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Be Clear in Your Purpose

Be Clear in Your Purpose

by | Apr 28, 2022 | My Life, My Work

Be Clear in Your Purpose

When you are clear on your life purpose, you will be dedicated to fulfilling it. Commitment leads to determination which leads to long term success.

If you’re desire and passion for the goal is larger than the fear of the obstacle(s) you will succeed.   If your fear is greater than the desire and passion of the goal you will put up roadblocks and excuses.  How many times have you heard someone say “What are you afraid of” when they keep throwing up excuses of why they have not done something they said they would.

We all have different values, but yours should align to your life purpose. For this reason, everyone’s life purpose takes a different focus. Some form their life purpose around religion or spirituality, others on career or education, family or relationships, community or environment or something entirely different. Essentially, your life purpose is the statement you live your life by and deliver to the world.

Align your goals to your life purpose and you will be more likely to experience success.

Those with a strong life purpose generally experience more satisfaction in life. Though, most people I encounter do not have one and find the concept overwhelming to begin with. So I have developed a series of questions designed to get your mind thinking about a purpose that suits you.

first…

Why Should I Have A Purpose In Life?
Anyone that wants to live a more meaningful life should have a life purpose.

Motivation

You will experience an increased drive and motivation when living a life aligned to your purpose. Your days will feel shorter, you will come home with more energy, and you will ENJOY working towards the goals that lead to your purpose each day.

Helps you prioritise.

You cannot have everything instantly, everything we want we must work towards. Your purpose will help you realise what is and isn’t important, giving you clarity on what actions you should be taking to work towards that purpose.

The foundation to a successful and satisfying life.

A life purpose will facilitate you to grow. Those with a life purpose will experience more satisfaction.

You will be focused, and motivated. You will not feel as though you are treading water as you will always know what you are working towards, even a small step in the right direction each week is progress.

Your purpose is your essence for life. A strong purpose is the foundation to your goals, actions, and thoughts. Those without purpose tend to encounter more disorganisation, less direction and are less likely to achieve their goals.

Live a meaningful life.

A life purpose sets you up for life fulfillment. You will spend less time on things you don’t enjoy or aren’t important and you will surround yourself with optimistic people whose values align with your own.

Being clear in what you want and knowing the actionable steps to take to get you there, will begin to establish a life of happiness. When you hit those inevitable obstacles, you will find you are clearer in the strategies and steps you take to manage them.

Developing My Purpose

Your purpose does not necessarily need to be related to work or income. It can involve what you would love to do, but it could also relate to what you would love to be or have. There are a range of areas you could focus on and you will thrive provided this purpose aligns to your values and is something you have passion for.

Attaining clarity in your purpose can be a complex exercise and is not necessarily achieved in one session. Write down your raw and honest answers to the questions below to begin to form a vision for your purpose.

Getting to know yourself

  • List your top 3 values
  • List your top 3 strengths
  • List a trait that you would like to improve
  • List 3 ways you could improve this trait
  • List your top 3 skills
  • List 3 things you love about yourself
  • List your top 3 stresses in your life
  • List three ways you could make your life easier
  • List 3 things you believe the world needs

Recognise your starting point

  • How do you feel when you think about…
    • Your career
    • You skills, education, or training
    • Your family and other relationships
    • The planet (environmentally)
    • The world (socially/politically)
    • Your religion or beliefs
  • Which of the above gave you the strongest positive feelings?
  • Which of the above gave you the most negative feelings?
  • List 3 changes you could make to begin to shift those negative feelings
  • List 3 aspects of your life that you are happy with
  • List 3 aspects of your life that you would like to improve
  • List 3 ways you have grown over the last 10 years
  • List 3 things you are grateful for over the last 10 years

Reflect on these two sections. This is your starting point. Combine all this information and you will get an honest understating of you are feeling about yourself and your life at this point.  Drink a large glass of quality water!   Congratulate yourself on answering the questions.

What’s your vision?

  • List the top 3 most important things in your life
  • List 3 things you could achieve in the future that would make you consider yourself successful
  • When you achieve this ‘success’, how will you feel?
  • List 3 tasks that you currently spend too much time on
  • List ways to reduce time spent on these tasks, to allow more time to work towards your future
  • Who would be the first and second person you tell of your success? What words would you use?

Innovate and plan

  • List 3 short- term goals that can be achieved over the next 6-12 months that will get you closer to the successful future you have envisioned
  • List 3 long-term goals to work towards over the next 3-5 years
  • How do you feel when you think about these goals? (tip: If you do not feel optimistic, driven or excited it is unlikely these goals align to your purpose or values)
  • How do you plan to achieve each of these goals?
  • What further resources or knowledge do you need to reach your goals?
  • How will you hold yourself accountable?
  • How will you balance working towards these goals with everything else in your life?

Use these answers as inspiration to develop a statement that illustrates your purpose. I have composed some examples of what a statement of purpose could look like for guidance.

“I want the contributions I have made to my career to be remembered and valued. I want to work hard now and retire comfortably later. I want to be successful in my career so I can be relaxed in my retirement.”

“I want to raise my family in a loving environment and support my children grow to be independent, kind and considerate, by being these things myself. I want them to feel empowered to stand up for their beliefs and pursue their passions.”

“When I leave this world, I want it to be a better place than when I arrived. I want to devote time and love to support people who are less fortunate than myself, and to help them build a life they dream of. I want to live on in the memories of the people I encounter.”

Best of luck to you as you endeavour to unlock your life’s purpose. Check in with yourself and hold yourself accountable regularly. The future you deserve is there for the taking. If you need any extra support or guidance on this journey please get in contact with me at [email protected].

 

Love Life, Love YOUR Life

Ferne Eliz King

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

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Having the tough conversations

Having the tough conversations

by | Apr 28, 2022 | My Life, My Work

Having the tough conversations

 

Truth: Difficult conversations never get easier.

Those in management positions will confirm that no matter how much experience they have, they never get used to the apprehension felt when confronted with another tough conversation.

Regardless of if the conversation is in your personal or professional life, the reason they cause so much stress is because you will never know how the other party might react. When emotions are involved people don’t convey their messages effectively and when not managed correctly, you can end up further away from an outcome than when you began.

There are some guidelines to manage a conversation to increase your chances at producing a workable outcome.

PREPARE. Remember a conversation is a two-way street. So, while it is important to plan your end of the conversation, you must also anticipate how the other party may react, and the questions they may ask so you can prepare your response to a range of scenarios. If necessary, research relevant facts. The more prepared you are, the more composed you will remain throughout the discussion. Keep your goal in mind and imagine the best possible outcome and work backwards from there.  Critically, be authentically you, be consistent. 

ALLOW YOURSELF TIME. When the conversation is centered around emotions, it is important to give yourself time to ‘feel your feelings.’ If you enter the conversation in the height of your emotions it will be difficult to stick to your plan, and you may become unproductive in your responses. Time heals, so allow yourself as much as you need before you begin. I personally rehearse my conversation out loud multiple times to myself before I begin any emotional conversation.

BEGIN THE CONVERSATION. I find it best to jump in feet first. Spending time exchanging pleasantries can increase the anxiety and tension for both parties. State what needs to be said and follow it up with an ideal outcome. For example:

 “I have bought you in here today as I have noticed your targets have not been met for the last three months, I want to develop a plan with you so we can work this out.”

Allow time for a response. Question them on how they are feeling and really listen to their response. Be mindful, there will be times when the individual may not agree with your statement and it is important to give them a chance to be heard.

CAREFULLY CHOOSE YOUR LANGUAGE. When the conversation is not going to be pleasant, remember everything you say is at risk of being misconstrued. It is common for people to deflect fault from themselves onto you. This is why preparation is so important. It will enable you to convey a very clear and honest message and keep a level head when responding to the individual, so they feel supported instead of criticized.

DETAILS. When it is a question of performance or behaviour. Always have examples to accompany your feedback. It is common for people to not want to admit fault, so the more clarity you can offer, the quicker the critique will be accepted.  If you have developed a long laundry list of issues, STOP, choose not more than two items, three maximum. 

EMPATHISE. Find three ways to acknowledge the feelings of the other party prior to beginning the conversation. Remember while you have given yourself time to process your emotions, the individual you are speaking to has not had the same opportunity. Be patient while they process what has been said, allow silence, and always follow up over the coming days to give them the chance to speak about any new thoughts that have occurred once they have had the chance to reflect.  Put yourself in their shoes. Be authentic. 

LISTEN. Don’t spend the time thinking about what you will say next when the other person is speaking, and don’t speak over the top of them. Really listen, be present and try to understand their perspective, you may find you agree, even if you dont agree give them the respect of listening. If they feel valued and respected, they will feel more comfortable to be honest and willing to work on a solution with you. Be authentic. 

AUTONOMY. The power of choice is an effective tool to give the individual a voice in the conversation. Give options wherever possible, this will allow both yourself and the other individual to have some control on the direction to take.

TAKE A BREAK. Not every conversation will have a workable conclusion, and emotional conversations can get heated. If you feel like the conversation is not headed in the direction of an outcome, take some time, hours or even days for both parties to relax and reflect and revisit at a later time. But if you do take a break, dont leave the room without committing to a time, date of a follow up.

CLOSE THE CONVERSATION. Take some time to summarise the discussion to ensure both parties are in agreement. Be sure to repeat the concerns or feelings of the other person in this conclusion so they know they have been understood. Demonstrate gratitude to the person for contributing to the discussion and conclude with an encouraging or positive comment.

No one looks forward to these discussions but ignoring the issue or procrastinating will not get you results. Applaud yourself for taking action. You are one step closer to success and happiness. Be authentic. 

Love Life Love YOUR Life

Ferne Eliz King

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call
Prioritise and Thrive

Prioritise and Thrive

by | Apr 18, 2022 | My Life, My Work

Prioritise and Thrive

Prioritisation is no new concept, so why has it recently become the hot topic in business? Well, most companies who just managed to keep their lights on during the COVID-19 pandemic are now confronted with immense pressure to recuperate losses and recover. To make things more challenging, a lot of companies must do this with LESS people than before the pandemic.

When leaders prioritise with purpose and conviction, and those priorities engage the people who do the work creating curiosity that inspires to align to a strong clearly articulated vison, remarkable things can be achieved.

I’ve provided some examples below to emphasise the importance of prioritisation. As you will discover setting the right priorities can make or break a company…

During the 1990’s, after anticipating that digital photography would eventually replace film photography, Kodak invested billions of dollars and resources into developing the technology and devices to fulfill the escalating market. However, wanting to preserve the film photography for as long as possible, they chose to advertise and promote the use of film cameras instead of creating and releasing these new digital devices to the world.  In 2012, Kodak couldn’t keep up with their competitors who had established themselves earlier in the digital market and filed for bankruptcy after over 120 years of business.

Where did they go wrong?

They FAILED to prioritise. They could foresee the market changing and they did not adapt. They ignorantly disregarded feedback from the market, and they prioritised the wrong things. Kodak had the technology and resources to become trailblazers in digital photography, but instead chose to prioritise the preservation of film photography which caused their collapse.

Play doh is an interesting example of a business completely changing its focus and reprioritising to survive. In the 1930’s play doh was sold as a cleaning product called Kutol Product used for removing coal residue from wallpapers! It was natural, free from chemicals and the right texture to remove substance from the walls without it sticking or staining them. By the 1950’s vinyl wallpaper (which was cleaned simply and effectively by soap and water) was becoming more popular, and oil and gas heating was becoming more prevalent leaving play doh to discover a way to progress with the world. They saw its potential as a children’s product after becoming aware of teachers using the product for arts and crafts. They shifted their priority to reworking the product by removing detergents and adding scents and bright colours. It was sold under a new company called Rainbow Crafts and was rebranded and marketed to schools and promoted at education conventions, and eventually broke into the toy industry.

How did they succeed?

Prioritisation is a sweet spot of mine, I could offer tips and advice until the cows come home, but fundamentally these are the areas to consider when you set your priorities.

Consider the Vision and Purpose when setting goals.

With your vision and purpose in mind, what are the big chunks of goals that will shift the dial to achieve that imaginable future? These goals must be specific and centred around all aspects of your business from strategy, planning and execution and across core operations, continual improvement, growth and blue sky – the stuff you dont even know you will to do yet to meet the demand that people dont know they have yet.  And it all needs to make a profit and be purposeful to a need in the market while balancing well being and a true sense of care for the environment and human experiences, you, them and us.

Strategic Portfolio.

Is the path you are on now taking you to the aspirational future you have defined? Consider what investments should be stopped, started, accelerated, merged or tweaked. Have a small team developing these portfolio recommendations create the right governance with the right trusted conversation to manage the risk of deferred value. There is an art and a science to prioritisation models, ideally you have one prioritisation model, but you may find it is easier, more efficient, to start with two or three for differing areas of the business and different governance and funding pools, but work hard at streamlining over time to create one holistic prioritisation model to suit all needs.  Its actually not that hard if you keep if fact based and ground it to analytics and science. Create one or more prioritisation models, align your investments to objectives, decide on no more than 5 tags by which you wish to view your investments (up to 5 differing lens). Tag your change impacts from those investments. See what magic appears on your screen then apply your prioritisation model(s).

Develop your Teams.

Get the right people and teams working on the right tasks at the right time to maximise productivity. Ensure each role has clarity in where their responsibilities start and end to keep everyone in their swim lane. Make it clear that people can switch swim lanes and overtake but in a fair and values based approach and lead by example.  Ensure everyone is aligned and engaged to the process, if they are not, take action. Ensuring your team is on board to the vision is critical.  Once they align to the vision and they know the swim lane they are in – they will do the rest.  You hire good people, enable them to do their job lead by leaders that are respected and whom people aspire to and are inspired by.  Celebrate successes as well as learnings.

Measure success on outputs.

Although it’s easier to focus on inputs (cost, scope and time) as a measure for success, challenge yourself to track your outputs (impact, benefit and outcomes). Your outputs are where you can determine success in prioritisation.  Align your portfolio success on the outputs, not on inputs as is how many of the ‘old timers’ determine success.

Don’t Delay.

Calculate the cost of delay. Prolonged decision making could cost your opportunities, revenue and your relevance in the market. While it is essential to be thorough in the planning stages of re-prioritising your business it equally important to make a start.

Over the years I have seen a lot of leaders who simply don’t make decisions in a timely manner, and worse, they do not know the cost of such delays. There are so many examples of inefficient use of peoples time to solve a problem or exploit an opportunity but delays in just making a decision and go for it.  Post COVID this needs to change. Considering your goals and prioritising with what must be done, how it has to be done and utilising your resources most effectively is the most efficient way to thrive in the current climate.  And please, everyone should know the average cost of a person per day to the business, particularly leaders. Put a value on delayed decision making – opportunity cost.  5 days delay in making a decision for a team of 5 people with an average cost per day of 1,000 AUD per person = 25K for the week.  Keep a tally of approx how much is being ‘lost’ via opportunity costs of delayed decision making, how long it takes to resolve issues, how long it takes to agree a mitigation – let alone put the mitigation into play.
Be efficient and know the daily cost of any delay in your business.  Create a sense of urgency.

“No business can do everything. Even if it has the money, it will never have enough good people. It has to set priorities. The worst thing to do is a little bit of everything. This makes sure that nothing is being accomplished. It is better to pick the wrong priority than none at all.’

– Peter Drucker

Ferne Eliz King

 

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call
Your Eulogy

Your Eulogy

by | Apr 12, 2022 | My Life

Your Eulogy

 

Have you ever considered what your loved ones will say about you to celebrate your life after you have gone?

Although this blog is based on a confronting and morbid topic, I intend for it to be inspirational, so bear with me.

Let’s try a quick exercise. Write out your eulogy, even if it is in bullet point form. Ask yourself the following questions, and if you want an honest depiction of what your eulogy may look like ask the same questions to some close friends and family members.

  • What are the traits people love and will miss about you?
  • What are the values you are best known for?
  • What are your achievement and or impacts? Both personally and professionally.
  • What are your passions in life?
  • What are the fondest memories you have made with your loved ones/ what are theirs of you?
  • How did you make people feel?
  • Who loves you and why?
  • Who dislikes you and why?
  • What is your legacy?

Are you happy with the way your life will be highlighted? Or more to the point… Is there anything else you would want people to say about you? What else do you need to achieve and what changes do you need to make to be that person?

What passion in your life makes you the happiest? The thing you would do for free… It doesn’t have to be related to your career, it could be your family, or another hobby you love. Let this passion shine for you and for everyone to see!

The next step is to plan the actionable steps to be the person you want everyone to remember.

What life achievement are you currently most proud of? List the further achievements that you would like to accomplish. Use your imagination, think about:

  • The places you would like to go
  • The things you would like to learn
  • The memories you want to create with certain people
  • The personal characteristics do you want to shine
  • The things you want to achieve in your career
  • The things that will make you an inspiration to your loved ones
  • The legacy you wish to leave behind or the impact you wish to have

Write these down and keep a copy for yourself… This is your new bucket list. Give a second copy to a close family member, when the time comes, they will be able to check these things off and use them to write your eulogy.

Break down each goal on your bucket list into actionable steps. If you want to climb Mount Everest you don’t need to jump on a plane today, but you can start saving and you can start training so in time you will be in the right financial and physical state to succeed in this dream.

Don’t let your fears or insecurities stop you being the person you want to become. Don’t wait around for the perfect time or the perfect opportunity to arise, if you keep putting it off, you will never succeed. We don’t know how much time we have left so seize each day like it is your last. This means using your time wisely and limiting unproductive activities such as screen time. Use that extra time to work towards living the inspiring life you want for yourself. Don’t waste a single day, even one step in the right direction is progress.

Remember this short journey called life is meant to be enjoyed. Take it as seriously as you choose but don’t forget to take the time to create wonderful memories with your loved ones that will survive in their thoughts after you have left this earth.

Love Life Love YOUR Life

Ferne Eliz King

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call
Taking Your Thoughts and Making a Difference

Taking Your Thoughts and Making a Difference

by | Apr 12, 2022 | My Life, My Work

Taking Your Thoughts and Making a Difference

 

“We always attract into our lives whatever we think about most, believe in most strongly, expect on the deepest level, and imagine most vividly.” –Shakti Gawain

You will have more control of your life once you have control over your mind. Your mind is the strongest asset you have. Your success and failures and your happiness or unhappiness is all bought on by the thoughts you have and the actions you choose to take. Your thoughts have the power to create opportunities from obstacles instead of defeat. The choice is yours. Your thoughts are the only thing stopping you from making a difference in your life.

“Every thought is a cause and every condition is an effect. Change your thoughts and you change your destiny.”–Joseph Murphy

Changing your thoughts is easier said than done though, right?

The secret is to find your most positive and motivating thoughts and making them dominant over any other thought, feeling or insecurity you have. Regularly remind yourself of these positive thoughts. Be enthusiastic about them- it will make them more powerful and prominent. Positivity will begin to influence your behaviour and attitude which will begin to make a difference to your reality.

Think of your dream or life ambition in detail. Not as a daydream of where you will be ‘one day’, think about it as if it is your reality. Regularly remind yourself of this dream and how achievable it is with the right plan of action. This will influence your mind, your decisions, actions, and habits to begin to align and work towards this dream.

Visually represent your dream either physically through a vision board or scrap book or digitally through an application such as Pinterest. Represent your dream in a way that best resonates with you, just ensure it is something you can see often.

Create a positive space. Think about everything that motivates you, inspires you or makes you feel good about yourself. Whether it is photos of loved ones, motivational quotes, a particular colour, or something else. Make these things visual to keep your mind positive throughout the challenges of each day.

If any negative thoughts consistently enter your mind, write them down. It might seem counterproductive but it an important strategy to help let go. Don’t reread these notes, purely use them as a source of therapy to overcome them.

Fill a separate journal with positivity, express gratitude daily, make plans to achieve your dreams, and anything else your find inspirational and motivational. Revisit this journal regularly and use it as fuel for your success.

I mention this constantly in my blogs but here I go again because it is so important… Surround yourself with supportive people. Never let someone else’s negativity or insecurity get into your mind- their thoughts have nothing to do with your capabilities. You want your peers to listen to you, build you up and be genuinely happy for you.

Recognise that change is possible, and you deserve it. Never doubt yourself, always move forward.

Pay attention to your thoughts. Filter out the negative ones and keep the positive ones in the forefront of your mind. Regularly remind yourself of your life desires. Your dominant thoughts will become your reality.

“Imagining what you want as if it already exists opens the door to letting it happen.” –Shakti Gawain

 

Love Life Love YOUR Life

Ferne Eliz King

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call