couple of weeks, give yourself the time and space to rest, reflect and recharge 🌱

✨What makes you happy?

As the year draws to a close, now is a great time to reflect on what you want to carry forward into 2023, and what you want to change / reduce / remove.

Here are a few questions to help you reflect:

🍃 What has brought you happiness in 2022?

🍃 What has been challenging in 2022? Bucket them into good challenges and bad challenges

🍃 What can you learn from the good challenges?

🍃 What can you change / reduce / remove as a result of the bad challenges?

🌱 What do you want the year of 2023 to be about?

💫 How often do you experience joy?

It can be easy to think that joy and happiness is something you work towards. We’ve all been there… ‘When I achieve [that thing], then I’ll be happy!’

But life happens everyday so if you can find moments of joy in each day, then you needn’t wait until the goal is achieved!

💫 What moments of joy can you find today?

✨ Do you know what your values are?

Values are the things that are most important in your life and they can act as a guide to your behaviour and decisions.

If you don’t know what your values are, then it’s a great thing to take some time out to reflect on because it can help you:

🌱 Make decisions about your work and career

🌱 Make decisions in general!

🌱 Deal with challenging situations

🌱 Stay focussed on the right things for you

🌳 Target your happy!

✏️ Want to work out your Values? Write a list of all the things that matter to you. Here’s a few to get you started:

💫 Family
💫 Integrity
💫 Authenticity
💫 Creativity
💫 Freedom
💫 Joy

Once you’ve written down all the things you can think of, go back through the list and reduce it to the top 5.

These are your values 💫

🏔 Are you able to step back from work and see the bigger picture?

It’s not always easy.

Sometimes you’re so close to a situation that you can only see it from close up and stepping back seems impossible.

Next time you feel yourself getting wrapped up in a situation:

🍃 Remember why you work and what motivates you (e.g. family, home, quality of life)

🍃 Take a physical step away from your desk or working space

🍃 Make a cup of tea / glass of water

🍃 Consider how you would advise a friend in your situation

🍃 How often do you say ‘Yes’ to something when what you really want to say is, ‘No’?

Do you fear saying ‘no’ in case of the judgement?

It’s so easy to be swept into doing what others ask in case you disappoint / anger / fail them - but what about you?

What about the disappointment you feel for yourself because now you have to work late / not have any downtime / not do the things you wanted to do for your well-being?

Next time you’re asked to do something, take a breath and consider whether it’s really a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’. Care for you 🌱🌳

👏 Start your week with some wholesome reminders 👏

🍃 Where are you in your career journey?

Remember that time you secured the new job/ got a promotion/ got recognised for the work you do?

Did you feel on top of the world and a real sense of achievement?

What about the time you didn’t get the job / or the interview/ no one recognised your input?

Life is made up of the highs and lows and the bits in the middle. Without the challenges, we wouldn’t appreciate the achievements.

So whether you’re riding high or dipping low, remember that by just continuing towards your goals, it takes courage and you’re doing great 👏👏👏