To give you a real example, this is what happened to me recently and made me review how much I was truly ‘showing up’ in my life.

During the Easter holidays, I was at home playing with the children. Whilst playing I decided to call a friend who is currently buying a new home, so quite a big deal. On the call, my friend started to tell me about some of the difficulties she was facing and wanted my opinion on what to do next. The call became quite complex, in the meantime my little girl needed a nappy change. Realising Mummy was busy my daughter got out her own changing mat and laid herself on it.

Brilliant I thought I can carry on with the call. All I need to say is this didn’t end well.

What I realised once I quickly ended the call saying I would call my friend later were two significant things:

• I was there in the room with the children, however I wasn’t really present.
• My friend realised that I wasn’t really connected to her and her situation.

So can we multi task? Apparently not, studies show we are 40% less productive when we multi task. And more importantly is we are not experiencing our lives. We are rushing head first through it with gritted teeth, hoping everything will be ok at the end.

Is this how we want to live our lives – which golden moments are going to pass us by?

You will be relieved to know there are lots of brilliant strategies and solutions you can use to make life run a little smoother. Some of these need some practice, but once you have mastered them you really will have more time to do the things you love to do.

Here is just one of the solutions I share with my clients who want to live their lives in a less chaotic way and to carve out some quality ‘me time’

• Decide to do 1 thing every day and do it
• Turn off your phone (or at least don’t check it) whilst spending time with other people
• Check your emails at the beginning of each day and once again during the day when you can respond to them
• Don’t get distracted with other things such as Facebook or ebay
• Commit to being present

For even more solutions to managing your time and much more, JOIN me on my brand new programme What Women Really Want.  Click here for more information www.rachelsmithlifecoach.com and I will show you how to get an extra 7 hours in your week, every week.

What could you do with that?

Or contact me at rachel@rachelsmithlifecoach.com or 07500 453338 for more information on the programme and how you can get involved.

One of the first bonus’ for joining this programme finishes on Tuesday 8 May at Midnight so join me today at www.rachelsmithlifecoach.com and don’t miss out.

Join me and discover how to:
• Shape up your future in just 1 hour
• Get 7 extra hours every week and
• Grow your confidence in 3 easy steps

In the ultimate teleseminar, join me as I share the strategies and solutions that really work starting on Tuesday 15 May. In just 6 weeks you will discover how to become a happier and more confident woman. Plus get more time in the week to do the things you love.

In this teleseminar series, I will show you:

• how to get clear about what you really want
• the proven techniques that make life easier
• the top 3 mistakes people make that stop their projects happening
• how to say Yes instead of No
• discover who you really are
• the skills to become a happier and more confident you

Every fortnight for 6 weeks you will get access to a live call with me to learn new skills that get you:

• more time
• greater confidence and
• your own personal roadmap to the future.

BONUS You will receive a free recording of the call for your future use.

For more details about this brand new programme click here www.rachelsmithlifecoach.com

Sign up before Tuesday 8 May and you will receive a FREE 121 20 minute focus call with me (worth £30)
Rachel Smith – the coach who delivers What Women Really Want

What I have discovered about running your own business is, it is so unlike working for anyone else. When you run your own business it is about something you really feel passionate about. You have a true sense of control and the delight in deciding what you are going to work on today.

Today, it’s Tuesday so it is mainly planning, marketing and learning. Thursday’s are my main coaching days and I am currently working with some brilliant clients, who are working hard to bring some direction and harmony to their busy lives.

What I wanted to share with you in this blog is something I learn’t recently. At the end of March, I celebrated my 40th birthday and as a surprise, my lovely sister asked other family members and friends to send a video message to me. All of the messages were put together and given to me on a DVD. What a brillant surprise, not a single person let slip what had been planned and there were messages from friends & family I see regularly and other friends who live away. I was in tears within a few minutes.

From watching and listening to the messages from all these people, I learn’t what they thought about me as a person, whether I was their friend or family member and it was great to hear all their positive messages.

And it made me think about all my clients who come to me and who are holding onto negative beliefs about themselves – about how they are not worth it or they can’t do it and be as good as…. or their situation is different and a change in direction can’t work.

Rather than run the same recording of their negative beliefs, wouldn’t it be fantastic if they could run their own VT of positive messages from their loved ones. Hearing about how they are a great parent or friend or how much a work colleague enjoys working with them. This would really challenge their internal beliefs about whether they can or can’t do something.

So before you launch into your normal internal dialogoue about what you can’t achieve or master, think about what your loved ones would be saying about you and choose to listen to them.

If you are ready to learn more about what you can really achieve, watch out for details coming soon about my brand new What Women Really Want teleseminar.

In the meantime, practice choosing to listen to the positive messages rather than the negative ones and experience what happends when you change the focus.

In a nutshell, we are looking for very similar things – for fulfillment in how we fill our day with either work or raising a family and in most cases doing both.  We want to have a sense of direction and control over our future, we want to be healthy and fit and we want the confidence to know what we are doing and how we do it, is right for us and our families.

We are busy juggling all the jobs we have to do both in the office and at home, school, committee etc., and we are worrying about completing all the jobs we don’t have time for or keep putting off.

And on top of that, we want to remember who we are - you know that person who always seems to be at the back of the queue behind everyone else.

Everyday I am inspired by the women in my life, who regardless of what they are facing personally, get up and do their v best in their jobs and in their homes.  So, in answer to women out there who are unclear about their future, who don’t feel positive about their bodies, who think the plates might come crashing down to the ground at any moment, I want to tell you there are solutions out there that can be easily put in place that will stop you feeling overwhelmed and distracted with all those jobs and responsibilities.  I will be sharing these with you over the coming months through this blog, teleseminars, newsletter, interviews, workshops and much much more.  So watch out for more information.

If there is anything you want me to find a solution for please contact me at rachel@rachelsmithlifecoach.com or call me on  07743 896973

OK I thought, I will just work more on an evening and whilst the baby naps – great idea until you realise that’s not when your clients want you, you don’t have the energy to work beyond 8pm and the time isn’t guaranteed (just last night I lost 2 hours settling the youngest child back to sleep).

So for a while I continued to work these shorter days, however it hasn’t taken me  long to realise I can’t fulfill my goal for this year to work and support more woman in 2012 when I clock off at 3pm. 

Fortunately I am a great believer that there is always another way – most obstacles can be overcome if you are willing to look at different solutions and to ask for help, which I understand is a big issue for all of us, we don’t like to ask. Yet, asking is so powerful.  To overcome my situation I had to make some changes, however my youngest child’s nursery is so brilliant it is full and they have a waiting list until the end of 2013.  Yet when I asked for an extra day, they were able to accommodate us.  Brilliant.  My eldest child loves coming home after a day at school thanks v much, he really didn’t want to consider an alternative.  However, I asked him to consider the local Out of School Club and after a single visit he declared ‘it was better than home’ and can’t wait to get going.

So by looking at alternative ways to doing things and asking, I have been able to free up more time on the days I need.  Now I have more time to concentrate on my existing clients and to plan new and exciting activities for future clients as well.

So look out for those changes.  You can also follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, just click onto the logo’s next to this post. 

Now, I am going to ask you all something.  I really want to deliver coaching and mentoring to you that will really improve your life.  To find out more from you, I have created this simple and fast survey to find what you really want.  It will take just 7 minutes to complete.  I really appreciate you completing it http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WBGMDYG Many thanks.

Please click on the above link to complete my short survey – it should take you about 7 minutes to complete.  Many thanks, your comments are important to me.

Watching the locals swim, I realised my regular swimming isn’t physically stretching me anymore so I decided to set myself a very clear goal on my return to home.  I am going to learn front crawl and refine my swimming technique. I got really focused on my goal, I know what I want to achieve, where I was going to achieve this and I also know I can achieve this.

Do you know what happened the very first time I went swimming when I returned home?  As soon as I walked into reception at my gym, there is a board advertising adult swimming lessons and it’s on a day and time when I am available. 

Incredible!  It just goes to show, when you get really focused on a particular aspect of your life, the solution often appears right in front of you.  All you have to do is say yes.

 We all have ‘something’ that isn’t working for us anymore or we are still doing the same thing that  is no long fulfilling it’s original purpose.  Try bringing some focus that particular area of your life, decide what you are going to change it and then watch out for those answers to fall at your feet.

Lots of my clients have been focusing on a particular element in their lives ‘improving confidence’ and as one of my other goals for this year is to help as many woman to live the life they are supposed to be living, watch out for more information coming soon about how you get get some focus on this and get some amazing results.

In the meantime, I would love to hear what you would like to change, contact me at rachel@rachelsmithlifecoaching.com or call me on 07500 453338 to tell me more.

Everything is getting organised, the children’s clothes have been put to one side to pack, mine will be packed at the last minute because that’s what I do, arrangements have been made for the dog to be looked after, groceries booked for our return, dates and plans made with the two families we will be spending our time with have been made.

However, for us to be gain access to Australia we all need tourist visas. I have travelled to Australia before, so I know what is required.  The visas are really easy to get via the internet.  But as the family’s nominated holiday booker and organiser, I still haven’t organised the visas!

Why?

I have been thinking about why I am procrastinating about this and there are a couple of reasons.  The visas are so easy to obtain there is no urgency to getting it sorted out and other reason is I have to get the flight information and the passports all together in one place and that seems a hassle.

Obviously it isn’t really a hassle, I have just been telling myself it is.

What am I going to do?

There is no doubt I need the visas, today is the best day in the week for me to do it.  So, I have booked myself a slot today at 2pm and regardless of what else is going on, I am going to keep the appointment and organise the visas.

Phew!  Everyone will be happy and relieved.

However, what if I was procrastinating about something really fundamentally important to my life?  What if, say my job was ok, however  I knew that I wanted/needed to change what I was doing or how I was doing it?  But there was no immediate urgency to make the change.  How long would I accept this situation?  Another year? Perhaps five and eventually 10 years.  Perhaps, until I felt that is nothing I can do, however much I believed I could have been working/living differently, more successfully.

What are you currently putting off?  How long are you prepared to accept this for?  What is the consequence for you, your family and your future?

How would you like to have space to think about your future and then begin to take steps towards achieving positive and exciting changes that are going to move you from where you are now to where you have been dreaming of being.

Stop procrastinating and call me on 07500 453338 or email me at rachel@rachelsmithlifecoach.com to book your FREE consultation session with me.  There is still time to take advantage of the January and February offer of three focus coaching sessions for £95.00.

And, we end up feeling like this every year, no wonder January is thought to be the most depressing month. 

Would you believe me, if I told you, you don’t have to feel like that?  There is a saying ‘if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got’.

I am going to share with you something I have learnt over the years – you are going to fail if you don’t ASK and get some support.  Look at all the dieting campaigns and now TV programmes, are the dieters left without any support?  They are given information about how to become healthier, strategies for getting their lives back on track and people to turn to who are backing their dreams.

This year, I want to support as many women as possible to create a life that ticks all the boxes.  If you want to put the smile back on your face and a bounce in your step as you know where you are headed, how you are going to get there and the knowledge that I will be backing you all the way . Join me this year and get the right support.  I believe in this approach 100% and that’s why I am offering in January and February the opportunity to have three x 30 mins 121 focus sessions with me.  These focus sessions will help you:

• To start 2012 knowing what you need to do to succeed
• Create some fast and effective solutions that make life easier and more enjoyable
• Get some breathing space to become clear about where you want to go in life
• To be bold and to start living the life you want
• And support you to make these bold and exciting changes

Before you start the programme, you will also have a private consultation session, either over the telephone or face to face to pinpoint what you want and how I can support you to achieve this.

Normally this programme would cost £250, however to meet my personal goal to support more woman in 2012, I am offering this programme at £95.00. 

Call me on 07500 453338 for a no obligation chat or email me at rachel@rachelsmithlifecoach.com to book a convenient time to discuss how this programme can work for you. 

Just think, what could you do this year?

To take advantage of the current price at £95.00 payment is required by 31 January 2012.