Career growth

How to Bloom Where You Are & Succeed

By Jessica Brownlee

Even if you feel your life circumstances are less than desirable right now, you can choose to bloom anyway!

It can easily feel like life is throwing you some pretty nasty surprises, or just keeps dealing you a rotten hand of cards. While you can’t change certain things and just need to play the cards you are dealt, you can in the midst of less than ideal situations choose to make the best of your circumstances and bloom anyway.

With spring in the air a popular mexican proverb comes to mind, “they tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds”. You may have had a particularly difficult past few months, I think most of South Africa and the Global population has faced some sort of challenges, and naturally on some days it feels like we are a little seed buried deep in the dark soil. One thing we don’t want is for you to be all cavalier and ooze toxic positivity about your challenges, because they do matter. What you feel and what you’ve been through matter. But with Spring upon us we want to encourage you and help you find ways to leverage your enduring human spirit, boost your mood and bloom in the midst of it. 

Just like a wildflower blooming in the spring, you too will go through stages. Getting to a place of happiness, satisfaction and genuine optimism is a process. As Wellbe, we want to share some tools and tips with you to help you bloom and attract what you desire in life. Just like that wildflower you walked past in the park or the one growing in the cracks of the paving outside your office, it all starts with a little seed. Here are some practical little seeds for you to plant to allow yourself to bloom:

Bloom where you are

Shift your mindset

Too often we think that happiness or fulfillment will be attained if we can just get there or do this or be more like that. We want to challenge you to acknowledge that you already have everything you need to be happier, more content and to fulfill your potential. Perhaps this spring you need a mindset shift, from scarcity to abundance. A scarcity mindset is rooted in the belief that there is not enough. For example, you may believe you do not have enough time, money, resources, work and opportunities to achieve your goals or be more content. But the truth is that your inability to see the abundance around you is what is limiting you. You need to try shift to an abundance mindset, one which focuses on surplus rather than limits. By focusing on abundance, or what you have enough of, you will feel calmer, be more resilient and set yourself up to bloom. Next time you find yourself dwelling on what you do not have enough of, shift to focusing on what you do in fact have plenty of and see how your life changes.

Tune in to your physical health

It is almost impossible to live your best life if you are feeling under the weather and lacking vitality. You can truly thrive by tuning into your physical health and your physical needs, as much as you do your emotional or social needs. Remember managing your physical health may look very different to your friends. Try new things and focus on what works for you, if it’s a daily walk over HITT or eating more carbs than fats, do that. Get back to basics focusing on balancing blood sugar, moving and sleeping. Our bodies are all unique and it is never a one size fits all.

Be Proactive about your goals

All too often we get caught up in the here and now and we neglect to take actionable steps towards our future desires. An important part of feeling content, and blooming where you are, is deliberately working towards something meaningful for you. In fact, psychologists call this the happiness of excellence, it is kind of happiness that comes from the pursuit of something great. Find something that you want to work towards whether it is a fitness journey, a personal growth goal, redecorating your patio or replanting your garden or a new skill for your career and take proactive and measured actions towards it.

Build your social connections

Joy is increased when it is shared. You cannot bloom, grow and thrive without healthy and fulfilling social connections. By genuinely bonding and connecting with others you are meeting many important basic human needs. Take time this spring to spend some quality time with one or two people who build you up. Do something nice for someone else and enjoy their feelings of joy and gratitude. When life is challenging it is easy to focus inwards, but by focusing outwards you are allowing yourself better perspective on your challenges and sharing the load.

Take time to do the work and get to know yourself

Often we are motivated and content when we are doing things in alignment to our core values and interests. Take some time this spring, before genuine silly season sets in, to explore your strengths, values and what makes you truly happy. You could spend time doing a journal, a vision board, speak to a trusted advisor or just set time aside to reflect on who you are and why you value yourself. Getting in touch with yourself can be immensely rewarding, build your self-esteem and enhance every area of your life, as you genuinely come to know what you want.

Perhaps when working through these tips and tools you can identify a few more little seeds that you can plant or habits you can water that will bring you more contentment, joy and thriving, right where you are. Spring has sprung, take the new season and the warmer weather as inspiration to start fresh and live a more fulfilled life. 

 

 

 

About Jessica Brownlee

Jessica is an industrial and organizational psychologist specializing in learning, leadership, talent, neuroscience and wellness. A self-proclaimed wellness geek, Jessica writes The Humble Humanologist blog to inspire, motivate and uplift others on their work and wellness journey. She is her own boss, running a consulting company, Psychology360 (www.psychology360.org) and consults globally to some of the leading organizations. Jessica also strives to find balance and is an avid yogi and yoga teacher (who is yet to master a hand stand).

Instagram: @thehumblehumanologist

Facebook: Psychology360

Website: www.psychology360.org

September 8, 2021 Career, Food for thought, Lifestyle, Wellness Comments Off on How to Bloom Where You Are & Succeed
Boost your Career

Does your career need a boost or is it more than that?

We’ve all felt like we’re stuck in a rut at some point. Be it in our personal lives or professionally, there are times where you feel that you need more or simply that something needs to change. Navigating these feelings can be difficult though.

How do you determine if it’s time for a promotion or even a new job? How do you know if you’re burnt out and need to focus more on your personal happiness? Feeling the need for change is one thing but knowing why and what changes to make is vital.

There are many reasons why we feel this way so we’re going to dive into ways you can understand what you’re feeling and figure out what you need to do. 

Struggling professionally

Ever spent a work day feeling miserable, annoyed at everyone and constantly wondering “why am I even doing this?” If you’ve ever felt anything like this, it might be time to consider the following:

It’s a good idea to upskill

These are just a few signs that it’s time to add some new skills to your repertoire;  

  1. People are being promoted around you 
  2. You find yourself getting bored easily 
  3. You’re constantly asking others for help with your tasks 

You might be sitting here and thinking but how is learning a new skill going to change anything? 

Upskilling yourself gives you the opportunity to branch out into something new and interesting while giving you the chance to add a new level of value to your company. Learning something new or mastering something you already know will give you a new sense of purpose and reignite your passion in the workplace. It is also never a bad idea to invest in yourself and learning new skills is the best way to do that.

Even better, you can use online courses from sites like Udemy that offer cost-effective options for you to expand your skillset. And you don’t even have to leave the house!

 

Career Success

Should you be asking for a raise or promotion? 

Knowing when and how to ask for a raise or promotion isn’t easy but these are a couple of signs that indicate it really is time to ask. 

  1. You killed your performance review 
  2. You’ve upskilled yourself and can now be considered as overqualified for your current position
  3. You’ve taken on  more responsibilities at work 

Asking for a raise or a promotion is a little daunting and can feel like an impossible task. There is definitely a lot that should be considered before doing so. According to this Forbes article, there are 5 major things you should think about before you make your request.

What stands out from that article is that preparation is key! Make sure you can adequately show why you deserve the raise or promotion, understand what your role is worth and know how to position yourself correctly to show the value you can add. 

Maybe it’s time for a new job 

It is so disheartening when you feel like you’re giving your all to a job that is giving nothing back to you. We spend the majority of our lives at work so when it’s not enjoyable, life as a whole can feel pretty ‘meh’. There are many reasons to find a new job, a few of them are;

  1. You’re often bored.
  2. It’s a toxic work environment
  3. It’s starting to impact your mental health
  4. You are constantly being overlooked for any promotional opportunities 

Always remember that your happiness, mental health and goals come before any job. If you are not satisfied in your current company or position then move onto bigger and better opportunities. 

Start off by really thinking about what you want and then begin browsing job listings on LinkedIn. This article by Balance Careers has some really great tips on how to get started! Starting a new job is often quite scary but the thrill of boosting your career is just SO worth it.

It’s personal 

You might find that you’re feeling really unmotivated and miserable at work but it has nothing to do with your company, your job role or anything work-related. This is when you have to really be mindful and understand where these feelings are coming from. 

Creating the elusive work-life balance can be a struggle and the fear of burnout is real. This is why it is so important for you to set boundaries within the workplace. You’ll find that once you begin to prioritise yourself, your goals and your mental health, everything falls into place. 

These are some of the best ways to overcome personal struggles that are impacting you professionally; 

  1. Begin each day on a positive note – a positive mindset can change everything!
  2. Be aware of imposter syndrome and how this is affecting you. Read more about imposter syndrome here. 
  3. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Perfection doesn’t exist so simply do the best you can.

Most importantly though, be patient with yourself and be kind to yourself. Life is difficult and we often feel endless pressure to be the best (thanks, Social Media). Simply take each day as it comes and make sure you’re doing the necessary work to keep bettering yourself.  

Whether you are struggling personally or professionally, it is time to make a change and take ownership of your own life. You’ve got this!

June 17, 2021 Career, Food for thought, Lifestyle, Wellness, Women Comments Off on Does your career need a boost or is it more than that?
POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

WANT A THRIVING WORKPLACE? CREATE POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

By Jessica Brownlee

Our tips and insights into being successful at work you do, by valuing and investing in people …

Growing your business and being successful is hard, especially in times like these. We all want to make more money, smash those business goals and just feel like we are achieving our best lives at work. And yes, your customers are the heart of your business. But your employees and people you work with are the life blood. Think about it, you cannot get a single thing done without your people. Literally, not a single thing (barring what you can achieve on your own steam, of course).

When we think of increasing our business or product value we often immediately think of the customer. But what about the employees and people driving the value? Just as customer service has transformed over the years, along with the customer, into customer experiences (the holistic perception customers have of your brand or business stemming from every interaction they have with it) so too do we need to transform our employees’ engagement and happiness by intently focusing on their employee experience. After all your employees are your first customer, and the human side of your brand. 

If the fiscal side of employee experience doesn’t captivate you (we all have different motivations) consider how much of our lives we spend at work and that you as a brand or employer have the power to make someone’s workplace, and by implication life, better, more positive and happier. If there is ever a time to flex your altruistic muscles and show some kindness to others, the middle of a global pandemic and on-again-off-again lockdowns would be it!

POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

The deal with Employee Experience

A positive employee experience is more than just a decent place to work. Employee experience is a combination of your workplace culture, the physical work environment and the tools and technology which enable the work. As an example, when you go to work you want to experience a sense of belonging and shared purpose (culture), where you feel safe, can attain goals and grow while working in a healthy, safe and well environment with a technology or machinery that enables you to be efficient and perform. As leaders or business owners if we don’t address and manage all the factors impacting our employee experience we may pay a heavy cost. To convince the stoic and unmoved out there, here are some tangible examples of employee experience impacting the bottom line:

 

  • It is a proven fact (by science, people) that a happy employee is 20% more productive, imagine losing 20% of your employees’ production every day for a year. That’s a full day a week, almost full week lost a month just because your employee is unhappy. 
  • An engaged workforce outperforms one that is lackluster by tripling profit to 147% profit per share.
  • A positive employee experience creates an engaged workforce. Annually disengaged employees cost the USA $450 to $550 billion a year!
  • Managing your employee experience allows you to shape your culture and culture eats strategy for breakfast.
  •  To have talent and the best employees who give of themselves at work, they need to feel appreciated, and that means more than a competitive paycheck. Google increased employee satisfaction by 37% thanks to their investment in employee support.
  • Another hidden cost of poor employee experience is the increase in sick leave and absence, an unhappy employee takes 15 more sick days a year.
  • If you are in a highly competitive industry, positive employee experience can give you the edge with increased innovation and performance from your employees. Happy people just think and work better!

Insights into Your Business’ Employee Experience 

If we want to focus on cultivating positive employee experience, a good starting point is understanding what and where it is now, establishing your status quo. Understanding your employee experience can be simplified into two main focus areas:

  • What do your employees expect, want and need?
  • How does your business design the solutions to meet the wants, expectations and needs of employees?

You can understand your employee experience by evaluating three things:

  1. The physical space: 

Evaluating your workplace design and its impact on interactions, daily work life and wellness.

  1. The workplace technology: 

Embodying frictionless technology that enables and supports performance.

  1. The company culture: 

Understanding and building the right behavioral norms, values and policies on what is acceptable inn your workplace.

Tips to cultivating positive employee experience

So you have a good idea of what employee experience is, why it is important to you and how to evaluate and understand your current employee experience. Hopefully, you feel energized to take action in addressing your employee experience, for your business value and for your employees. Here are some tips to assist you in starting to build a more positive employee experience:

Foster Psychological safety

Yes, it sounds complicated, but no it is not. Simply, psychological safety is merely about giving people the freedom to bring their whole selves to work while feeling valued, connected and accepted. To create increased psychological safety at work we need to approach others with positive regard, allow failures and successes, treat people with dignity and act inclusively. Our interactions, especially the leaders at work, need to down regulate fight or flight responses and allow people to be calm, energized and focused.

Communicate with your employees

An important part of employee experience is communication between the business, leaders and employees. Great communication starts with listening. Actively listen to your employees. You can create discussion boards, virtual collective spaces and even schedule team lunches that allow open communication. Really listen and try to understand what motivates and demotivates your employees, try put yourself in their shoes and understand their day-to-day lived experience. Storytelling is a great way to share ideas and communicate with employees. Host town halls or social media campaigns to keep them feeling connected.

Make people feel valued

Focus on fostering a culture of acknowledgement, people have a fundamental need to feel valued and this is true for the workplace. Recognize contributions to the team and company success in meaningful ways beyond monetary incentives. Create the habit of frequent feedback and make a point of letting people know you see them and their efforts.

Give employees’ growth opportunities

A big part of a positive work experience is feeling like you are growing and contributing to something bigger than yourself. Ensuring employees have routine learning and development opportunities gives them the chance to grow and progress. Growth can take the form of free access to Udemy courses or short courses, personalized development plans to one’s career aspirations or creating a learning culture in the organization with knowledge sharing and learning lunches. 

Work Life Integration and Balance

We all want to feel like we have a good work life balance, in essence we want a positive experience at work and at home. As work and life become more integrated it is really up to leaders and business’ to enhance employee work life balance and show employees they genuinely do care for their happiness. Small steps such as increased autonomy and flexibility at work can go a long way to making employees feel empowered and valued. Consider others schedules when booking meetings, perhaps try have stand up meetings instead of sitting in a board room. Be mindful of the emails your forward and who’s mailbox you are filling. And most importantly encourage employees to switch off and recharge, often. 

Integrate the desired experience into people practices

You can’t achieve the employee experience you want without ensuring all other initiatives in the business align. If you want to encourage feedback, make it a weekly habit in the team. If you want people to act inclusive, build it as a measure into your performance management system and include it in onboarding initiatives. Once you have identified the pillars you will use to build your employee experience make sure you integrate it into all the employee touch points to reinforce the change in behaviours and make it stick.

A word from Jessica Brownlee

Through the sharing of knowledge and experience, we want to help build communities, organizations and individuals become the most optimal version of themselves, both physically, emtionally and mentally.  

Your health is your wealth so make lasting changes, one habit at a time.

The WellBe Team

About Jessica Brownlee

Jessica is an industrial and organizational psychologist specializing in learning, leadership, talent, neuroscience and wellness. A self-proclaimed wellness geek, Jessica writes The Humble Humanologist blog to inspire, motivate and uplift others on their work and wellness journey. She is her own boss, running a consulting company, Psychology360 (www.psychology360.org) and consults globally to some of the leading organizations. Jessica also strives to find balance and is an avid yogi and yoga teacher (who is yet to master a hand stand).

Instagram: @thehumblehumanologist

Facebook: Psychology360

Website: www.psychology360.org

April 12, 2021 Career, Food for thought, Guest Blogger, Lifestyle Comments Off on WANT A THRIVING WORKPLACE? CREATE POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
Financial Health

FIVE SIMPLE HABITS TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH AND INVESTMENTS

By Nicholas Bezuidenhout

Fostering good habits can be the key to achieving your goals. Here are 5 simple habits that will improve your health and investment outcomes:

 

1.    Seek Ongoing Professional Advice

Consulting a dietician or personal trainer upfront to construct a diet and exercise regime that is appropriate for your goals, although coming at a cost, will save you much frustration and drastically increase your chance of success. Their role is to set achievable goals and appropriate programs to follow to which they will hold you accountable. The interaction should be regular as they can check up on your progress and tweak your program over time (which is especially important should you reach a plateau). Having someone to report back to means that you will be more likely to be engaged and committed.

The same is true for investments. Consulting a Certified Financial Planner® professional will enable you to set up a suitable investment strategy that is affordable and most importantly, one that you can stick with. Active, regular engagement is crucial to prompt you to keep putting funds away when possible (and opportune!) and to help you stay the course. At the same time, a Certified Financial Planner® professional will review the long-term performance and makeup of your portfolio and make suitable recommendations on a forward-looking basis.

As investment returns do not come in a straight line, but rather in a lumpy fashion, staying invested in your strategy is the most important determinant of success. To do so requires emotional control and not making impulsive decisions when investments are down or volatile. A Certified Financial Planner® professional can act as a rational sounding board, to talk through your concerns and to give you additional insight enabling you to avoid costly missteps.

2.    Diversification – the only free lunch!

Although there are myriad diets and nutrition options available, a well-balanced diet is essential for good long-term health. This can be in the form of balancing your macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) or including a balanced variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet.

In a similar way, when it comes to investments, diversification is crucial in building a robust portfolio that can withstand the ups and downs of different business, economic and market cycles. Appropriate diversification allows you to achieve your desired goals whilst lowering the risk of permanent capital loss and reducing the ups and downs of your portfolio.

Investment diversification involves balancing your asset class exposure (local and offshore) between shares (equities), cash, bonds and property. The ideal balance depends on your investment objective, your investment time horizon, your ability to tolerate fluctuations, and your financial capacity to take on risk. You may further diversify between active fund managers, who choose the shares that you are invested in, or passive low-cost index tracking investments. When employing the services of an active fund manager it is beneficial from a risk/return perspective to blend fund managers with different investment styles such as growth and value.

Health and Money

3.    Consistency

Being continually conscious and discerning about what you put into your body whilst being consistent with your exercise routine is the only way to achieve your long-term health goals. The same is true for investments. By setting up a regular contribution with an automatic annual increase together with a reminder to top up your retirement annuity or tax-free savings plan before the end of the tax year, you will be amazed how much sooner you will see results.

4.    Think Long-Term

In today’s technological age of streaming and 24-hour delivery services we all want instantaneous results. Unfortunately, when it comes to your health and investments it takes time to see these results.

Once the appropriate investment portfolio has been implemented then the next step, which is probably the most difficult, is to stick with the strategy and give it time. This requires patience and immense self-control. Like a new diet or exercise plan, the biggest risk to not achieving your goal is that you abandon your plan along the way because you are not seeing the results soon enough. This may happen because you are investing sporadically, evaluating returns over too short a period (most fund managers invest with a 5 to 10 year time horizon) or falling prey to making emotional decisions.

Of course, a very real problem may be that you cannot stomach the ups and downs of your portfolio. This may require a meeting with your Certified Financial Planner® professional to ensure that your portfolio is in line with your risk tolerance level and a tweak or two may be needed. Another strategy is to only look at your investments once a year, after all, the less frequently you look at an investment the less volatile it will become!

5.    Always Look Forward!

We all have binge days when we overeat or periods when we do not exercise. Fixating on those times can create feelings of guilt making it difficult to move forward. Remember, we cannot change the past and the only thing that we have control over is what we do today and going forward. With investments it can be very tempting to base decisions on historic short term investment performance making it enticing to change your portfolio to follow last year’s best performer or to abandon ship when things are down.  This behaviour can be very costly over time as last year’s outperformer can sometimes be next year’s underperformer. By not giving investments time to deliver you can miss out when things pick up. Rather make investment decisions looking forward asking the following 3 questions:

  • Is my portfolio still appropriate for my objectives and risk appetite?
  • Is my portfolio well diversified locally and offshore, between asset classes and quality fund managers with complementary investment styles?
  • Do I need to put more away to make achieving my goals more likely?

The principles of investing are straightforward but implementing them is not. Like any diet or exercise training program, investing requires sacrifice now to benefit your future self. At the same time, avoiding costly missteps requires mastery of your behaviour and an understanding of the common pitfalls that can catch you out. Following the 5 habits above will help you navigate your health and investment journey, significantly improving the chances of a successful outcome.

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More about Nicholas Bezuidenhout

Nicholas is an Actuary and Certified Financial Planner® professional specialising in retirement planning and investments whilst helping people protect their and their family’s financial well-being. Please follow Nicholas at https://nicholasbezuidenhout.com/ and https://twitter.com/nick_bez

 

March 8, 2021 Food for thought, Lifestyle Comments Off on FIVE SIMPLE HABITS TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH AND INVESTMENTS
Spending

HOW TO AVOID BEHAVIOUR TRAPS THAT STOP YOU FROM BEING THE MASTER OF YOUR FINANCES.

By Nicholas Bezuidenhout

The first step to financial wellness is to create disposable income to invest for the future and to stay out of unhealthy debt. To create disposable income, you need to earn more and/or spend less. This is similar to any weight loss plan where getting in shape, no matter what nutrition or exercise regime you choose to follow, ultimately involves the hard work of moving more and eating less.

You may earn more by creating an additional source of income or taking steps to earn a higher salary but this is not always that easy so we will focus here on ways to spend less. So, what are two common behaviour traps that lead us to getting into debt or spending more than we should and how can we sidestep these?

1.    Pain avoidance

When it comes to going to the gym or exercising, we will often find any excuse not to do it because initially it is very sweaty and uncomfortable! This is like paying for something with cash or our debit card where we see the money go out of our wallets or bank balance, causing immediate physical discomfort. The discomfort happens because we realise that the money we just spent was actually ours and we start wondering whether spending R18 000 on the new iPhone 12 was actually worth the number of working hours, days or months it took to earn the money! It also results in us going through the uncomfortable thought process of considering what else we could have spent the money on and what we have sacrificed for this purchase, known as the “opportunity cost” – will there still be enough in our bank account to cover the rest of our debit orders, our kids’ school fees, our groceries?

Because of this emotional rollercoaster it is so much easier to whip out the credit card or the payment app on our phone, like a cowboy at the O.K. Corral, to buy what we want whenever we want. The reason this is so easy is because firstly and at least initially our bank balance stays the same and it is not our money that we are spending. Credit cards have enabled us to have immediate gratification with the pain of paying coming much later.

This is not a problem if you are able to pay off your credit card every month but all too often our credit card balances keep growing until the interest alone costs us thousands every month. Credit cards do have their purposes for emergencies such as paying for emergency medicines or the tow truck when we breakdown in the middle of nowhere, but they should really be limited to that – emergency expenses only!

If you want to get your spending in control then do what you can to avoid spending on credit, put your credit card (wrapped in plastic) in a block of ice in the freezer, lock it away in the safe or give it to your trustworthy and ferocious mother-in-law for safe keeping and get into the habit of only spending with the money you have saved up in your wallet or in your bank account via your debit card (please cancel or avoid the overdraft facility!). The truth is that, like exercise, once you get into the habit and have passed the initial period of discomfort it is extremely fulfilling as you start to see results, your bank balance growing instead of shrinking, and as you come to realise that you are indeed in control of your own behaviour. You will also become an expert in weighing up whether it is worthwhile to spend money on something as you realise that every decision to buy something is a decision to sacrifice something else.

 

Save more money

2.    Relativity – Sales, special offers and get-one-free deals

Whilst sales and special offers sound enticing, we usually fall into the marketing trap of buying things we don’t actually want or buying far more than we need. We end up spending way more money than we intended just to save a percentage on the additional item.

For example, you go to the grocery store in search of guacamole for your once-a-month home nacho and movie night and when you arrive at the aisle 5 shelf, proudly displaying the guacamole, you see that there is a special: buy two get one free! This is too compelling to resist, as in effect you are getting one third off, and you end up spending twice the amount of money that you intended to because let’s face it, you actually only needed one tub for nacho night! Aside from reducing your bank balance you also end up either overeating or with some mouldy guacamole after a few days!

Having said this, specials and buy bulk and save items have their place if they are offered on essential items such as toilet paper and toothpaste and you are getting a discount on the usual price by buying more. To decide whether to go for these specials we need to become experts in what is known as the “time value of money”. For example, if buy buying 10 family packs of toilet paper gives you a 5% saving, knowing you will only use it over a year, is it worth it when you could have taken the money for the other 9 packs and paid off some of your long overdue credit card debt saving interest of 16% over a year? As a rule of thumb, if you are going to use the item in the next year and the discount is less than 10% it may be best to only buy it when you next need it!

Now, imagine if these sales and special offers inadvertently cause you to buy more than you need a few times a week, you can very easily end up spending hundreds or thousands of Rands more that would be better put towards reducing debt or saving for your future goals and dreams!

 

For other tips on how to reduce your spending please refer to Nicholas Bezuidenhout’s  blog post, “Living Lean” https://nicholasbezuidenhout.com/2019/07/22/live-lean-make-your-assets-work-for-you-rather-than-the-other-way-round/

 

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More about Nicholas Bezuidenhout

Nicholas is an Actuary and Certified Financial Planner® professional specialising in retirement planning and investments whilst helping people protect their and their family’s financial well-being. Please follow Nicholas at https://nicholasbezuidenhout.com/ and https://twitter.com/nick_bez

 

March 8, 2021 Food for thought, Lifestyle, Wellness Comments Off on HOW TO AVOID BEHAVIOUR TRAPS THAT STOP YOU FROM BEING THE MASTER OF YOUR FINANCES.
A SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE

PRACTICAL HACKS TO HOLISTIC HEALTHY LIVING: HOW TO CREATE A SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE YOU LOVE

A little bit about me 

First off, Hello! My name is Jessica Thiels AKA The Lively Fitness Girl. 

I am a holistic health and fitness coach with a heart full of passion to help people create a beautifully balanced lifestyle that is sustainable and realistic. Since I was a little girl I always had a lot of energy. You would always see me jumping around and moving around. I never wanted to sit still and I would get bored super easily – sorry parents LOL! 

I found myself naturally leaning into sports, specifically running. I loved the challenge of it and I love how it made me feel – unstoppable, strong and free. As I got older, I got very good at running in High School and then I naturally started going to gym and discovering new ways to challenge myself. After studying a BCOM at University, I realized very quickly that I’m not cut out for the corporate environment so I went ahead and studied a Personal Training Certificate and Group Instructing Certificate at FitPro. I then decided I wanted to further my knowledge, so I got a health coaching certificate through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition which qualifies me to guide my clients to create a holistically healthier life – from exercise and nutrition to relationships, career, and spirituality. 

With a couple years of experience working as a Health and Fitness coach – I couldn’t be happier with the path I chose to help people create and live the lives they deserve. 

Let’s talk about you! 

Anyways, enough about me! Let’s talk about you. How are you doing right now? Are you constantly hopping on and off diet and exercise plans? Are you restarting every Monday after binging on the weekend because you were too restrictive during the week? Are you feeling like you can’t stick to anything and you can’t seem to find balance? 

Listen, I TOTALLY feel you. We’ve all been there. All of a sudden becoming too restrictive and too hectic can cause you to resent the whole process and journey of health and fitness. Yes, if you have goals you want to reach you do have to make certain sacrifices but if you are trying to create and maintain a sustainable healthy lifestyle, becoming overly restrictive will make you hate the process and turn back to your old habits.

The goal is NOT to feel like you need to consistently restrict yourself or start again every Monday. The goal is to create a lifestyle where you have balance. Where you feel good about yourself all of the time! Trust me, I know it’s easier said than done but what I do know is it is 100% possible. Starting small, celebrating yourself along the way and keeping it simple is a fab place to start!

HACKS TO HOLISTIC HEALTHY

The health hacks you’re after

Let’s dive into it! Here are a few tips to get you to start building a healthy balanced lifestyle for yourself:

1. Start small

Don’t go from zero to hero, it never works! Being super restrictive isn’t sustainable over a long period of time. Focus on creating small changes or small healthy habits that will become the building blocks to an overall balanced lifestyle.

2. Move your body

We all know that after getting some form of exercise you feel more positive and productive. Set a routine and ensure you move your body or exercise for at least 30 minutes every day – whether it be the morning, afternoon or evening. Also be sure to find something you enjoy and stick with that! Any form of exercise will do.

3. Work on your mental health

This is SO important. Often, we are focusing far too much on diet and exercise that we don’t even check up on our mental health. Just like you need to make healthy decisions everyday with regards to diet and exercise you need to do the exact same for your mental health. 

Take some time in the day and check up on yourself, make some time for meditation, journaling and breathing. If your mental health is not in check it will directly affect everything else in your life. Make this a priority!

4. Fill your fridge with yummy goodness

No, this doesn’t include just kale and broccoli. 

I’m talking about filling your fridge and pantry with a variety of fresh wholesome foods that will make you excited to eat your meal. Start learning some new healthy, tasty and quick recipes – there’s millions on Google. Being healthy doesn’t mean missing out on yummy food it means learning how to cook and create healthy yet tasty meals.

5. Have healthy snacks available always

Guys, full disclosure: I’m a snacker myself and if there’s no yummy fruit available or something to grab I will always feel like I need to have something sugary or salty to fill the hole. 

Have fruit, nuts, natural health bars/protein bars etc. available to you to avoid grabbing the wrong things.

6. Drink water

No but really drink water. Most of the time if we haven’t drank enough it causes us to snack unnecessarily.

7. Get some good shut eye

Guys, sleep is so important. I know it seems like a basic thing but often we stay up too late working, fiddling on our phones or watching too much TV instead of trying to wind down for good quality sleep. In order to do this, you need to make sure you have a good night-time routine! 1 hour before bed, start slowing things down and preparing for at least 8 hours of sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep it will affect how you function during the day and it will affect the choices you make during the day.

8. Treat yourself

What a lot of us try to do is cut out absolutely everything we like and then hope for the best. Becoming too restrictive like this can cause us to then have a huge binge day because you’ve restricted yourself far too much. You can still have the foods you love but in moderation. Try not to get into the habit of creating a ‘cheat day’ because this mostly leads to us over doing it and feeling super sick and angry with ourselves. Have a chocolate, have a pizza etc. but then continue with your normal meals and routine thereafter.

9. Listen to your body

What is your body asking for? Sometimes your body might need you to slow down a bit and this is when you need to listen. Not every day are you going to feel like an intense workout session. Maybe sometimes your body needs something more chilled like stretches or yoga. This is a huge part of creating a balanced lifestyle because not every day will feel the same. So, tailor your day to day to what your body needs. And no this doesn’t mean giving into laziness or giving into excuses. It means changing things up when your body genuinely needs some TLC.

The bottom line

If you are trying to feel good, then let’s start by saying hell no to quick fixes! Learn that nothing worth having comes easy – you need to put in the work and make the changes. After all, nothing changes if nothing changes, am I right? 😉 If you make consistent healthy decisions every day you will quickly start to form a new routine and new normal for yourself. This new normal is the balanced lifestyle that you deserve to live. Something that will be sustainable throughout your life.

Realize that there is no destination to health and fitness. It’s a journey and it’s your journey! Enjoy the ride.

Let’s keep in touch:
Instagram and Facebook: @thelivelyfitnessgirl

Website: www.livelyfitness.co.za

Email: jessica@livelyfitness.co.za

 

September 8, 2020 Food for thought, Guest Blogger, Lifestyle, Nutrition Comments Off on PRACTICAL HACKS TO HOLISTIC HEALTHY LIVING: HOW TO CREATE A SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE YOU LOVE
HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY

THE MILLENNIAL’S GUIDE TO BUDGETING: HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY LIKE A GROWN-UP

When it’s time to start managing your own money (and no, the pocket money your mom gave you is still not your own money, not really), it can be difficult knowing where to start. 

I remember trying to manage my money for the first time and it just felt like there was always ‘too much month left after my money’. But once I found out how to actually budget, it became easier and I was actually surprised that I could start saving money at the end of each month.  

Let’s take a look at how you can start budgeting like an adult. 

Top tips to managing your money like a grown-up

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY

1. List all forms of income

Take an average of how much you bring in each month (or the actual number if it is consistent). Always use the net amount (after-tax) of your income instead of the gross amount (before tax). You need to know exactly how much you have to work with each month.

If your income changes every month, this will be a little more difficult. Use an average amount and keep reviewing and tweaking it each month.

2. List all your fixed and variable expenses 

The fixed expenses are the ones that don’t change as each month goes past so this will be your rent, your utilities, your car payment(s), insurance and retirement savings (you should definitely have some form of retirement savings in place), cell phone plan or your WiFi for example. You can also add petrol to this list of expenses (even though it changes) because you know more or less how much you spend on it each month.

Then you have your variable expenses which change month to month, these include entertainment (going to the movies), eating out, clothes shopping, gym memberships, coffee on your way to work. You can list these expenses and the average amounts you think you might spend on them for that particular month.

3. Do the math

Now it’s time to figure out what you’ve got left. Take your income (after tax) and deduct all of your expenses – is there anything left over? How much is left? Is it sufficient?  

If the answer is yes, YAY! You now have enough to make it rain… in your savings account.

If your income is not enough to cover your expenses, head back to number 2 and dig deeper into your variable expenses. See what expenses are necessary and which expenses can be taken out. 

4. Make saving easy

It was a big shock when I first listed all my expenses. I could see why I was broke before I’d even gotten through my first month on my own. I decided to change my variable expenses and take a few things out. I didn’t cut all the fun out of my life, I just started acting like a sensible adult for a change.

This left me with enough money to save each month. Savings might not sound like a big deal but they always come in handy if you’re ever in a bad month or if you have a trip you’ve always wanted to take. 

5. Keep track 

Don’t just create a budget and then forget about it. It’s not something that can just be put together and never considered again. Your income and expenses change, so budgets need to be looked at monthly.

It’s easy to keep track of everything using an Exel spreadsheet or online management tools which do most of the work for you (monday.com is a great project management and money management tool!). It’s all about whatever works best for you and what you’re likely to keep referring to. 

6. Lessons Learned 

Making adult decisions brings responsibilities, especially when it comes to managing money. Not taking these adult responsibilities seriously can mean ending up with a ton of debt and no food on the table (and no Netflix subscription). Each month, you need to take a look at what went wrong and constantly adapt until you’re living comfortably consistently. 

Budgeting doesn’t sound fun but once you’ve mastered the art of managing your money, you’ll be so excited about your new budget. Be sure to keep referring to your budget at the end of each month and make sure you’re realistic about your expenses so you don’t keep running out of money each month!

March 2, 2020 Career, Food for thought, Lifestyle, Wellness Comments Off on THE MILLENNIAL’S GUIDE TO BUDGETING: HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY LIKE A GROWN-UP