2020 Resolutions or challenges

Do you stick to your New Year resolutions? I know I don’t. So often we set ourselves up to fail by giving ourselves unrealistic targets when we make resolutions. So this year I thought I would take a more holistic approach.

Believe it or not I actually love being a house wife. I love being at home watering my house plants and cooking dinner for when my husband and kids come home. Despite my best endeavours at managing, this last year was manic. Building my business is very rewarding but very time consuming. In fact I find being a working parent can be hard, as I am sure some of you may be aware. So this year I decided to made some life changes rather than resolutions.

Challenge one – get some extra help.

• I have already roped my Mum in to help with the online sales side of the business and to manage the website. Luckily she retired this year (how useful was that!!).
• I now employ a Marketing Assistant who helps me manage my social media content. She is so enthusiastic and innovative I don’t know how I managed without her (Oh yes I remember – that would be short nights and 20 hour days!!!).

These changes have allowed me to concentrate on my core business of product development and new courses.

Challenge Two – Set aside some serious me and us time.

• I now swim at least once a week with my Mum. This often ends up as a swimming – business meeting. 10 lengths of the pool at speed and 10 slow lengths chatting. Then we repeat it as many time as we can in our hour slot. I would recommend going with someone as this encourages you to go on those cold bleak winter days (well, it is winter in the UK). You feel you are letting the other person down if you back out, so I would definitely suggest having a swim buddy.
• I’ve joined a local gym. Working from home can be lonely so this encourages me to get out of the house. No particular target just to get fitter. Every session I attend increases my fitness but with no pressure to arrive at a particular goal. As I’ve said before exercise is good at releasing feel good endorphins so is good for my mental health too.
• I now limit the time I work in the evening to about an hour max after the children are in bed. This still leaves me some time to just chill on the sofa with hubby and catch up on a bit of TV. Who doesn’t like a bit of Master Chef, the Great British Bake Off or a good drama you can immerse yourself in.
• Anyone who has children knows it is hard to find quality time with your hubby. Add to this your work commitments and before you know it another month has gone by and very little time spent together and loads of time running around after the kids. So we now have a plan in place to have a date night at least once a fortnight. I’ll keep you posted if we manage to keep this up

Challenge three – kindness and consideration

• And this next challenge is for all of us. We live in uncertain times and who knows what this coming year will bring globally. This is out of our individual control but we do have areas we can affect. One thing I can be certain of is we all need kindness in our lives. A kind word or action can make someone’s day. Be proactive in your kindness. A smile and hello to someone you pass in the street is a good start. We lead such busy lives these little gestures sometimes get lost. A “well done” to a new member of my Facebook VIP community can really boost someone’s confidence. I regularly get private feedback from students about how the group has encouraged them in their cake piping journey. I am so proud of my cake community and wanted to say a big thank you and keep it up.

I genuinely believe if we set ourselves small goals and challenges we are more likely to succeed whether this is in business or life in general. If I can organise my day I get so much more done. I set myself a challenge to prepare a daily schedule which is broken up into bite sized movable chunks of time that can be reallocated as the day evolves. I get a real sense of achievement ticking those little jobs off the list (is that really sad!!) I love lists (ask my Mum) and it is a real motivator for me to see a list getting smaller and jobs getting done. It also means I don’t miss anything important. (Like picking the kids up from school – only joking!!)
I still need to put lots of my attention and focus into the business. I am currently working on my next set of online courses and new products. So keep your eye on the website for these.

And finally whatever challenges and goals you set yourselves this year remember to be kind to you. One little failure or slip does not define the rest of the year. It is just a building block to life, learn from it and move on. I read something only the other day that brought a real smile to my face. “I’ve learnt so much from my mistakes I’m thinking of making a few more.”
There is such a bright future waiting for us all, you just have to harness your own energy and strive to be the best you can be.

Happy New Year to you all and keep piping.

Kerryx