Just click here to read my fabulous interview with Life Coach Hub. I thoroughly enjoyed this and hope you will too.
Picture courtesy of Life Coach Hub.
Contact me to have a free chat on how I can help you.
Maggie Currie
I am helping people to become the very best version of themselves so that they can have more fun, live a better life and enjoy their work.
I don’t know about you, but this is one of my favourite times. A time when I take stock of the last year and where that got me and when I start to look at the year ahead and get excited about everything that I’m doing and aiming for in this year.
I’ve noticed that I’m not alone in this. Lots of people that I’ve spoken to in the past couple of weeks have been experiencing a mix of the dynamic “Right! a year has gone by, and I’m going to do something different that’s going to make my life so much better!” and the well-known “Oh, but I’m too (insert the applicable response) ……..tired, broke, cold, miserable” excuse for inactivity.
Do you recognise that in yourself or anybody around you?
Well, we’re going to look at how you can beat the winter blues simply by making it all about you. So I suggest that if there is somebody close to you that’s walking around feeling miserable… send this to them quickly! For those that have already beaten the blues and are charging ahead with making their plans for the Spring – well done! You can also use these tips to add more energy to your resolve.
With the many different roles that we undertake in our lives these days, we can so easily get caught up in playing each one, and everything it entails that, for a time, we lose ourselves in the mix. This is especially true going through and after divorce.
What we do on a daily basis can stop being about choice and start being purely about obligation. This can be particularly highlighted over the festive season when we had to drag ourselves up to go to yet another gathering when deep down we’d really have liked to stay in bed for a lay-in and really wish we’d never agreed to go in the first place! No wonder so many people feel burnt out by the time they reach the end of winter.
Well now is a great time to step back and bring the focus back to you. Not only is it the simplest way of beating winter blues, it’s a great way to give an extra energy boost to your plans and get the best start.
So be really honest with yourself , how good are you at focusing on you? How often do you put yourself before anything or anybody else?
For many of us, as we continue to juggle our commitments, obligations and other people’s needs, it’s not often enough. Perhaps we feel that it’s selfish to focus on ourselves when there are so many other people and jobs demanding our attention. But are we getting it wrong?
Think about it for a moment.
How differently would you feel if you put yourself first more often? If you were to do more of what you wanted to do? Would you feel more tired, stressed, time-poor, lacklustre? Or would you feel quite the opposite?
Our energy levels are directly related to how we feel. If we do little for ourselves we feel fed up, over-stretched, put upon, and we tend to have low energy levels. With low energy levels we feel less inclined to do the things we know we need to do, let alone anything else on top. We also work more slowly and so become time-poor.
Whereas if we consciously put ourselves first and look after our own needs and wants, we feel happier, more fulfilled, lighter, and our energy levels soar. When we have more energy we’re more productive so we get more done in the same or less time, making it possible to fulfil our commitments as well as looking after ourselves.
Sometimes we get so caught up with the roles we undertake, the commitments we have and the people around us, that we forget that we have a choice. Try to choose one thing just for you. Do it and see how different you feel. See also the amazing knock-on effect that has.
Top 5 Tips for Putting Yourself First
If you need help focusing on you, contact me. I will delighted to coach you. I look forward to hearing from you.
Maggie Currie
I am helping people to become the very best version of themselves so that they can have more fun, live a better life and enjoy their work.
Here is a short confidence building exercise for you. If you are up for the challenge that is!
At the end of each day, for 7 days I want you to write down 5 things that happened throughout the day that proved that you are ACE! Now if this doesn’t come naturally to you, you’re going to have to go out and make things happen.
Don’t ignore the little things as well.
You can include such things as complimenting someone, a good piece of work you did, the 30 minutes you spent with the kids when you would normally be watching TV – write down 5 things where you have added value to something or someone each day for 7 days.
GO FOR IT!
The 7 Day Challenge Template
Write out each “ACE STATEMENT” in the following format:
Number 1 was when I…
It meant that…
Afterwards I felt…
Number 2 was when I…..
It meant that…….
Afterwards I felt……
And so on until you have written down 5 things that happened throughout the day that proved that you are ACE!
After the 7 days are up, look back over your list your will be truly amazed at how ACE you are!
The following week, repeat the exercise but with 5 new things each day, and also make a plan for each day, just like the little dog in the cartoon above.
Remind yourself of this challenge every time you feel that you are not good enough, because you are good enough and you are ACE!
Contact me today, and we can have a chat on how I can help you. There is so much more information for you to see about my coaching on my website, take a look.
Maggie Currie
I am helping people to become the very best version of themselves so that they can have more fun, live a better life and enjoy their work.
A lot of people carry around with them a lot of “baggage” or “clutter” in their minds. When I say this I mean that they are still holding onto things that they say they ‘should’ do, but they really don’t need to – For instance, the person who they had a row with, but both are not speaking to each other – but both want to. SO who will make the first move? ‘Should’ it be me or ‘should’ it be them?
The ‘coulds’ and ‘shoulds’ in your life that hold you back – you want to let go, but you don’t.
This is very common going through or after divorce. You are not alone, I have done it myself.
Are you carrying around with you a lot of emotional attention that you could be doing without and focusing on something more productive instead?
Are you like this? If you are, I bet it has a negative influence on your confidence and self esteem.
Take a look at your life and get rid of this baggage by asking yourself some questions and by completing the following exercise. In effect, what you are doing is making certain tasks “complete”, drawing a line under them and moving on.
Another term for this is “psychological completion” or just “completion”.
Answer the questions all in one go if you like, or over a number of hours/days. By writing the answers down they become more formal.
Get to it and watch your confidence soar!
Create an action plan to get rid of/communicate these things that you have been putting up with. Take action!
Create an action plan of how to reduce this number! Take action!
Let go of as many coulds, woulds, shoulds, maybes, oughts as you can. Take action!
By completing these exercises you will be able to focus more on the here, the now and the future. You will now be able to let go of some of the things that have been taking up your valuable attention units – those things that knock your self esteem.
If this hits home to you then please feel free to contact me. You are not alone. I would love to talk with you and help you to learn how to be more confident in yourself. As we all know, life is a school and we are constantly learning.
I am helping people to become the very best version of themselves so that they can have more fun, live a better life and enjoy their work. Get in touch today for a free informal chat on how I can help you.
Maggie Currie
I am helping people to become the very best version of themselves.
Sometimes I have feelings of inadequacy and of not being good enough. I am not sure where they come from, but I sometimes wake up feeling that way.
I remember one occasion, I went to a breakfast business networking meeting, one I go to every Thursday morning at 7am, which means getting up at 5am to be showered and dressed ready to set off for business by 6.15am at the latest. Then a 10 mile drive.
Usually these meetings are full of energy and fun and are a pleasure to be at, but on this day it was a little different. One of our members had split with her significant other and moved off the Island and is now living with her parents on the mainland. This person will be sadly missed as she is vibrant, honest, straight talking and fun. So there was an air of sadness that she had suddenly gone. There were also some people there who were revelling in this news and making stupid comments, which I tried to ignore, as they were so unnecessary, and I thought it was shameful. I said nothing as I didn’t want to get into a stupid argument.
When the meeting finished I took some items to the DHL drop point to send around the world, as I do several times a week with my secretarial business. This should have taken about twenty minutes but ended up taking nearly an hour because the computer system wouldn’t let them put in the address and postcode I had for one item going to China, and a call to the helpdesk was needed, and this took forever. The lady who served me is also one of those people I try to avoid as she drains all the energy from me and is very critical of everyone and every thing. So instead of getting back to my office by 9am to get stuck into my work, I didn’t get back until nearly 10.30 and then I was all behind and annoyed that things didn’t work out.
I sat and thought about what it was that was making me feel inadequate. Not the fact that I was late getting back to the office. Not the fact that we had lost a great member of our networking group. So what was it? And then it came to me. The night before I had been talking on a fabulous phone call with two other coaches. The creativity and ideas were flowing from them, and what brilliant ideas they were. I am in awe of their power to think these things through so easily and clearly. So, I believe that I was feeling inadequate because I had absolutely nothing to add to these two brilliant coaches’ thoughts and ideas. They had done their homework fantastically and presented their ideas and innovations in clear and concise ways, and they were great ideas and I know they will work.
I feel that my strengths lie elsewhere, but at that particular moment I wasn’t sure where. I hate feeling this way and it makes me really upset to think this way. I know that I am a brilliant coach and that I do make a huge difference to people’s lives and that I will continue to do so. Having written all this I felt much better and know that I have a lot to offer but not necessarily in the same way as other people. I also know that I should not compare myself to other people, that is definitely a confidence killer.
So, to re-boot my confidence I have written a list of my creativity and innovativity (is that a word?) and here is the list I have come up with:
My creativity
My Innovativity
If this hits home to you then please feel free to contact me. You are not alone. I would love to talk with you and help you to learn how to be more confident in yourself. As we all know, life is a school and we are constantly learning. I really do look forward to hearing from you with your lists of creativity and innovativity.
I am helping people to become the very best version of themselves so that they can have more fun, live a better life and enjoy their work. Get in touch today for a free informal chat on how I can help you.
Maggie Currie
I have been working with a client for the past 6 months, and it has been amazing to watch her change and grow as a person.
I am so pleased that she is so much more aware of her own actions and how she ‘reacts’ to situations. She now realises it is better to step back and view the situation from the metaphorical distance and respond from her intuition rather than allowing her ego to react.
This is the wonderful testimonial my client gave me:
“The ride has been awesome…the support you gave me while I was driving at the wheel of my life and you were sitting in the passenger seat guiding, encouraging, and supporting me was fantastic and I so appreciate that.”
I learned about myself too whilst coaching, as all my clients teach me something new. It is so wonderful to be able to learn and teach and be open to learning more and more. The learning helps me to keep my ego in check and allows me to follow my intuition, and that never lets me down.
I have learned from my clients, my fellow coaches, friends etc., that when we neglect to recycle, speak up, vote or help somebody in immediate need, we deny ourselves the chance to make positive change.
By holding on to the belief that our actions don’t make much of a difference, we tend to ignore opportunities for involvement. Alternatively, when we see ourselves as important participants in our ever-evolving world, we feel inspired to contribute our unique perspective and gifts to a situation.
Our actions do make a difference in this world, it is up to us to make sure it is a positive difference. Do you have a vision for the future? What actions will you take to reach that vision?
Do you want to remain stuck and miserable? If your answer is no, start coaching with me today.
Get in touch today and we can have a free informal chat on how I can help you to take action and achieve your goals.
Maggie Currie
Having too much stress in your life, will make you anxious, irritable and unproductive. Stress will affect your relationships, your performance at work, your long term physical and emotional health and your quality of your life in general. But is there a way to reduce unwanted stress once and for all?
Why is it that all we seem to hear about these days is stress? Why does it seem to pervade everything we do? Well the simple answer is that as a result of ever-increasing expectations and competition more and more people are spending increasing amounts of time making very good use of their natural stress responses.
The instinctive responses, our body’s natural reactions to protect us from danger, release stress hormones directly into the bloodstream. These hormones bring about instant mental, emotional and physiological changes that provide extra awareness, endurance and strength. So if we were in a dangerous situation, they would help us to survive.
And because stress hormones get us fired-up, rather like sprinters crouched and waiting for the starting-gun, and because most stressed people don’t get the release of the race itself or they don’t give their bodies and minds sufficient time and space to rest after each stress-filled moment, the stress hormones just keep on working long after the perceived successful situation has gone. And as a result, we permanently have to endure these feelings of immediate danger and physiological, mental and emotional readiness, never able to relax and never able to feel at ease. It makes us feel tired too, so much so that we want to sleep, but because we are stressed we can’t get to sleep and so we toss and turn and increase our stress levels.
This obviously has a dramatic impact on the quality of our lives. Stress causes a wide range of emotional problems including issues with anger, anxiety, addiction, panic and obsessive thoughts. It can also affect our physiology such that we suffer from insomnia and the inability of our immune system to work effectively.
Perhaps your stress is caused by crippling pressures at work, or through an unhappy home life. Stress can also be caused by health worries – real or perceived, by financial worries, through the raft of worries associated with mid life crisis, through being too alone or not alone enough. As life gets busier stress is on the increase and more of us are looking for ways to manage stress.
A story, entitled “Stress and Memory,” summarises the results of a study published in the ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online’ that shows how stress chemically alters the brain’ s capacity to retain information, even very important information like where one can safely get one’s head above water when dropped unexpectedly into a lake or pond. That’s the effect on mice, anyway.
Scientists have discovered that if they play very irritating hissing noises to mice, the mice are then likely to forget where they can swim to safety while struggling to stay afloat in buckets of water … according to a story published on the science blog ‘ScienCentralNews’.
So if it affects mice, what is it doing to us?
Do you feel overwhelmed by too many things to do? Have you noticed lately that you wake up early or in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep because your mind is racing? Or have you been feeling more irritable about minor things at work or at home with your family? If so, it sounds like there’s too much stress in your life.
Information-overload is one source of chronic stress. We are bombarded with information from all angles every day. From newspapers, television, radio, billboards, magazines, overheard conversations, the internet and so on. And most of what we are hearing and seeing is negative, which adds to the stress levels.
If you think that you’re the only one who’s suffering from your stress levels, think again. New research suggests that one person’s stress can impact loved ones as well. Stress can be a huge source of misery in many lives.
Why not give it up? Why not reclaim your life and start living the life you deserve to enable you to overcome your stress rapidly, leaving you physically more relaxed, mentally calmer and much more confident. Quick fixes are hard to find, and often structural life changes are necessary to remove the major sources of stress. Life coaching will enable you to overcome stress quickly and easily, leaving you physically more relaxed, mentally calmer, altogether more confident and most importantly, free of stress. Ultimately you will start living the life you desire. Life Coaching will provide you with the tools required to avoid stress in the future.
One of the tools you will learn to adopt is to stop getting caught in the avalanche of information – much of it negative as we know – that assaults you throughout the day. Go on a news fast for a day, a week or a month. Moderate your TV and Internet time.
Life coaching tackles life stresses in a more courageous way than many stress management techniques, because it invites you to take an honest look at the fundamental cause of your stress – namely – your life. It offers both coping strategies for living with the status quo, but it also offers opportunities to change the status quo – thereby removing the sources of stress.
The life coaching process allows us to work together to find the sources of your stress and the routes to your happiness. With the help of a Life Coach, you will design a new, better way to live, and you will find ways to make it happen. It isn’t easy, and it takes time, the Life Coach will support you in regular sessions to monitor progress, tackle problems, and help you to stay positive and energised. You will find the limiting beliefs which keep you down; you will remove these beliefs – springing the trap – allowing you to move into new ways of being.
As a result of these sessions, you will gain a better understanding of your stress (it’s rarely the way it seems at face value), you’ll see a better way to live, and you’ll move towards that better – stress-free life.
I am helping people to become the very best version of themselves and would love to work with you. Get in touch with me today via the contact page of my website. Work with me to reduce your stress levels.
Do you really know what will it take to make you happy?
Think about it and see if you can discover what it will take for you to be happy?
If you think the answer is yes to any, or all, of the above questions, you’ll never find happiness!
Surprised? Well don’t be. The truth is nothing can make you happy. Happiness is something we feel, not something we can find.
Being happy doesn’t depend on a particular outcome or something happening to you. There isn’t somewhere you can go and find happiness sitting there waiting for you.
Advertising of all sorts is designed to make you think that a new car, a particular skin cream, a new outfit, some new shoes, a drink or a new diet will make you happy, but that is simply not true. Nothing can make you happy because happiness is a feeling. Happiness is something you experience.
If you want to be happy, then be happy. Most people don’t choose to be happy because they spend most of their time focusing on what they perceive is wrong with their life.
Think about it, you can’t be happy doing something that you don’t like. If you don’t believe me try it. Try doing something you despise and see if you can be happy at the same time. Trust me, you won’t be happy doing something you don’t enjoy!
You also can’t do something you really enjoy and be sad or angry. Don’t believe me? Try it. See what happens. Go and try doing something you really enjoy and see if you’re angry or miserable at the same time. That really doesn’t work.
Unfortunately, people believe they can be happy when they achieve a particular goal and make the mistake of chasing that goal in order to be happy. It’s really not achieving the goal that makes them happy. It’s the feeling of achieving the goal that provides another feeling, satisfaction perhaps, that is mistaken for happiness.
This mistake is quite common, because it’s not security or peace of mind that makes you happy. You experience happiness when you do what you enjoy and when you focus on the positive things taking place in your life. If you’re not doing that then you can never be happy. Don’t think that you can be happy just by having something.
You can experience happiness by achieving your particular goal, by doing what you enjoy, having fun while achieving your goals and choosing the right goals, the kind that allow you to be happy all the time. Focus on what you want.
Start doing the things that you enjoy. Look at the positive things that are going on in your life. Direct your mind and subconscious mind to help you experience happiness every day. This will start once you begin to appreciate the good things in your life.
Okay so how can you begin to be happy? It’s really quite simple, all you have to do is shift your focus.
Instead of looking at all that you perceive is wrong with your life, instead of looking at what you don’t like about yourself or your life; instead of constantly criticising; change your focus. Start appreciating all that is good in your life.
Make a list if you want and write out all of the positive things in your life. Usually someone will say: “Maggie, I can’t think of anything positive or good in my life. I just want to be happy.” That’s only because they are not seeing all the positive things in your life. And so you’ll never be happy.
Every day there are wonderful things taking place in your life, yet you fail to observe and recognise them. You tend to take them for granted. This can be anything – a hot meal, a wonderful spouse, family, a beautiful flower, lambs playing in a field – If you have a roof over your head, that’s a positive aspect of your life.
Start looking at all of the great and terrific things that are going on in your life and you’ll begin to experience happiness on a deeper level. You can begin to improve or change the areas that you are not happy with but at the same time you should acknowledge the good things that are going on in your life.
Your mind is used to only paying attention to what is going wrong, and in the process it directs the subconscious mind to continue creating more of those things that are going wrong. You actually create more of what makes you unhappy.
Why? Because your subconscious creates what you regularly think about. So if you don’t regularly focus on the positive things you won’t create positive situations in your life.
And here’s where it gets worse. When you constantly focus on what is wrong with your life, when you only think about and see what is wrong in your life your subconscious begins to create more of what is wrong or more of what you don’t want because it thinks that you want more.
Now you know why it can be so difficult for some people to truly experience happiness, it’s because they’re used to focusing on the negative aspects of life and in the end continue to create more of what they don’t want.
In order to change all of this you have to begin training the mind and re-directing the subconscious mind to begin creating what you want in life and to focus on the good things that are taking place in your life.
Begin experiencing happiness by changing your focus. Everyday think of the positive things that are going on in your life. Make a list of all the wonderful things that are taking place in your life.
Think of at least 3 great things that happened to you they can be small or large – but just appreciate 3 good things that happened during the day. Focus on the positive.
Direct your mind and subconscious mind by changing your perspective so you experience happiness everyday
Too often I hear from people who simply want to be happy but when I ask them what they do for fun they say: “Nothing.” No wonder you’re not happy. How can you be happy if you’re never having fun in life?
If you want to experience happiness then start doing things that you enjoy. You may like gardening; you may like hang gliding, you may like riding your bike, you may enjoy going for long walks, you may enjoy acting like a 5-year old – whatever it is start doing it and see how great you feel.
But there is one catch when you’re doing what you enjoy, you can only focus on that and not think about anything else that may be bothering you. That’s the only way you’ll truly enjoy the activity and begin to experience happiness.
As adults we get bogged down with the everyday tasks that force us to be serious. We have jobs where we’re serious, bills to pay, food to prepare, children to look after, it’s all too serious and it is necessary. I’m not suggesting you ignore your responsibilities – but take some time just to have some fun.
Now you can’t just have fun once a week or once a month. You have to do this every day. That means every day you have to find something fun to do, and only then will you get comfortable and used to the process to the point where you regularly experience happiness. Once you start doing this you’ll enjoy it so much you’ll wonder why you never did this to begin with.
If you don’t feel you have the time to have fun and enjoy your life then you’re really saying that your happiness is not important enough. Only when you decide to be happy will you truly begin to experience happiness. You can work with the techniques I’ve outlined – they will help you get started. But you will need to train your mind and subconscious mind to begin seeing and living in a different way.
I am helping people to become the very best version of themselves and would love to work with you.
Maggie Currie
It is natural to judge people, and yourself, since it just happens without us even thinking about it. We take one look and in 2 seconds summarise our opinion of a whole person – overweight, pretty, stylish, sloppy. This habit comes from the brain’s need to categorise the world in order to be able to function without becoming overwhelmed.
Judging is your way of identifying relevant information, you are trying to decide if the person approaching is a threat, a friend or someone you don’t need to worry about. This way of looking at people makes sense in a dangerous context, but in your daily life it can lead to an overly simplistic reading of the people you meet.
If you have ever judged someone dismissively, only to have them become a good friend once you really got to know them, then you will understand the hazards of the judgement cycle. An experience like that may lead you to question your natural tendency to believe your first impressions.
You will always notice things about the different people you meet, but as you become more conscious of the idiosyncrasies of judgement, you won’t be satisfied with your surface observations. You may notice that someone is driving an expensive car, but you will decide whether to befriend them based on getting to know them over time. You will not rule out a friendship with someone with unruly hair, especially if they turn out to have a great sense of humour and a kind heart. Liking or disliking a person is a choice you will naturally make, but it will be after you have got to know them.
Next time you notice yourself judging somebody, stop. Try to radiate love to that person. Then listen to them openly or look them in the eye and learn more about them. If this is not easy for you, remember not to judge yourself either. Trust that, with practice, you will change your habitual judgemental patterns. And as you do, you will find a whole new dimension of perception opening up to you, allowing you to see beyond the surface and into the essence of people you meet.
If you need help with any of the above, please contact me.
I have some availability for new coaching clients, we just need to fix some dates for when you want to get started. Get in touch today.
International Confidence Coach, Motivational Speaker, Author
I was taught by my parents and my teachers that I was average. This is not a lesson I want to keep because I am not, never have been and never will be average. I am unique, and I may not know the same things that so called clever people know, but what I do know is just as valuable.
I was taught by my college tutors that I should follow the rules. This is not a lesson I want to keep because not all rules should be followed. There are some that must be followed, and there are some that should be bent a little, and some that should be ignored completely. It is all dependent upon the situation and the rule.
I was taught by my husband and three children that love is unconditional for them. That is a lesson I am keeping because no matter what I love them all unconditionally.
I have been taught by my grandchildren that they are more intelligent than their previous generations and that they will be going places when they are old enough. This is a lesson I want to keep, and I want to watch them do just that.
I was taught by my mother-in-law that we are on this earth to help people. This is a lesson definitely to keep because that is what I want to do above all else. Help people, everywhere.
I was taught by myself that I can do more than I originally thought was possible to do. This is definitely another lesson I want to keep and expand upon.
I have learned and am still learning that there is so much more to learn and that life is a school. This lesson will be staying for the rest of my life.
Welcome to the Power of PIES. I apologize to those coming to this site looking for dessert : ) Instead, the PIES represented here is the powerful combination of Prayer, Imagination, Emotion, and Starting now. Read on, and I promise you will be impacted in a positive way. After all, life is sweet. Enjoy it!
Inspiration to live your life as the person you were meant to be.
The light from within healing and growing bringing about the reinvention of me!
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A "How to Thrive" Guide After Divorce
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Maggie Currie - Multi Award Winning Transformational Coach & Author 