Absolutely Fabulous

Today as you know is the 1^st of February and I thought I would start a bit of a theme for each month on my blog. I am currently working on a new project and thought this would be a nice way to test out some of my concepts, ideas and strategies for success.

So today I officially declare the month of February is Fabulous February.

This month lets focus on being FABULOUS!

So grab a piece of paper and write now for five minutes your definition of fabulous. Go on.....

Now write down what makes you FEEL FAB, getting up on a Sunday morning, having a little cheeky lay in and a cup of fresh brewed coffee. A crisp sunny February morning, your child s winning smile, your partners amorous glance or Mums apple pie.

Feeling Fab …. I bet you are.......

OK next fab step, ask yourself how you can make others feel fabulous, perhaps about themselves, the work they do or the contribution they make. Smile and Smile back, say thanks, well done, good job and perhaps give an amorous wink back!

Lastly, what 3 things could you do this month to make February even more fabulous. Write them down, commit to do them and take action. (By the way the best fab steps are often the small ones – your actions don’t have to be massive!).

So this month if some one asks you HOW ARE YOU – Your response has to be “I am fabulous, but more importantly how are you?)

Have a great month.....

Steve

(follow me on twitter @stevekellyuk or email me at stevekellyupstarts@gmail.com)

Happy New Year 2013

All the best for 2013 - 

here's to you and you achieving your goals. 

Look out for my new weekly blogs.

Steve & all at UPSTARTS

(follow me on twitter @stevekellyuk or email me at stevekellyupstarts@gmail.com) 

Happy New Years Eve- 5 tips for success

NEW YEARS EVE 2012

So here, we are, you have tidied around, you have the bottle of something in for tonight and you have your Massive Action Plan (MAP) ready for 2013. I thought I would take a few minutes time out here and just discuss some strategies that may help you over the next couple of weeks to achieve your goals and help you on your journey. All strategies I have personally used to help me achieve goals in the past and I hope they will help you to.

 I have listed the strategy in Capital Letters and then tried to explain why the strategy works.

PLANES SOMETIMES GO OFF COURSE – Our lives are like an aeroplane journey, as sometime you have to make slight adjustments to your planned route to get to your destination. Did you know that it’s estimated that once taking off a plane is approximately 80% off course throughout the flight. What happens is the pilot and autopilot make subtle little changes while in flight to ensure the plan arrives at the correct destination at the write time. – Accept that sometimes you have to make slight changes to your plan to help you get to your destination. What’s important is you recognised this and keep flying!

DO SOMETHING ANYTHING – Sometimes you will feel I cant to this.... or cant do that .... because..... This for me is the usual reason why I don’t go to the gym. It’s too cold this morning, my leg hurts ever so slightly, my gym stuff is not in arms reach. Unfortunately, when this type of thinking creeps in it paralyses us and the habit of NOT DOING forms.  WELL SNAP OUT OF IT – if you can’t do it all do something. Read one page instead of 7, write 2 reports instead of 12, spend 1 hour with your Mum instead of the promised 3 and Get out of bed and go to the bloody gym!

CLEAN THE DISHES AWAY- Once in a training session the trainer said, “Dirty Dishes in the Sink is a sign of a cluttered life. They remind you ever time you pass them it’s OK to have clutter in your life both physically and mentally, you are allowing obstacles to get in the way of what you want”. Now at the time I thought this was a lot of rubbish, however once I started to notice where clutter was forming in my life. 

Just by leaving stuff on the stairs, made it difficult to get up the stairs, seeing that draw with all the bits and bobs from yesteryear just depressed me (as Michel McIntye calls it THE MAN DRAW - FUNNY MAN DRAW VIDEO). Thats’s why I developed my desk cleaning idea that I do every Friday.  Keep things simple, clean and decluttered as you go along. Go on I dare you; wash the dishes for the next 30 days, clean out the man draw and declutter as you go along.

HAVE THINGS READY – In the Scouts and the Guides, they say “Be Prepared”. I would have to agree to achieve your goals you will need some things in place. I am not talking about great big plans, but you do need to have things in place ready. So for example with the gym idea, have two gym kits in the boot of your car ready, just in case you didn’t have time or forgot to pack them. If you want to loose weight, be prepared by making healthy meals for the next couple of days. Have the small things ready – You will find life is a little easier this way, believe me.  

DO 5 THINGS – This is a great little tip, which I have used for the past couple of years. Basically, every day I have five things that I get done each day, to get things done. This seems very simple but it’s very effective. It also gives you great satisfaction when you see a list of done things. I write about my time management system HERE 

REVIEW and CELEBRATE – This tip sadly is the one that many people don’t do and I believe is the number one reason why people don’t achieve what they want. You have to review regularly what you are doing and make changes to ensure you are getting what you want. Have a regular review with yourself and ask this question. Then celebrate what you have achieved ..... if you remember all those 12 days ago that’s what we did to start of this process.

Lastly best tip, the smallest little sentence with the biggest effect

JUST DO IT – enough said!

So have a wonderful New Years Eve and I will see you in 2013!

Steve

(follow me on twitter @stevekellyuk or email me at stevekellyupstarts@gmail.com) 

Are you GROWING or CONTRIBUTING?

Well only one day left until New Years Eve. Its funny isn’t it the news papers today are full of the “Year in Review” and your start sign for the future. I suppose in a way that’s what this programme has been about, reviewing what’s happened, learning from it and moving into the future.

You now have created your Massive Action Plan for success in 2013, you could say you have created your MAP. Today I would like you to consider adding two other goal areas onto your map, which are GROWTH and CONTRIBUTION.

Why are these important?

Well a couple of writers in the personal development world suggest that we have two higher spiritual needs that create our true fulfillness rather than just happiness.

So here is an amazing video, I found when I was researching this programme. It only lasts 13 minutes and I have to say it really has crystallised my goal setting for 2013. The process is not complicated and in 5 minutes you will have a list of experience, learning and contribution outcomes that you wish to pursue in your life. Now you may be asking why didn’t we do this a couple of days ago? And that’s a fair question, but this programme is about 2013 and we have set goals for that.

I now want you to expand you thinking, widen the possibilities and move you into the STRETCH ZONE! Also by the end of this process you may be able to pick a Growth Goal and a Contribution Goal to add to your 2013 MAP. So watch the video and follow Vishen. The download for the MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE

I hope you enjoyed this and now have two more goals for 2013. Again, here is an example using our 2013 MAP. Remember that your Growth Goals and Contribution goals can be and should be of benefit to you and others.  If you will recall I discussed volunteering on BOXING DAY and its benefits. (BOXING DAY BLOG)

Goal (What?) :	1. Its is December 1st 2013, I can run a 10ks on the treadmill in the gym and have completed at least one 10k race to raise money for charity.	2.  It is 30th December 2013 and our family have spent 12 weeks away from home trying new activities that we have tried before. The kids have produced a scrapbook to remind us of our adventurous.	3. It is 5th August 2013 and I am sitting in my garden, sipping a cool lemonade looking at the tidy, well planned and flourishing garden.	4.  It is 31st December 2013 and each month I have studied on aspect a aspect of personal development, business and meditation. I will have mediated at least 5 times as week for at least 5 minutes.	5. It is 1st December 2013 and I have volunteered 12 days over the year working with others as well as signing up as a local school governor.
Why this is important to me. (Why):	If I am fit and health, I will be able to achieve more, be able to exercise with the kids and feel great. I also will be able to donate to my mothers favourite charity which will make her feel great)	The children are getting older and I want them to remember great weekends. Quality time with the family is very important to me and I want to be able to review our great adventurous at the end of the year	We have a lovely garden and don’t use it. If it was tidy we would use it more. I could teach the children to grow vegetables and we could have more friends and families barbeques	I have lots of personal development CD and books on my shelves but haven’t really made a study of them and use what I have read. Also I have always wanted to study meditation and feel I will get a lot out of it. (me time)	Buy volunteering as a school governor I can use my business skills to benefit the local primary school as well as learning about working in the Education Sector. I would like the kids to be involved in volunteering and I can lead by example.
Daily / weekly Activity (HOW?)   :	·   Exercise daily ·   Drink at least 2 Ltrs water ·   Take vitamins ·   Meditate ·   Follow low calorie and high energy diet	·   Plan 12 activities ·   Kids meeting teach month to plan what we do ·   Use Birthdays ·   Use computer to make video log ·   Monthly journal meeting	·   Weekend weeding (with kids) ·   Plan beds ·   Daily walk around (celebrate) ·   Water and nourish ·   Learn new BBQ recipes	·  Decide on what I am going to study each month ·  Schedule time in dairy ·  Make a learning journal ·  Follow medication programme ·  Take part in mediation 1 day retreat	·  Contact Education Department ·  Update CV ·  Volunteer with school ·  Register with volunteer agency ·  Complete a day a month
THE PLAN
Jan2013	Walk 10k (enter http://www.greatrun.org)	Walk in Derbyshire	Garden clear	Do have plan drawn up buy journal	School sign up
Feb 2013	Run 1 K	Centre Parks (JC Birthday)	Plan layout	Book 1	Day 1
March 2013	Run 3 K	Make a plate	Garden Build	CD 1	Day 2
April 2013	Run 5 K	House party	Fence tidy	Seminar 1	Day 3
May 2013	Run 7 K	Mums weekend	Path clean	Book 2	Day 4
June 2013	Run 9 K	BB Birthday choice	Garden furniture clean	Seminar 2	Day 5
July 2013	Run 8 K	Spain	Family BBQ	Book 3,4,5 (Holiday)	Day 6
Aug 2013	Run 9 K	Wales BH weekend (camping)	Me Lemonade and a deck chair (whole day for me!)	CD 2,3	Day 7,8 (dry stone walling)
Sept 2013	Do North run (10k)	London Museums	Vegetable pick and chutney making kids	Book 6	Day 9
Oct 2013	Run 10 k	Our city	Halloween Garden Party	Seminar 3	Day 10 (Neighbours garden)
Nov 2013	Run 10 k	Panto weekend	Tidy for winter	Book 7	Day 11 (Neighbours garden)
Dec 2013	Run 10 k	Santa in Lapland Journal celebration party	Planting  bulbs for 2014	CD 5	Day 12 (Homeless Shelter)

Well tomorrow is NEW YEARS EVE and 2013 is just around the corner, can’t wait can you!

Till tomorrow

Steve

(follow me on twitter @stevekellyuk or email me at stevekellyupstarts@gmail.com)

P.S. a blank goals sheet with 5 columns and a picture so you can print if you wish.

2013 MAP

Goal (What?) :
Why this is important to me. (Why):
Daily / weekly Activity (HOW?)   :
THE PLAN
Jan2013
Feb 2013
Mar 2013
April 2013
May 2013
June 2013
July 2013
Aug 2013
Sept 2013
Oct 2013
Nov 2013
Dec 2013

Picture to Print :